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HEMISPHERES:
What’s a good off-season
day for you?
VERLANDER:
For me, working out in the
morning, playing some catch, heading to
the golf course and then coming home
in the late a ernoon to have dinner with
my girlfriend. Either that, or going out
to eat and a movie.
HEMISPHERES:
What’s the last movie you
saw that you really liked?
VERLANDER:
The new
Mission Impossible
.
HEMISPHERES:
Not unlike batting
against you after falling behind in the
count. How do things usually go on
the golf course?
VERLANDER:
Pre y good. I’m about a
3 handicap.
HEMISPHERES:
Let me guess—you’re
sort of long off the tee.
VERLANDER:
Yes.
HEMISPHERES:
What about the putting?
ASANYFAN
can tell you, the baseball gods
are among the most fickle in the cosmos.
A mid-career pitcher will suddenly and
inexplicably find his stride, learn to lean
on the pitches that work, hit the spots
that are hard to reach and have a lights-out season where no
one can really touch him. But then a twinge develops in his
elbow, or the opposing teams adjust, and before you know it,
purpose and confidence erode. Pre y soon the star-crossed
hurler starts to steer the ball in ways that end with it being
launched into the distant night sky.
Except for Justin Verlander. You could say the Detroit Tigers
ace has had a charmed career, but that doesn’t begin to describe
it. At 29, Verlander is both durable—posting double-digit
wins every year and taking opponents deep into nearly every
game—and spectacular. Last season the 6-foot-5 fireballer won
24 games, alongwith the American League Cy Young Award and,
get this, Most Valuable Player. That la er honor is an uncom-
mon one for a pitcher: Before Verlander, you have to go back to
Oakland A’s hurler Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Simply put, anyone
who tells you Verlander isn’t the best player in the AL right now
doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Verlander is less intimidated by the prospect of topping last
year’s performance than he is eager to get back out and use
all those wins to help Detroit (which added the power of first
baseman Prince Fielder in the off-season)—and to get a ring
on the hand that issues lightning every time it picks up a ball.
Between his morning workout and lunchwith his girlfriend, he
made time for a li le rapid-fire Q&A with
Hemispheres
.
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
From left, Verlander
and his Porsche; with
girlfriend Emily Yuen; and
readying the heater
CONTINUED ON PAGE 142
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66
APRIL 2012
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
DUANE BURLESON/AP PHOTO (VERLANDER + YUEN); MLB PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES (PITCHING)
THE
HEMI
Q
&
A:
JustinVerlander