LAKELAND, Fla. — Baseball is back.
And Ben Verlander was doing the happy dance.
Verlander, younger brother to Justin Verlander, was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in California, bopping his head to the music, singing along with John Fogerty’s classic baseball song, “Centerfield”:
Verlander was smiling so hard he looked like his face was going to explode from happiness and joy. He started pointing at himself, singing the words a half-beat slow — the way I feel — dancing in his seat, while celebrating the end of the 99-day MLB lockout.
He strummed his finger to the beat, smiling with joy.
In that moment, in a video shared on social media, Verlander captured what every baseball fan, every baseball player — shoot, every baseball writer — felt: Pure joy that baseball is back. The Tigers will hold their first spring training practice Sunday at TigerTown — officially ending this wild, dramatic, draining, roller coaster of a spring training that wasn’t a spring training.
Because the real spring training is here now.
Confused? Yeah, it’s understandable.
All you need to know is the labor strife is over and the big boys are back in town.
Play ball, baby!
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Biggest cheerleader
You want to know what made this whole lockout so bizarre?
How it played out on social media.
There was a small group of reporters who covered this labor strife extensively, including Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. MLB isn’t big enough to get wall-to-wall coverage on ESPN or other outlets — not on the level of the NFL’s offseason lockout in 2011 was covered But MLB isn’t the NFL. It might be a “National Pastime,” but it’s not the national obsession.
So fans and players and even coaches were hanging onto the tweets of a handful of reporters.
I obsessively scrolled through Twitter, following every twist and turn. There were times when I thought a deal was imminent; there were times I thought we wouldn’t see baseball for months. It was frustrating and maddening and exhausting — emotions yanked back and forth.
And then I’d see a tweet from Verlander: “I believe this gets done soon. Not tonight. But soon. I really do.” Somewhere along the way, Verlander became baseball’s biggest cheerleader.
He has gone from Justin’s younger brother to a Tigers minor leaguer (2013-2017) to a media personality — he is an MLB analyst for Fox Sports and has a podcast, “Flippin Bats.”
When MLB announced the first batch of games was canceled, Verlander captured the anger felt by many, posting on Twitter: “I love the game of baseball so much. This sucks.”
So games were canceled — then, wait. There was hope to get them back. Then, there wasn’t. Back and forth it went.
Ugh. It was exhausting.
When it finally went to the players for a vote, Verlander summed up what many were feeling: “I’m legit about to throw up.”
Yup, right there with you. Then, finally. Phew. Baseball is back. And Verlander posted a joyful video on Twitter.
“We did it,” he said, his voice cracking. “Baseball is back! Oh, my god, baseball Twitter. We did it. We made it. We never doubted it — well, some of you did. But I didn’t. We are back. Let’s go. Baseball, let’s go. Come on. Let’s go!”
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‘Welcome back!’
So, I guess, we have now come to Stage 2 of the strangest spring training ever.
I was in Lakeland for most of Stage 1: The Tigers brought in a huge group of prospects not on their 40-man roster. They pitched. They hit. And they scrimmaged.
Yeah, it was baseball, but it was strange as heck.
Grapefruit League games replaced with intrasquad matchups. Former major leaguers with prospects. And Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked around looking like a kid on his first day in a new school — not sure exactly where he should be or where to sit or who to talk to. He wasn’t allowed to do any instructing because of MLB rules — don’t get me started on how those rules were so stupid.
I went to TigerTown and covered the prospects, watching them play while following the tweets of reporters covering the negotiations, unsure if the season was returning or if I was about to head home.
The Tigers kept plowing ahead, even though none of this was normal. Every year, the Tigers hold a barbecue with fans; it’s fun to watch the MLB players walk in with their families and interact with fans. This year, they held it with the prospects and the vibe was completely different. Some of these prospects looked happy just to get free food.
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As the days kept going, Hinch looked so uncomfortable, being next to a field, unable to coach.
And he eventually went home.
So I went home. Last Sunday, when the labor negotiations looked bleak, I left Florida and returned to Michigan.
Then, whoa.
Before my dirty clothes had a chance to go from the hamper to the washing machine, everything flipped again.
My boss called: Get your butt back to Lakeland!
So I did a bunch of laundry and flew back to Florida. Five days after leaving, I moved my stuff back into an Airbnb with young Evan Petzold, our beat writer who stayed the whole time.
“Welcome back!” he said, as I rolled a big suitcase into the living room.
To quote Yogi Berra: “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
I put my clothes back, set up my computer again and restocked the fridge. It feels like the start of a second game of a twi-night doubleheader. Only it’s all condensed. The Tigers will hold their first practice Sunday morning — 27 days after they were supposed to do it the first time. They’ll play 18 spring training games and open their season April 8 in Comerica Park.
And I can’t tell you how happy I am.
Even though all of this is so strange.
Good energy
The Tigers are such an intriguing team in an interesting position, and that makes for good stories.
The Tigers have a new shortstop (Javier Baez), a new starting pitcher (Eduardo Rodriguez) and a new catcher (Tucker Barnhart). Miguel Cabrera is 13 hits shy of 3,000. And Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson — two talented prospects — have a chance to make the Opening Day roster.
Those are fantastic story lines.
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This team should be good. Not World Series good. But good enough to make this summer interesting with a push for the playoffs. We’ll have plenty of time to dig into those stories over the next few weeks.
Because right now, I feel like Ben Verlander, lip-syncing to Fogerty, doing a happy dance.
So I called Verlander up late Saturday night.
“You were so positive through this whole thing,” I said. “Where did that come from?”
“On the inside, I was definitely freaking out,” Verlander said. “I just find life is better when you believe, and maybe it’s even false hope. But I found that false hope makes me feel better than hating the world.”
Yep, words to live by, I suppose.
Verlander still has some interesting ties to the Tigers. He last played in 2017 on a minor-league team that included Spencer Turnbull, Jake Rogers and Derek Hill.
“Derek Hill was probably the best defensive outfielder that I had ever seen,” Verlander said.
Hill is going to be one of the most interesting players in this camp, seeing how he fits into the equation.
But Turnbull and Rogers are both recovering from injuries. “It was so cool to watch Turnbull throw a no-hitter last year,” Verlander said. “I was so happy for him and so proud of him.”
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Then, of course, there is another huge tie. His brother, Justin, played in Houston for Hinch, who is starting Year 2 in Detroit.
“Every single person I talk to about Hinch says the same thing,” Ben Verlander said. “He changed the culture. He came over and he immediately made us believe that we can win, and that we will win. And there’s something to be said about that. There’s a corner being turned and the future is really, really bright for the Detroit Tigers.”
I gotta admit, I feel it too.
So let’s do this. Let’s start spring training.
Again.
I mean, for the first time.
Dang, this is weird, but fascinating.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.