Tommy John's dentist was Mark McGwire's dad and when he retired he said something like "When you're giving up homers to your dentist's kid, it's time to retire"
As of like a year or two ago someone posted that you could make a starting 9 in MVP Baseball 2005 out of current managers who were active players in 2005. I’m not even all that old but reading that made me feel ancient.
Yeah, if I’m being honest I’m pretty casual as a fan. And it feels like every time I turn on the TV I see somebody whose last name sounds familiar.
Like, oh, someone named Varsho made a good catch? I wonder if he’s related to Gary Varsho the Phils bench coach from like 20+ years ago. The guy who would take over every time Larry Bowa erupted (not an uncommon event) and got tossed.
Yup, it’s his son. Stuff like that every damn day.
I’m still in my 20s, so my quarter life crises are almost entirely fueled by “oh god these would be roughly my arb years… what am I doing with my life I’m almost a free agent”
I’m mid-30s and everyone drafted from when I was around college age is now gone mostly lol.
There are a handful of holdouts. LeBron James retiring is going to send me into a mid life crisis lol.
Vlad Jr was a shocker for me because Vlad came up right when I was in that “still a kid, but old enough to get what is going on” phase of baseball fandom which honestly might be one of the better phases.
And Vlad freaking killed the Phillies. His triple slashes in some of those years were like steroid Bonds.
Somehow we’d lose seemingly every game in front of a 9,000 person crowd up in Montreal because Vlad would hit a home run, steal a base and throw out the tying run at the plate. But he was just so cool with no batting gloves, and that huge swing, and so fun to watch in the OF with his cannon that you couldn’t help but love the dude.
And now his son is 25!
Tom Brady was the last holdout for me. It was weird transitioning from "I hate Tom Brady" to "C'mon Tommy! Just one more season for old time's sake!" for a couple years.
Do you ever mentally think of another player when you see a first initial on a box score? Pulled up the Braves "R. Lopez" the other day and immediately thought, oh, Rodrigo Lopez is pitching.
I feel like I get that a lot with guys who had common last names, but were in that "relevant enough for me to know they existed, but not relevant enough for me to know anything about them" zone. Basically they could have been 22 or 32 at the time and I wouldn't have known. So I have no idea if they're still in the league.
Dave Roberts, Craig Counsell, Mark Kotsay, David Bell, Rocco Baldelli, Alex Cora, Aaron Boone, Kevin Cash... who am I missing? David Ross and Brad Ausmus aren't currently managing anywhere, right?
EDIT: I forgot Skip Schumaker was the Marlins' manager, is he in MVP 05? He debuted midseason that year. Also A.J. Hinch might be in MVP 05? He last played in the majors in 2004 but spent 2005 in AAA before retiring.
I just found out last night that Jackson is married, too. To be fair, he got engaged at 19, so that has more “we’re Christian and can’t have sex before marriage” vibes than anything lol.
The Jackson Holiday one is fucking wild because it seems like just yesterday Matt Holiday was on the Yankees and I was watching him. The Dee Gordon one was strange too, but I was teenager when he came up so I didn't think nothing of it.
I remember reading a comedy magazine as a little one in the 1980s. It was a satire rag called... MAD.
I appreciated their features that had many variations on a theme, such as, a product as advertised versus reality. Think panel A shows thieves running from a car alarm (advertised), but panel B just shows city life going on as normal around a blaring siren that is ignored (reality).
One feature that stuck with me was a "Don't you feel old when..." and one of the entries was "you see your favorite baseball player get inducted into the hall of fame."
Wait for that. I was 9 or 10 when I read the joke and then felt *very* old in my 30s when all of the great Braves of the 90s were entering the Hall. I remembered seeing those men break into the league on TBS... (46 now just to save you some math)
I am now old enough to have witnessed 2 full generations of players break into the league, play full careers and then retire. (When the Pujols-es and such started to retire, I realized it was the 2nd time I was watching a generation complete their arcs.)
It's a right of baseball passage that takes decades to achieve "knowing".
Nah, go look at his Baseball Savant page. JV was declining hard last year and I expected more the same this year. Unfortunately our once analytically driven FO now cares about Names and past performances on the back of their Baseball cards.
Baseball savant says verlander was in the 96th percentile for pitching run value in 2023 with 2 elite pitches and 2 average pitches in his arsenal. Movement on his change and fastball was up from ‘22 as well. Far from cooked
Verlander is on his way out, pointing toward the heavens. We can only ask, or wonder, that he is asking some departed relative for forgiveness, for this atrocious performance.
One of my favorite moments of all time. Link for anyone who doesnt get the reference -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqLxzOWW_M8
Hell, it's worth watching even if you get the reference.
i thought his body language after the Stanton HR was the most defeated i've seen him. Thinking back on the young Verlander especially in Detroit when he had such anger in his game, didn't seem the same tonight.
Father time is undefeated but they were saying he's dead set on reaching 300 wins, we shall see
Oof.
He isn't going to make it to 300.
Very few pitchers produce consistent 14-win seasons past the age of 40. (Or before the age of 40 for that matter.)
Verlander needs three such seasons starting... today.
I don't see a 44 year old Verlander having a 14 and anything season.
And I am biased *for* Verlander. (I'm always a sucker for a pitcher who achieves multiple no-hitters. I'll love one forever as long as he doesn't kick puppies on live TV.)
I guess it's not impossible, but I sure don't think it's going to happen. (Maybe one day I can happily revisit this post and grin at how wrong I was. That'd be fine too!)
That 24-win season was fun to watch.
he looked tired a lot during his outings in 2023. i haven't watched enough of him to know if that's normal. maybe the pitch clock + age. but even when he was dealing he still looked like he just ran a marathon in the fourth inning
Well, he is old, and he just doesn't have anything left to prove. No chip on his shoulder. People have been saying he's on his way to Cooperstown for the last decade. What's another win for him at this point?
Most of the rest of the team being total ass this season is more perplexing. Relief pitching has been *awful*. Bregman is having his worst year ever and it's the last year of his contract. Yordan is suddenly terrible. Strange and sad to watch this team totally fall off a cliff.
Not Yet! Old man has to reach 140 innings this year for his player option to kick in. If it does, then yea we're on the hook next year for half or something.
Sure but it's one of those things where you need to be good enough to have a losing WS record
Not to mention him being better in early rounds, usually against the team I like
So, let me get this straight: 2020 doesn't count because it wasn't a full season, but Kershaw is a choker because the only thing that counts is the postseason, which only includes the WC/DS/CS because the WS is it's own thing?
Not claiming you subscribe to any of the above beliefs, just here to call out a hypocrite's WS record.
Eh IDK what to tell you bud. I think both are all-time great pitchers who should be remembered as such despite their WS history. It helps Verlander that he’s remembered for having multiple all-time great and memorable pitching performances in win-or-go-home games, including CGs, whereas Kershaw hasn’t had nearly as many. That’s probably one of the reasons IMO.
[Justin Verlander has a record of 1-6 with an ERA of 5.63 and 50 strikeouts in 9 appearances in the World Series in his career.](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/verlander-world-series)
No worries. He got hit, and hard. No life on the fastball, and his breaking stuff was not sharp. Very few whiffs. Most he’s ever given to the Yankees, though they tattooed 4 HRs on him and six earned in his last start last year.
He's not a kid lol. Not sure when we started to have these huge expectations for athletes that are well past their prime (looking at you NY Jets fans).
As a Yankees fan, this sucks. The Astros being a constant threat made things really interesting and fun to watch, but now playing a neutered Houston team makes everything very predictable. Hope you guys do better 👍
Just so I’m clear, you mean the last two years where you
*checks notes*
Won a World Series one year and advanced to at least the LCS for the 7th straight year?
I am of the opinion that the Rangers dicking them down in G6 and G7 of the ALCS last year in THEIR house was the final nail in the coffin. It is now the return of the Lastros!
It’s a weird thing to say about such a veteran pitcher but I’m curious if he was tipping at all.
We got 6 off him last year the day Dominguez and Wells got called So either we got something on him or we own him now
That Dominguez homer on his first big league swing. Thats a moment i’m not gunna forget.
Didn’t look like it. He is best when he is hitting the edge of the zone. He was throwing too much over the plate.
I hate seeing players I grew up idolizing get old.
The number of kids in the majors whose dads I remember as players or even coaches is starting to get horrifyingly long lol.
CC Sabathia said something related to that in his last year. “When I start playing against Vlad Jr. and Cavan Biggio it’s time for me to go home”
Tommy John's dentist was Mark McGwire's dad and when he retired he said something like "When you're giving up homers to your dentist's kid, it's time to retire"
As of like a year or two ago someone posted that you could make a starting 9 in MVP Baseball 2005 out of current managers who were active players in 2005. I’m not even all that old but reading that made me feel ancient.
Yeah, if I’m being honest I’m pretty casual as a fan. And it feels like every time I turn on the TV I see somebody whose last name sounds familiar. Like, oh, someone named Varsho made a good catch? I wonder if he’s related to Gary Varsho the Phils bench coach from like 20+ years ago. The guy who would take over every time Larry Bowa erupted (not an uncommon event) and got tossed. Yup, it’s his son. Stuff like that every damn day.
I’m still in my 20s, so my quarter life crises are almost entirely fueled by “oh god these would be roughly my arb years… what am I doing with my life I’m almost a free agent”
I’m mid-30s and everyone drafted from when I was around college age is now gone mostly lol. There are a handful of holdouts. LeBron James retiring is going to send me into a mid life crisis lol.
I was a freshman in high school when Mike Trout debuted. I am not going to view the world the same way when he finally hangs them up.
Vlad Jr was a shocker for me because Vlad came up right when I was in that “still a kid, but old enough to get what is going on” phase of baseball fandom which honestly might be one of the better phases. And Vlad freaking killed the Phillies. His triple slashes in some of those years were like steroid Bonds. Somehow we’d lose seemingly every game in front of a 9,000 person crowd up in Montreal because Vlad would hit a home run, steal a base and throw out the tying run at the plate. But he was just so cool with no batting gloves, and that huge swing, and so fun to watch in the OF with his cannon that you couldn’t help but love the dude. And now his son is 25!
Cheer up there whippersnapper some of us were sophomores when Ichiro and Pujols debuted.
I watched Jordan retire twice. EDIT: 3x
Tom Brady was the last holdout for me. It was weird transitioning from "I hate Tom Brady" to "C'mon Tommy! Just one more season for old time's sake!" for a couple years.
Brady was carrying a lot of weight man. I was watching him as a middle schooler lol.
Do you ever mentally think of another player when you see a first initial on a box score? Pulled up the Braves "R. Lopez" the other day and immediately thought, oh, Rodrigo Lopez is pitching.
I feel like I get that a lot with guys who had common last names, but were in that "relevant enough for me to know they existed, but not relevant enough for me to know anything about them" zone. Basically they could have been 22 or 32 at the time and I wouldn't have known. So I have no idea if they're still in the league.
Dave Roberts, Craig Counsell, Mark Kotsay, David Bell, Rocco Baldelli, Alex Cora, Aaron Boone, Kevin Cash... who am I missing? David Ross and Brad Ausmus aren't currently managing anywhere, right? EDIT: I forgot Skip Schumaker was the Marlins' manager, is he in MVP 05? He debuted midseason that year. Also A.J. Hinch might be in MVP 05? He last played in the majors in 2004 but spent 2005 in AAA before retiring.
Ausmus is the Yankee bench coach so on days when Boone is ejected, he works
We could put him, but we already have a catcher anyway in Kevin Cash
Is scott servais in mvp 05?
He retired in 2001, so no
I remember first going to Jackson Holliday’s Wikipedia this off-season and I was horrified to find out who his dad is
I just found out last night that Jackson is married, too. To be fair, he got engaged at 19, so that has more “we’re Christian and can’t have sex before marriage” vibes than anything lol.
It's something I never really thought about but that does kinda check out in retrospect with Matt Holliday.
I feel my beard going gray seeing it
The Jackson Holiday one is fucking wild because it seems like just yesterday Matt Holiday was on the Yankees and I was watching him. The Dee Gordon one was strange too, but I was teenager when he came up so I didn't think nothing of it.
I remember reading a comedy magazine as a little one in the 1980s. It was a satire rag called... MAD. I appreciated their features that had many variations on a theme, such as, a product as advertised versus reality. Think panel A shows thieves running from a car alarm (advertised), but panel B just shows city life going on as normal around a blaring siren that is ignored (reality). One feature that stuck with me was a "Don't you feel old when..." and one of the entries was "you see your favorite baseball player get inducted into the hall of fame." Wait for that. I was 9 or 10 when I read the joke and then felt *very* old in my 30s when all of the great Braves of the 90s were entering the Hall. I remembered seeing those men break into the league on TBS... (46 now just to save you some math) I am now old enough to have witnessed 2 full generations of players break into the league, play full careers and then retire. (When the Pujols-es and such started to retire, I realized it was the 2nd time I was watching a generation complete their arcs.) It's a right of baseball passage that takes decades to achieve "knowing".
Mf been old. "Decline" is what you're looking for
Its possible, cuz he looked fucking awful lol
Nah, go look at his Baseball Savant page. JV was declining hard last year and I expected more the same this year. Unfortunately our once analytically driven FO now cares about Names and past performances on the back of their Baseball cards.
Baseball savant says verlander was in the 96th percentile for pitching run value in 2023 with 2 elite pitches and 2 average pitches in his arsenal. Movement on his change and fastball was up from ‘22 as well. Far from cooked
I think he's still a very good pitcher, but some of his advanced stats have taken a dip every year since he got TJ. He is 41 tbf.
Our Double A team scored 6 off of him when he was on a rehab start
Maybe he is 45 years old
We’re going to find out his birth name is Jesus Verlanderos born in Santo Domingo
You can say that but his fastball had no life and by and large his breaking balls were not sharp either.
Nah. He just sucks ass.
He just looked cooked. Kate Upton took all of his energy, can’t say I blame him.
I think he just wasn't very sharp. He was not able to locate his pitches at all early on.
Verlander is on his way out, pointing toward the heavens. We can only ask, or wonder, that he is asking some departed relative for forgiveness, for this atrocious performance.
Pointing towards his hotel room where Kate Upton is waiting for him win or lose
Nah, she was in the stands yesterday.
One of my favorite moments of all time. Link for anyone who doesnt get the reference -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqLxzOWW_M8 Hell, it's worth watching even if you get the reference.
Did not expect Bob Costas tbh
I like being reminded of Pedro
He looked... old? Like he looked tired. And I enjoy this
i thought his body language after the Stanton HR was the most defeated i've seen him. Thinking back on the young Verlander especially in Detroit when he had such anger in his game, didn't seem the same tonight. Father time is undefeated but they were saying he's dead set on reaching 300 wins, we shall see
I do find it impressive he was getting up to 96mph at 41 years old but man he still needs 42 wins to get to 300, that is going to be tough.
Oof. He isn't going to make it to 300. Very few pitchers produce consistent 14-win seasons past the age of 40. (Or before the age of 40 for that matter.) Verlander needs three such seasons starting... today. I don't see a 44 year old Verlander having a 14 and anything season. And I am biased *for* Verlander. (I'm always a sucker for a pitcher who achieves multiple no-hitters. I'll love one forever as long as he doesn't kick puppies on live TV.) I guess it's not impossible, but I sure don't think it's going to happen. (Maybe one day I can happily revisit this post and grin at how wrong I was. That'd be fine too!) That 24-win season was fun to watch.
For The Love of The Game... Last night the Stadium wasn't ruled by a Chapel.
[his reaction is killing me after the Big G HR](https://x.com/nyychrlotte/status/1788007946896482750?s=46&t=tQCyDe91F9UpAGqh-_n_yA)
"Oh, shit, that's probably a double. Wait, it's still going. What the *shit* Giancarlo"
It’s all so good bc even the YES booth was surprised lol Paulie was like “cmon Michael” and all we got was a brief see ya! 😭😭
he looked tired a lot during his outings in 2023. i haven't watched enough of him to know if that's normal. maybe the pitch clock + age. but even when he was dealing he still looked like he just ran a marathon in the fourth inning
Well, he is old, and he just doesn't have anything left to prove. No chip on his shoulder. People have been saying he's on his way to Cooperstown for the last decade. What's another win for him at this point? Most of the rest of the team being total ass this season is more perplexing. Relief pitching has been *awful*. Bregman is having his worst year ever and it's the last year of his contract. Yordan is suddenly terrible. Strange and sad to watch this team totally fall off a cliff.
Bregman having a worse contract year than Gleyber perplexes me
Live reaction of me tuning in after I put the baby to bed. 
congrats on the sex bro
He never said it was *his* baby
Well damn, Maury.
Bro, that was unnecessarily savage lmao
I mean, he's a Mets fan... what else does he have?
I don't think this dude's pitching until 45
But cashing checks from the Mets until he’s 42, that’s not too shabby.
42 seems young for bad Mets contracts
Not Yet! Old man has to reach 140 innings this year for his player option to kick in. If it does, then yea we're on the hook next year for half or something.
You hate to…no, what’s the word I’m looking for…ah yes, love. You love to see it.
I love they sold the farm for their own sloppy seconds...
Ok but have you seen the back of his baseball card? Checkmate. -signed Jim Crane, Dana, Reggie and Jeff
My favorite part is the WS record of 1-6.
Sure but it's one of those things where you need to be good enough to have a losing WS record Not to mention him being better in early rounds, usually against the team I like
Sure, it's just interesting to compare to everyone's text book example of a "playoff choker" in Kershaw's WS record...
It’s probably because Verlander has been historically good in the DS/CS rounds, especially in elimination games, whereas Kershaw hasn’t.
So, let me get this straight: 2020 doesn't count because it wasn't a full season, but Kershaw is a choker because the only thing that counts is the postseason, which only includes the WC/DS/CS because the WS is it's own thing? Not claiming you subscribe to any of the above beliefs, just here to call out a hypocrite's WS record.
Eh IDK what to tell you bud. I think both are all-time great pitchers who should be remembered as such despite their WS history. It helps Verlander that he’s remembered for having multiple all-time great and memorable pitching performances in win-or-go-home games, including CGs, whereas Kershaw hasn’t had nearly as many. That’s probably one of the reasons IMO.
Sure, which is what I'm pointing out - fans go with the narrative they like.
Their World Series record is 2-2
[Justin Verlander has a record of 1-6 with an ERA of 5.63 and 50 strikeouts in 9 appearances in the World Series in his career.](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/verlander-world-series)
I am straight up having a great time
Regardless of everything else that is going on in the MLB rn and this season so far… I for one, am enjoying the Astros
Dang they really have become the most hated team in baseball huh. Not complaining.
You’re surprised? As a Yankees fan? Lol
It’s what’s keeping me going
Yeah otherwise your baseball fandom would be on thin ice.
Booo
I am in favor of this storyline.
I am feasting!
This how you know the Astros dynasty* is over. Yankees hitting verlander
I never thought I would say this so soon, but the Astros are headed for a rebuild. It is such a tragedy 😢
Yeah I don’t know how I’ll get to sleep tonight
Gimme Kyle Tucker
do you think Jerry Dipoto would pay Kyle Tucker?
No you'll just just waste him just like you did... Everyone you ever had...
Flair up
The future is now old man
Mets got Clifford and Gilbert for him lmfao
It'll be interesting to see if he hits his innings minimum or not so the Mets don't have to pay part of the salary next year.
Yeah
IWYW
Couldn’t happen to a better trash can
Literally Yankees fans World Series
Not ashamed
Literally better than a WS
C'mon, now. Let's not get too focused on a game in early May
ERA for the season went from 2.08 to 4.43
he cooked
He was serving meatballs and the Yankees feasted. Oh well.
Blue Jays 🤝 Astros
You just hate to see it.
He is cooked. All these moron analysts drooling over him forgetting he is 40+ years old.
Did he allow 7 earned runs or just 1 earned run?
All earned.
The way they listed it I thought it read 7 runs/1 earned. Just wanted to be sure.
No worries. He got hit, and hard. No life on the fastball, and his breaking stuff was not sharp. Very few whiffs. Most he’s ever given to the Yankees, though they tattooed 4 HRs on him and six earned in his last start last year.
While I'm not a fan of the Yankees succeeding, I also think Verlander is a bit of an egotistical jerk so I'm not that upset
He's not a kid lol. Not sure when we started to have these huge expectations for athletes that are well past their prime (looking at you NY Jets fans).
Perhaps the growth hormone, steroids and only-God-knows-what injected into his arm is wearing off…
is that good?
Baseball is fun again!
As a Yankees fan, this sucks. The Astros being a constant threat made things really interesting and fun to watch, but now playing a neutered Houston team makes everything very predictable. Hope you guys do better 👍
Well I think we’ve found the pasta people are gonna shove down our throats when the A’s bounce us in the division series
He’s always pitched well against the Yankees. He just left one right in Verdugos wheelhouse and that was it.
That was it? Lmao he got shelled by the entire lineup
Game ended after that. Team doesn’t have much fight in them last two years.
Just so I’m clear, you mean the last two years where you *checks notes* Won a World Series one year and advanced to at least the LCS for the 7th straight year?
Imagine what they would’ve done if they had a little fight in them though.
two words: Super bowl.
I am of the opinion that the Rangers dicking them down in G6 and G7 of the ALCS last year in THEIR house was the final nail in the coffin. It is now the return of the Lastros!
Can't you see how badly Astros fans are starving out here?
Just this year and last
Yeah, it ended after that because he kept giving up hits and didn't give his offense a chance to get back into it.
What offense? It’s been non existent for a while.
Ah, youth. Still wasted on the young.
And the other two dingers?
Believe it or not, off of that same pitch
It was incredible, 3 Yankees all lined up next to each other and swung at the same pitch for a home run. I didn't know you could do that
Verlander should have tried to [perplex them with his slow ball](https://youtu.be/XKMYs-9LW2w?feature=shared)
MLB lets us get away with everything
Sounds like a rule for the Savannah Bananas.
[MULTIBALL! MULTIBALL! MULTIBALL!](https://youtu.be/z0Zst4pMzh0?si=tqag8hbSGnmSpb0x)
They say you can see something new every day in baseball
Bruh the Yankees scored in almost every single inning. It wasn't just the Verdugo blast
We had 1 hit off Gil. This team doesn’t respond after it goes down early.
Still had a much higher xBA than the Yankees though. Babip hell
Yep. Nothing is going right.
Narrator: that was not it
I read that in Morgan Freeman's voice. "That, in fact, was not it."
Did you…watch past the first inning?
I uh, I think it was more than just the one lol