Tigers' Verlander has regained ace status (cont.)

Even at age 13 Verlander could routinely hit 79 on the radar gun -- but never higher -- until an instructor taunted him by saying he had seen "better arms on a chair." The next pitch registered 84. But Verlander was also so wild that his AAU catcher, Mike Vranian, who wore 1/4" padded gloves under his mitt to avoid bruising, would warn the opponent's leadoff hitter, "Sorry, man, this guy's really wild. I hope he doesn't hurt you." Says Vranian, "The first batter would either walk, because Justin was actually so wild, or he'd strike out, out of fear." Eventually Smith implemented a rule that Verlander had to throw two simulated innings in the bullpen before taking the mound, in order to get the wildness out of his system.

When no single family member could long toss with him, Verlander dragged them all to a local football field, where his mother, father and brother would relay throws 100 yards back to him. So impressive was his discipline that his best friend made an investment in his future earnings. When Verlander asked to borrow 50 cents to buy chocolate milk in 10th grade, Daniel Hicks loaned the money, then grabbed a napkin and drafted a contract: instead of repaying the two quarters, Verlander would owe one-tenth of one percent of his first pro signing bonus. (Verlander later signed for $3.12 million, so the napkin -- which Hicks stows in a safe place at home -- is worth $3,120.)

Smith finally harnessed the wild arm by forcing him into situations with little margin for error, selecting 15-year-old Verlander to be the closer for an elite 18-and-under fall showcase. "When a kid's backed in a corner, sometimes they react in a positive way," Smith said. For his first save opportunity, Verlander entered in the bottom of the ninth with a 1-0 lead. His first 12 pitches -- all fastballs -- missed the strike zone, and he loaded the bases on three walks. Smith called time and jogged to the mound. "What are you doing?" he barked at Verlander, who responded, "I don't know." Smith chewed him out, saying he should never give "I don't know" as an answer.

The coach then instructed him to throw only curves -- and Verlander struck out the next three guys on 11 breaking balls, missing the zone only twice. " 'I don't know' is not an acceptable answer," said Verlander of the lesson learned. "There should be purpose and knowledge behind every pitch that I throw. The wrong pitch with conviction is better than the right pitch without it." Said Smith, "It was a defining moment for him."

*****

Rick Knapp was a 41st-round pick of the Rangers in 1983, the same year Verlander was born. After 13 years pitching and coaching in the minors with Texas, Knapp's contract was not renewed in September of 1995. With a wife and two young children to care for in Port Charlotte, Fla., Knapp, for a few months, juggled three part-time jobs, from 6 a.m. until midnight. "There wasn't a worse time in my life," Knapp said. "The big leagues seemed a gazillion miles away." But the Twins offered him a job as pitching coach in the Gulf Coast League and a year later installed him as minor league pitching coordinator, where he was innovative with drills and preached the simplest of philosophies: throw strikes. In his 12 years as minor league coordinator, the parent club was never worse than third in allowing the fewest walks per nine innings in the AL. "That was a very trying time," Knapp said of his time out of baseball, "but because of that I probably logged more hours than I should have needed to, and it really helped me decipher the job that I was doing."

His coaching is working in Detroit, his first major league gig. The Tigers' pitching staff -- the league's second-oldest last year and second-youngest this year -- has lowered its ERA from 4.91 to 4.36, a jump from 12th to seventh. Verlander, in particular, has pounded the zone repeatedly, throwing a career-high 67.1 percent of his pitches for strikes and facing only 19 counts of 3-0 all season. "As a coach, that's the only thing that you're trying to do," Knapp said, "is to give them the confidence to be a gunslinger, to be a dragon slayer."

And that's what Verlander has done, notching the Tigers' only two wins (in 11 tries) against the Red Sox and Yankees, going 10-4 after team losses and bearing a considerable workload. "I'm not a believer in a firm pitch count, that everybody's done at 100 pitches," said Verlander, who has exceeded the century mark in 27 of his 32 starts this year. "I feel just as strong at the end as I did at the beginning. Everybody's worried about injury, but you don't really create the risk of injury until your mechanics fall apart and you put more stresses on your body than you normally would when you're not fatigued."

So the natural with the golden arm and the coach with no big-league experience have jump-started each other's careers, and no matter the divergent paths they took to get here, their next journey will be together and, quite possibly, to the postseason.

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