Justin Verlander's condition

from Roar of the Tigers

April 1, 2009
Justin Verlander's condition and what it means for the Tigers
By Samara Pearlstein | April 1, 2009 | Roar of the Tigers



You cats know what the Tigers really need right now? MORE MISFORTUNE. Seriously. What HASN'T gone wrong? Actually, don't answer that, we don't want to tempt fate or the Spazzosaurus any more than we apparently already have.

Justin Verlander was one of three (four, if you count Zach Miner) healthy Tigers starting pitchers who had actually accumulated some big league innings going into this season. We already had zero wiggle room in the rotation. Less than zero room! We are at negative wiggle room, kids and kittens! And now... this.

Quote :

The latest streak of bad luck to hit the Tigers started in an unlikely way: with a dog bite.

Justin Verlander, who pitched a no-hitter for Detroit in 2007, was walking down a Lakeland, Florida street in mid-January of this year when a large dog approached him.

"It didn't have a collar and I didn't see anyone who looked like they could've been its owner," Verlander said. "It was a pretty big dog. Gray, kind of scruffy, almost wolf-sized. It was walking a little weird, so my first thought was that it might be hurt or something."

The dog darted in and bit Verlander on the right calf before he could back away.

"I wasn't doing anything to it. Just bam! Got me right in the leg. It got all the way through my jeans... my leg was bleeding pretty bad," Verlander said of his harrowing encounter with the animal.
MLB article

Rabies resides in the brain tissue, so the standard procedure when someone is bitten by a wild or feral animal is to capture the animal and kill it, which is the only way to get enough brain tissue to perform a rabies test. The rabies vaccine for humans requires a series of several shots and is best avoided if at all possible, so the animal is always tested to make sure the bitten person really needs to be vaccinated.

In this case, however, the dog ran away before it could be captured and Animal Control officers couldn't find it after the fact. Since there was no way to know if the dog had been rabid or not, Verlander was given the rabies vaccine series to be safe. He did inform the team, but no public announcements were made, as it was not deemed necessary to alert the media to what seemed to be an unimportant matter at the time.

Cats forbid the Tigers catch even the tiniest smidgen of good luck.

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Around late January Verlander began experiencing some strange symptoms.

"A lot of nausea, a lot of muscle pain, sore joints," Verlander said. "I talked to the doctors and they said those were side effects of the vaccine and they should clear up well before Spring Training started. So I wasn't too worried. More annoyed than anything else."

"Stuff just kept happening, though. Weird stuff. I had to shave three, four times a day to keep my beard from getting huge. I mean, I shave a lot, but not that much. Smells started driving me crazy, like I could smell everything. I was talking to some of the guys and they said their wives got like that when they were pregnant. So I'm like, well, I know I'm not pregnant."
MLB article

Excuse me while I insert EVERY JOKE IN THE WORLD here.

For whatever it's worth, according to the CDC, nausea, muscle pain, and joint pain are all known side effects of the rabies vaccine. Excessive hair growth and odor sensitivity are not.

Still, it wasn't until February 10 that this got scary:

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Verlander doesn't really remember what happened. "I woke up, and I hurt all over. I was in the front yard of the rental house, my clothes were all torn up. My first thought was I must have been mugged or something. I had scratches all over and I barely knew where I was, what day it was, anything. I just remember thinking, mandatory spring practice starts soon. I can't be hurt. I have to be in camp."

Eventually he managed to get up and go inside, where he called his girlfriend, who took him to the hospital. Doctors examined him and were puzzled by what they found.

"There were signs that he had experienced a seizure of some sort," Dr. L. Kanes of Lycaon Memorial Hospital in Tampa, Florida said. "But it was very strange, because he did not have any of the usual neurological indications of a seizure disorder. Seizures are a common manifestation of the rabies virus, but we found much evidence to suggest that the vaccine had done its work and there was no rabies in his system."

"The bite had healed well and there was no infection. In every other respect he was perfectly healthy."
MLB article

The hospital kept Verlander overnight for observation, but lacking any other options, and since he seemed to be in good health overall, they released him the next day. He had no difficulty in camp and was not selected for the World Baseball Classic American team. Indeed, there were no problems at all until early March.

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On March 10 the symptoms returned: the nausea, the aches, the sensitivity to various smells. Team doctors immediately suggested that Verlander spend the night in the hospital for observation.

"Well, they figured it out overnight," Verlander said. "I felt really bad about all the property damage, but the doctors explained that it really was like a seizure, where you don't have any control of your muscles."

Dr. Kanes admits that he had been caught off guard. "It's rare. It was the first case we've had in this hospital. None of the doctors had ever seen it before in person. We had to call in a specialist from eastern Europe."

"Hopefully it won't, but if it happens to someone else, we'll be prepared to recognize it this time," he added.
MLB article

Apparently this is the sort of disease that can be managed, and although Verlander will need some degree of special handling, with a little extra consideration he should still be able to start this year. Thank cats for small favors, I guess.

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Manager Jim Leyland offered practical words on the situation. "I manage," he said. "That's what I do. If I have to juggle the rotation to avoid pitching Justin near whatever time of the month, I'll do it. That's what I'm here to do."

When asked if he was concerned about the reaction of Verlander's teammates to his diagnosis, Leyland shrugged. "They told me what it was. Some long name. I don't really know about that medical [stuff]. So long as he can pitch."

"The Tigers are fully committed to Justin Verlander," [team president Dave] Dombrowski said in a press release to local media. "We plan to go forward with him as a starting pitcher, and will work with him to do whatever we need to do to make that possible."

"Lycanthropy is a serious condition, but we are confident that with the help of the team doctors Justin will be able to lead a perfectly normal life."
MLB article

Now, I know that this all sounds pretty dire. But before you start freaking out about how TRULY screwed our team is now... I only ask that you check the date.

Lycanthropy ---

Spoiler:

Pretty good article although it was a little too out there to be believable. Still well-written though.


George Plimpton's "The Curious Case of Sidd Fitch" is still the best baseball hoax out there.

catbox_9 wrote:

Pretty good article although it was a little too out there to be believable. Still well-written though.


George Plimpton's "The Curious Case of Sidd Fitch" is still the best baseball hoax out there.

Somebody brought that up in their responses...

George Plimpton would be proud:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119283/index.htm

Plimpton rocks. He's the best sports author I've read. Paper Lion is a must-read.

He doesn't have all that. He's just a head case.

You seriously (not literally) just scared the SHIT out of me.

Lap, I hope you dont mind, but I "borrowed" your avatar and set it as my beackground.

gdennis59 wrote:

You seriously (not literally) just scared the SHIT out of me.

now THAT's good writing, eh?

Very much so!

laprimamirala wrote:

He doesn't have all that. He's just a head case.

Verlander is not a head case. Rick Ankiel was a head case. Chuck Knoblauch was a head case. Steve Blass was a head case. I'm not ready to put Verlander in that category yet.

You must admit, though, he's wandering in that direction.

laprimamirala wrote:

You must admit, though, he's wandering in that direction.

Yeah, but he's still so far from that point that it's not even worth discussing. I'm not saying his performance was good, it was truly pathetically awful.

I think that we set so high standards for him, that now that he's not performing like an ace, he must be a head case. Now giving up 8 ER is no good even for a #5 starter, but he was still showing command, still was able to strike out 4 while only walking 2.

Not having talent and being a head case are 2 different things.

But having talent and not being able to harness/control it and yet "I believe in my abilities" is not very convincing either.

laprimamirala wrote:

But having talent and not being able to harness/control it and yet "I believe in my abilities" is not very convincing either.

Well, what the hell was he suppose to say? "I don't have any faith in my abilities. I'm a disgrace to this team. Cut me now and forfeit my salary and career." Now I would definitely call him a head case then!

It would help him a lot to get off his high horse and get back to work. We'll let his numbers speak.

I saw Justin in Lakeland one night howling at the moon.....