…there are other baseballs they can use. If there’s anything Tigers manager Jim Leyland finds less funny than Justin Verlander creative attempts at alluding “The Handshake of Doom”, it’s a reporter having the temerity to ask about it. From The Detroit News’ Tom Gage :
When asked about it after the Tigers’ 7-5 victory, Leyland said “I didn’t think that was comical at all. You might have but I didn’t.”
The follow-up question of “if not comical, then what” didn’t go anywhere, either.
“I’m not getting into that,” Leyland said. “I made my statement. I don’t want to talk about silly stuff; let’s talk about baseball.”
Explained Verlander, “I tried to circumvent the system and not get the customary handshake. I tried to go the other way and sneak around him, but he was too quick for me.
“I wasn’t trying to play a joke on him. I had a quick inning and wanted to stay in the game. I thought if I snuck around, he might let me go back out there.”