The problem with the end of an era is that you don’t see it coming. It can arrive with a thud.
Or you think you see it coming and panic, as the Detroit Tigers once did when they didn’t want to pay Max Scherzer.
Or maybe they just didn’t want to pay him the $200 million they figured he’d command; Scherzer signed with the Nationals for $210 million.
Not that we’re here to relitigate Mike Ilitch’s decision to walk away from negotiations with Scherzer. Whatever else you thought of the team’s owner in those days, cheap surely wasn’t among them. Ask Miguel Cabrera.
Ilitch offered Scherzer a reported $144 million in 2014, the season before he left. Scherzer turned it down. The sides never got close again.
Whatever feelings got hurt — or irked — cost the franchise a fair number of wins, baseball cachet, and a chance at running out the game’s most dominant pitching duo for almost another decade — or more.
All Scherzer and Justin Verlander have done is combine for six Cy Young awards, 17 All-Star Games and three World Series titles.
Each led the league in wins four times. Each led the league in strikeouts at least three times — Verlander did it five times. Each threw a couple of no-hitters. And each have compiled so much of their ridiculous resumes after they left the Tigers.
Well, they’re back this week, just not in the way you might want. Oh, it’ll be fun (mostly) to see Scherzer and Verlander pitch at Comerica Park again, even if they’ll be wearing New York Mets’ uniforms.
Partly because Scherzer has pitched just once here since he left in 2015 and Verlander has only pitched twice here since he left in 2017.
If the weather allows, Scherzer will take the mound on Wednesday and Verlander on Thursday and at some point, they will surely be on the field at the same time as Miguel Cabrera.
Remember those days?
It’s getting harder too, no doubt. All the losing — especially since Verlander left; his last full season (2016) was the last time the Tigers finished above .500 — clouds the glory days a bit. But glorious they were, even if the group, led by those three stars, came up short of a World Series title.
If nothing else, this week represents the last time these three local baseball icons will share a field together in Detroit. Unless they meet in the World Series, and while there are no absolute predictions in in sports, this scenario is as close as it gets, though it’s not inconceivable that the Mets could get there.
New York arrives a couple of games under .500, third in the National League East. Yet Scherzer missed 10 games due to a suspension for rosin and sweat or, you know, sticky stuff.
If Verlander does pitch Thursday, he’ll be making his season and Mets’ debut. That feels about right, no? A Detroit sports icon taking the mound for the first time for a new team in Detroit?
Verlander strained a muscle in his upper arm on the team’s Opening Day. Hard to imagine his return won’t add a little rocket fuel to the Mets.
Last year, he won the Cy Young. And a World Series title. And though he’s 39, he’s throwing now like he always has, more or less.
He was always an outlier like that. He clamored to complete games. His velocity, back when he was Tiger, increased through the innings.
When he was traded in 2017 to Houston, the Tigers were a mess. He wanted to keep winning. Obviously, Scherzer would’ve helped if he’d stayed in Detroit, but even both of them weren’t going to lift the roster to a title that year.
The urgency to keep spending might have been different though. You get a couple of guys like that, guys that looked like they would be good for several years, and you can’t not try to put a team around them. Ownership would’ve felt the pressure.
Or not.
Eras don’t last forever. Even if Scherzer and Verlander seem like they are.
They’ve pitched for 35 combined seasons in the big leagues. And if that sounds unfathomable, that a couple of teammates that good would last that long, and stay that good for that long, well, it is. At the least, it’s rare.
Their longevity can leave one a little wistful, though, don’t you think? Not for baseball fans, but for Tigers fans.
These two belonged to the best modern run in the franchise. They just weren’t here anywhere near long enough.
And with each passing year, and Cy Young, and 10-strikeout performance, they remind that they are just about as good as they ever were … or even a little better, especially Verlander.
So, enjoy their trip to town this week and pray the clouds don’t spoil the reunion, and the reminder of what this city feels like when some of the best in the game wear the Olde English D.
They, along with Prime Cabrera, were right in the exhilarating thick of it.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.