Nocturnal 
Justin Verlander was mid-inning when his manager pulled off one of the most emotional exits in baseball history. Instead of a coach walking out to take the ball, the 43-year-old’s seven-year-old daughter sprinted onto the mound to hug her dad goodbye.
The moment came in the sixth inning of Verlander’s final career start on Saturday, as the Detroit Tigers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 in a come-from-behind win at Comerica Park. It capped off the three-time Cy Young winner’s 21-season Major League Baseball career.
After Pittsburgh’s Brandon Lowe hit a foul popup to open the sixth, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked out from the dugout and pointed towards the stands. That was the cue for Genevieve Verlander, wearing a Tigers jersey with her dad’s name and number 35, to run onto the field.
As reported by ESPN, Verlander reached down to embrace his daughter and “started shaking and sobbing.” Hinch joined the pair about 25 seconds later, before the rest of the Tigers squad came out to surround their long-serving pitcher.
‘That completely blindsided me’
Verlander later admitted he had no idea the moment was coming. “That completely blindsided me, and it hit me like a ton of bricks,” he said, according to ESPN.
“That was amazing. I was sobbing and had to make sure that she understood I was happy,” he added. “She’s never seen me cry like that.”
It turns out the surprise was planned by Hinch alongside Verlander’s wife, model Kate Upton, who was in attendance holding the couple’s one-year-old son, Bellamy. As reported by The Guardian, Upton joined her husband and daughter for a group hug on the warning track before Verlander headed back to the dugout, high-fiving teammates and doffing his cap to the crowd along the way.
The whole send-off held up the game for around five and a half minutes before Tigers reliever Tyler Kinley threw the next pitch.
A fitting finish to a Hall of Fame career
Injury had threatened to deny Verlander a proper farewell. According to the New York Times, he fought through a hamstring problem just to make it onto the mound, in a season largely wiped out by a sore hip and hamstring issue. Saturday’s outing was only his second start of the year.
He still delivered, allowing two runs on five hits across 5 1/3 innings, with six strikeouts on 91 pitches, in what Yahoo Sports described as some “vintage Must-See JV” stuff, including a 95mph fastball.
“I gave my all every single time I took the mound,” Verlander said afterwards. “Today was no different.”
Verlander finishes his career with a 266-159 record, a 3.33 ERA and 3,560 strikeouts, the eighth-most in MLB history. The Tigers went on to win the game itself in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a walk-off two-run homer from rookie Eduardo Valencia, sparing his veteran team-mate a final defeat.
Verlander made his MLB debut for the Tigers on 4 July 2005 and also spent part of his career with the Houston Astros, winning multiple World Series titles along the way. He is now widely expected to be a future Hall of Fame inductee once he becomes eligible.
For now, Verlander says he’s looking forward to spending more time with the family who gave him his most memorable moment of all on his way out of the game.
