Verlander Ends MLB Career By Walking Off Field Hand-in-Hand with His Daughter

(Screenshot of Justin Verlander walking off the field for the last time with his daughter Genevieve)

This afternoon, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander made his 557th & final MLB start at Comerica Park before a sellout crowd against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Verlander returned to the Tigers back in February with the hope that he would help Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez and company get over the hump and earn their first World Series title in 42 years.

But it was not to be. Verlander was plagued with injuries all season, Skubal would be traded to the Dodgers and Valdez did not endear himself to his teammates. The Tigers proved to be one of the biggest disappointments in MLB in 2026. By the All-Star Break, Verlander announced this would be his last season.

Verlander pitched serviceably. In 5.1 innings, Verlander surrendered 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out 6 and walking only a single batter. Unfortunately, when Tigers manager A.J. Hinch came to get the ball from him, the Tigers were trailing 2-1 on account of two solo HRs Verlander surrendered to Brandon Lowe in the fourth and Jacob Gonzalez in the fifth.

But the score didn't matter when Verlander's 7-year-old daughter Genevieve ran out onto the field to give her father a hug. The pair walked off the field hand in hand.

Still, the Tigers didn't want to end the day on a losing note. Enter Tigers DH Eduardo Valencia who hit a walk off HR off Pirates closer Mason Montgomery to cap off a 3-run 9th inning to give Detroit a 4-3 win.

In 557 MLB starts, Verlander went 266-159 with a 3.33 ERA along with 3560 career strikeouts in 3576.2 innings pitched. Those 3560 strikeouts are good enough for 8th place on MLB's all-time list. Although that might not be good enough for Verlander's former Tigers and Mets teammate Max Scherzer who is 9th on the list with 3550 strikeouts. Scherzer is scheduled to start for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Cincinnati Reds on the final day of the regular season tomorrow. He has not made a decision whether he will pitch in 2027 pending a possible lockout by the owners.

There might be uncertainty regarding 2026 and 2027 but come 2032 Justin Verlander will be giving a speech in Cooperstown. By then his daughter will be a teenager. I am sure the pair will walk hand in hand.

Some Thoughts on The Snap Election in B.C.

(From left to right: OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie, CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko, B.C. Premier and NDP leader David Eby, Interim Conservative Party Leader Lorne Doerkson & Green Party Leader Emily Lowan)

When it comes to politics in British Columbia, if you blink you might miss something. 

Lo and behold, B.C.'s NDP Premier David Eby called a snap provincial election on Wednesday for October 17th - 2 days shy of the last election 2 years ago. 

This election will be part of a busy month in Canadian politics with voters in Quebec going to the polls on October 5th. A fortnight later (and 2 days after the B.C. election) Albertans will vote on whether they want a referendum on separation. 

Eby claims he is calling the election because President Trump presents "an existential threat" to B.C. and to Canada. 

Oh, it's true that Trump is a threat to Canada and its provinces with his desires of annexation. 

But this isn't the reason Eby called the election.

Eby called the election because of disarray in the opposition. Earlier this month, I wrote about the implosion in the B.C. Conservative Party after former federal Tory MP and cabinet minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay became party leader last May. At the time, 9 Conservative MLAs left caucus.

In the weeks that followed, several Tory MLAs were expelled from caucus including John Rustad who came within a heartbeat of unseating Eby's government in 2024. However, Rustad couldn't keep his caucus together leading to his ouster and Findlay succeeding him. Findlay would resign as party leader after only four months on the job last Sunday.

Most of the Tory MLAs who left caucus would join the CentreBC Party including Peter Milobar who would become the party leader. But once Findlay was of the picture, Milobar and most of the defectors rejoined the Tories when Lorne Doerkson was named interim leader. Elenore Sturko remained and, by default, became the new leader of CentreBC.

Got that?

Whatever disarray there was among the Conservatives might be over long enough to unseat the NDP which has been in power since 2017. While recent polls have had the NDP in the lead, a new poll conducted by Angus Reid now gives the Conservatives an 8-point lead. 

Now this poll could be an aberration. But if it isn't then it would voters are angrier at Eby calling an early election under false pretenses than at the chaos with Conservative ranks.

In this day and age, debates don't have the same impact as they once did. But in this instance, the leadership debate could make a big difference. I am not sure if CentreBC's Sturko or OneBC's Dallas Brodie (another ex-Tory MLA) would make the debate stage. 

If they do not make the stage, then the spotlight is on Doerkson. If Doerkson comes off as a reasonable alternative to Eby then the anti-NDP vote could coalesce around him B.C. would see its first Conservative government in nearly a century. 

The wild card in all of this is Green Party leader Emily Lowan. Only 26, Lowan could help siphon off NDP votes to facilitate a Tory win or could win a sufficient number of seats for the NDP ask it once again to form a minority government as it did when the NDP returned to power in 2017 under the late John Horgan.

Actually, there is another wild card scenario should Doerkson and the Tories prevail. The B.C. Conservative Party Constitution does not allow interim leaders to serve as Premier. The Tories can try to change their constitution, but this might very well end up in court. 

As with 2024, I would not want to be a B.C. voter. It would be a question of choosing between imbeciles and morons. 

Whatever the quality of the people running, the election will take place three weeks from today. With everything which has already happened, who knows what could happen by then.

CBC Reporter Taken Off The Air For Exposing Anti-Semitism

Last night, I read a dispatch from Warren Kinsella of the Toronto Sun concerning the decision of the CBC to take journalist Neil Herland off the air for exposing anti-Semitism:

A few days ago, CBC management quietly pulled Herland off the air – because he had documented a newsworthy event. One they apparently didn’t want documented.

On Monday evening, Herland was walking to a Yom Kippur service near where he lives in Toronto. The synagogue service was being held at the Meridian Centre at Yonge and Sheppard Sts. in Toronto by The Song Shul, because a large number of congregants were expected.

Upon arriving, Herland and the other Jewish attendees saw about two dozen protestors blocking the entrance to the synagogue service, waving Palestinian flags and yelling epithets and abuse. The mob yelled “free Palestine” and “Zionist alert” when Jewish congregants came near.

Herland started filming.

One man, wearing a mask, repeatedly yelled “You’re going to Hell” using a bullhorn pointed at Herland and others. Another man screamed “baby killer.” Elsewhere, a woman was called an “ugly Jewish bitch” – and, when the cantor at the service went outside and smiled at a protester, another yelled: “The Jew smiles while he kills babies in Gaza.”

A Toronto Police officer told the cantor to stop “antagonizing” the protestors.

Herland posted his video clip on social media, and it has been watched more than three million times around the world.

In his post on his personal X account, Herland writes: “I’m a journalist. And I happen to be Jewish. On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building.”

And for this, the CBC sees fit to discipline Herland. On what grounds? Is the CBC claiming his account is false? Or is Palestinian anti-Semitism simply a taboo subject? Is it taboo just like declaring the attacks of September 11, 2001, to be a terrorist incident, an incident also exposed by Kinsella. The CBC sheepishly walked back its policy.

It seems the CBC never learns. At the very minimum, there is a double standard when it comes to Jewish and Muslim journalists describing their "lived experiences". More from Kinsella:

CBC’s actions seem unfair, say CBC veterans who spoke anonymously, because their journalists are explicitly permitted to write about “lived experiences,” just as Herland did. Following the tragic 2021 mass-murder of a Muslim family in London, Ont. – and after a Muslim CBC journalist gave her personal opinion about the terror attack on a national broadcast – CBC’s Ombudsman decreed that no rules were broken.

“We will reinforce that lived experience and being a part of any one community does not constitute a conflict of interest when covering those communities. We will remind all that we value lived experience and community connections in our journalists because it helps us to broaden and deepen our journalism.”

So why do Muslim journalists’ “lived experience … broaden and deepen” CBC journalism, and Jewish journalists’ “lived experience” do not?

My guess is that the CBC will quietly place Herland back on the air rather than explain the double standard. Because there is no explanation they can possibly give. 

Should this come pass, it will only be a matter of time before the CBC engages in a cowardly manner when it comes to anti-Semitism and/or terrorism committed by groups with Islamist ideologies. 

But by removing Herland from the airwaves, the CBC is basically saying anti-Semitism is an acceptable form of political discourse and that Jews ought not to complain about it unless they wish to be disciplined. 

El-Sayed is Basically "Creating Stories" When It Comes To Accusing Israel of Genocide

In an interview on the Raging Moderates podcast yesterday with Jessica Tarlov and Scott Galloway, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed revealed his thoughts on genocide, the Holocaust and accusing Israel of committing it. After stating the word genocide was created to explain the "murder of 6 million Jews", El-Sayed added:

But the whole point of creating that word isn’t that you have to wait until the crime is that big again to be able to use it, otherwise it loses its power. Its power is in naming a thing before it gets that big, so we could do something about it.

El-Sayed is wrong, of course.

It was Raphael Lemkin who coined the term "genocide" in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Although the subject was Nazi rule, it was the mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during WWI that would inspire Lemkin's work. Indeed, it wasn't until the following year that the world would fully know of Hitler's efforts to exterminate Europe's Jews. Genocide did not become a legal term until 1948 when the UN adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 

Indeed, the notion that the term genocide loses its power unless you use it is absolute rubbish. Decent people understand the horror of the Holocaust and of genocide. Decent people also understand such words shouldn't be used casually.

El-Sayed has no such reservations. Genocide is indeed a powerful word and in accusing a people of committing it without any factual basis or with dubious claims serves the purpose of promoting hatred against that people as demonstrated by the global surge of anti-Semitism since October 7th. 

You could call it a big lie. Say the word genocide loud enough and often enough then people will come to believe it.

You can also, to borrow a phrase from VP JD Vance, create stories. From where I sit, both men are one in the same.

El-Sayed isn't using the word genocide as a statement of fact. He is using it to engage in demagoguery. 

Unfortunately, he appears to be succeeding.

Don Cooper Deserved Better From The Chicago White Sox

Former MLB pitcher and coach Don Cooper passed away on Tuesday at the age of 70.

A native of New York, Cooper pitched parts of four seasons in the early to mid 1980s with the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees.

But for Cooper coaching was his calling and he would join the Chicago White Sox organization in 1988 with the Single-A South Bend River Hawks. Fourteen years later, Cooper would become the Chisox's big league pitching coach and would remain in that position for 18½ years serving under four managers - Jerry Manuel, Ozzie Guillen, Robin Ventura and Rick Renteria. Cooper would earn a World Series ring with the Chisox in 2005 which included a starting rotation of Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras and Orlando Hernandez. 

After more than 30 years with the organization, the White Sox abruptly dismissed Cooper along with Renteria following the COVID shortened 2020 season despite making it to the post-season. 

Yes, managers and coaches get fired. It is a part of baseball. But in view of Cooper's long service to the organization, he deserved a better fate. The team should have promoted him to the front office and made him a special pitching adviser. 

Barring a weekend collapse, the White Sox will reach the post-season for the first time since 2020. Should they survive the Wild Card round and host ALDS games, they should formally honor Cooper's memory now. It doesn't make up for not giving him his due while he was still here, but it could give his family some measure of comfort. R.I.P.

Macron Minimizes Hamas at UN Despite Their Killing of a French Citizen

French President Emmanuel Macron sparked considerable anger at the UN General Assembly when he claimed Hamas "never caused trouble" in the West Bank. 

In point of fact, Hamas killed Netanuel Shukron, a dual French Israeli citizen, on the eve of Yom Kippur in the West Bank.

Not that Macron gives a shit about such details. No apology has been forthcoming. The French government is claiming Macron's statement was mistranslated claiming that what he said was that Hamas has never governed the West Bank. While the West Bank is nominally ruled by Fatah, Hamas does operate in the territory and carries out attacks.

I suspect that Macron is mad at the Trump Administration for not permitting Mahmoud Abbas to travel to New York. Mind you, Macron lavished praise upon Abbas during a state visit to France in 2022 despite his term of office ending more than 15 years ago.

Let us not forget it was Macron who spearheaded the effort at last year's UN General Assembly for formal recognition of a Palestinian state. Indeed, just over a month after the October 7th attacks, Macron derided Israel for "bombing ladies, babies and old people" without a word of concern for the hostages being held in captivity by Hamas.

Macron chooses his words very deliberately and has made it abundantly clear that he is an apologist for Hamas even if they murder French citizens.

Mets Make Andy Green An Offer He Can't Refuse

I am delighted to hear that Andy Green has decided to accept the New York Mets' offer to make him their full-time manager with a three-year contract through the 2029 season. 

Green, a former manager for the San Diego Padres who was working in the Mets' front office, only intended to finish out the season wanting to spend as much time as he can with his family.

The Mets evidently made Green an offer to stay beyond this season that he couldn't refuse. It would also appear that Green spoke with his family about the subject at length and they are on board with him managing. Perhaps the Mets are prepared to accommodate family visits during the season. Whatever led to the decision, I'm glad Green is getting a second chance at managing.

Entering tonight, the Mets are 39-39 under Green after a 34-47 start under Carlos Mendoza. Although the Mets will likely finish in last place in the NL East, there is a semblance of order on the team and that they are headed in the right direction in 2027 barring any significant labor stoppage. 

Of course, as with any New York team, there are naysayers. But Green has earned his chance. Let's see what he does with it.