One more time, one last time, Justin Verlander set for emotional farewell

Justin Verlander didn’t work and rehab for six months to make a ceremonial appearance in the middle of Justin Verlander weekend at Comerica Park.

He wants to compete.

“I’ve talked to AJ (Hinch, Tigers’ manager) about this,” Verlander said Tuesday. “I am going to be honest with him, but if things are going well and I am out there having some success, I mean, it doesn’t have to be perfect for me to stay out there.”

Verlander, who came through his final bullpen session Tuesday in good form, will make the final start of his Hall of Fame-worthy career on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He doesn’t care that he hasn’t had anything close to a normal build-up or that at age 43, he’s thrown a total of 14.1 innings this season and none since his last minor league rehab start on June 10.

He’s treating it like any other start.

“Who knows what’s going to happen,” he said. “But I don’t just want to go out there and go one inning, come out and wave. I want to toe the rubber one more time in a competitive way and try to win the Detroit Tigers a ballgame.”

There is one concession he will make for this one. He’s not going to go through his normal, legendary, high-intensity, pre-start routine.

“Yeah, I’m not going to put my headphones on and not talk to anybody; that’s not what this is about,” he said. “If I still need that to keep me focused for the last game I’ll ever pitch, something is wrong.”

Twenty-one seasons, one MVP, three Cy Young awards, two World Series rings, three no-hitters, 556 starts, 3,571 innings, 3.554 strikeouts – and he will end it right where he started, at Comerica Park with the Old English D on his chest.

“It's difficult,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotions going through me. There’s also some angst to go pitch. Obviously, I want to pitch well and I’ve done everything I possible could to allow that to happen.”

This wasn’t supposed to be his final season. He signed back with the Tigers in February hoping to play at least two more seasons. His body had other ideas. He made one start in Arizona at the end of March and has been on the injured list since, first with hip inflammation and then a hamstring strain.

He announced that this would be his final season at the All-Star break.

“This season was important for me,” Verlander said. “When I sat down with my family and talked about what I wanted this season to look like, I wanted to play somewhere that meant something to me. And the first thing that came to mind was Detroit. I am super happy to make that work. But it’s also been super frustrating and not at all how I envisioned the year going.

“But I’ve come to terms with that and I feel good about where things are at. I’ve been so thankful to be here, back where it started. Just the love the fans have shown me everywhere we’ve gone – in the stadium, in visiting stadiums, around the city – it’s meant so much to me and really helped me get through this process.”

One more time. No. 35, a number that will be on the Comerica Park bricks one day, will dart out of the dugout, run onto the field, grab the ball, step up on the hill, scrape his foot across the rubber and go to work. One last time. But none of this is scripted. Pirates' manager Don Kelly was a beloved former teammate of Verlander’s, but he’s not going to be feeling nostalgic once the game starts.

“We would love to have the nine-inning, no-hitter sendoff,” Hinch said. “But he’s not built up to do all of that. He wants to win the game. He wants to contribute to a win and do his part. He’s made it perfectly clear to me, he doesn’t want the one-inning sendoff. He’s going to do his best to make it as close to a normal game as he can.

“But the competition has to cooperate and he’s going to have to make pitches and we’re going to have to play defense. The unknown is how Verlander can respond physically to the challenge."

That’s never been a problem for him.

“The thing I’ve learned the most is that I’m ready for the next step,” Verlander said. “I feel good about things. I feel good about my body of work and I feel good about looking at my future spending it with my family.”