You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DAY IN 2007, Justin Verlander threw his first no-hitter.
Verlander would throw two more, one in 2011, one in 2019, to become one of six pitchers ever to throw three. Verlander and Sandy Koufax are the only pitchers in history to throw multiple no-hitters, win multiple Cy Young Awards, win an MVP and win a World Series.
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Those achievements will land him in the Hall of Fame. So will his 225 victories, a .636 winning percentage, nine seasons with 15 or more wins and fewer than 10 losses, 3,006 strikeouts, five strikeout titles and, other than his two Cy Young Awards, six other finishes in the top five. In that first no-hitter, he was throwing 100 mph in the ninth inning.
Some of this success comes from being so competitive. Even as the best pitcher all those years on the Tigers, Verlander would always win the sprints with the other pitchers in spring training. Why? "Because I have to,'' he said. "When I'm walking on the street, I have to walk faster than anyone and get to the door first. I don't know why. But I have to.''
Any sport, any competition, Verlander has to win. I asked him a ridiculous hypothetical question: If the average 58-year-old man, who hasn't played baseball since high school, gets 100 pitches against Verlander at his competitive best, would the 58-year-old get a hit, put a ball in play, make contact? The answer to all three is an obvious "NO!,'' but Verlander knew where the question was going, and he didn't allow me to lay out all the elements.
"No,'' he said.
"I haven't finished explaining the question,'' I said.
"I don't care,'' he said. "No.''
"But,'' I said.
"No,'' he said. "The answer is always no.''
Verlander, of course, loves to play golf, and is a great player. I played in Davey Johnson's charity golf tournament, a scramble, in the offseason in Florida only weeks after Verlander had won the AL MVP and the Cy Young in 2011. Verlander was in the foursome right behind us. I was playing with two young pitchers who were so awed by Verlander, they were afraid to speak to him. Eventually, they did. He treated them like gold.
I asked Verlander at the turn how his group was doing.
"We're 2-under,'' he said.
In a scramble, he explained, a birdie should be mandatory; you must strive for birdie or better. Naturally, his team won. Twice during the round, as our group was putting on a par-4, a ball rolled on the green. We looked around and, both times, there was the reigning MVP and Cy Young winner, leaping in the air as if he had just won the World Series.
He'd driven the green on a par-4 and won the Long Drive Contest.
Verlander won again.
Other baseball notes for June 12
In 2017, the Twins made shortstop Royce Lewis the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft. A great kid. In spring training 2019, two days in a row, he entered the Twins' clubhouse on a skateboard.
In 1991, outfielder Avisail Garcia was born. In 2017, the White Sox became the first team ever to start three outfielders in one game with the same surname: Avisail Garcia, Leury Garcia and Willy Garcia. (The Alou brothers never started a game in the same outfield.) In 2011, the Astros became the first team since 1900 to use three pitchers with the same surname in the same game: Wandy Rodriguez, Fernando Rodriguez and Aneury Rodriguez.
In 1985, pitcher George Kontos was born. I have done one shot of hard liquor in my life, and it was served by George Kontos, who was a guest bartender at a charity function in Scottsdale in March 20013. He made me do it.
In 1971, Ryan Klesko was born. He hit 278 home runs in the major leagues, and he was a really good pitcher in high school. He had a mound in his backyard. His mom used to catch him. "She wore a mask,'' he said, "but no shin guards.''