Justin Verlander and wife Kate Upton, along with toddler daughter Genevieve, hunkered down on the couch Thursday for some television, and the Houston Astros ace shared on social media how he felt completely entitled to commandeer the remote control.
With Major League Baseball of course on hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Thursday’s originally scheduled Opening Day unfortunately passing without a single game being played, the only thing baseball fans could do is seek out content online, regional networks and elsewhere to satiate their thirst for on-field action.
Lucky for Verlander, he stumbled upon coverage of his no-hitter from way back on June 12, 2007 when he was still a member of the Detroit Tigers.
The Astros star took to Instagram to share evidence of Upton — no slouch in the baseball fandom department — and their daughter taking in his dominant performance of yesteryear. Amusingly, Verlander joked he was “forcing” his family to watch the game.
“You’ll sit here and watch it and like it,” Verlander quipped.
Major leaguers across the country presumably took a similar approach to such an unprecedented situation, one that arguably was as disconcertingly surreal as it gets for professional ballplayers.
Verlander likely did not really force Upton and his daughter to watch his no-hitter. What’s more, there certainly are worse ways to pass the time, especially with no live baseball to watch during these uncertain times.
Best of all for Verlander, Upton and Genevieve? The pitcher has two more no-hitters to his name, which means there’s a few more ballgames featuring Verlander’s heroics to take in from the comfort of their couch.
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