For those of you who like to follow the Detroit Tigers during Spring Training, you may remember back to March 31, 2016, when Tigers ace Justin Verlander gave up a home run to his younger brother Ben in a minor league Spring Training game.
The only pitch Justin threw to Ben on that day was a 92 mph fastball, which Ben launched over the left-center field fence.
“One epic swing for him,” Justin told Mlive.com. “I’m sure I’m going to be hearing about it. I might be glad I’m getting out of town.”
“I’ve told him my whole life I’m going to hit him (if we ever faced each other),” he said. “I thought about throwing one behind his back, but I decided to throw one right down the middle instead. I’m sure he’ll enjoy that for a long time.”
JV added that he served his little bro a “cookie right down the middle.”
“I kept waiting for him to come back around. He wasn’t going to get another cookie right down the middle.”
On Friday, Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer joined Ben Verlander on his Flippin’ Bats Podcast and he broke down Ben’s home run off his older brother.
Fulmer told Ben that he was the one leading the charge of applause after the ball sailed over the fence.
This is a great exchange between Ben and Fulmer and if you have not yet checked out this podcast, I highly recommend you do so.
Here it is. The video. Listen to @MFulmer12 explain the whole situation that led up to this and followed https://t.co/Ji9kcyS6vL pic.twitter.com/ikc91RiVyY
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) June 26, 2021
