The timing of Justin Verlander’s first Spring Training remarks, coming on the first day of camp, has become a recent tradition. The topics he had to discuss were not.
While plenty of Tigers have shown love and respect for late owner Mike Ilitch since he passed away last Friday, no player in the organization knew him as long as Verlander, the homegrown star that Ilitch signed to two long-term contracts. He has the possibility of spending his entire career in a Tigers uniform because of Ilitch, and he has been around for the entire effort the organization to win a World Series for the owner.