Justin Verlander was overcome with emotion when his 7-year-old daughter, Genevieve, ran toward him on the pitchers’ mound after his last Detroit Tigers baseball game.
“I had no clue. I was totally blindsided,” Verlander, 43, told reporters after the September, September 26, game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. “It hit me like a ton of bricks, that was amazing. I was sobbing and had to make sure she understood I was happy.”
Saturday’s game marked the final time that Verlander, who shares Genevieve and 15-month-old son Bellamy with wife Kate Upton, started in an MLB game. (The Tigers ultimately defeated the Pirates 4-3.)
To celebrate her dad’s accomplishment, Genevieve — fittingly dressed in a miniature version of Verlander’s jersey — ran onto the diamond to give him a big hug. After the father-daughter duo’s embrace, Upton, 34, and Bellamy joined them on the field for a sweet group hug.
“She was fine, I think, [but] I just wanted to make sure she was fine,” he added in his postgame press conference of Genevieve. “She’s never seen me cry like that. I think walking off the field with my family, and obviously we’ve talked a lot about how my life has changed and what my family has meant to me, … to be able to walk off the field with them, I can’t think of a better ending.”
Hours before the game, Verlander was honored by the team with an official retirement ceremony.
“I feel like I ran my race. I gave it everything I had,” the baseball star said in his Friday, September 25, speech. “I see my daughter, who’s 7 now, and how fast that goes and how much of that time frame I’ve missed already. I have a 1-year-old son now. I know that I’m going to be able to be there for him and experience more of that childhood that I missed, unfortunately, with my daughter [and] also be there for her in some very formative years coming up.”
Upton, Genevieve and Bellamy were also present at Friday’s ceremony, where Verlander gushed that their family has “tremendously” changed his life.
“I’m a different person now because of them, and I’ve loved every moment of it, growing into a different person,” he added at the time. “There’s a quote that I like that says, ‘What’s the point of living life if you don’t let life change you?’”
Verlander and the model have been married since 2017 after meeting years earlier in 2012 on the set of a Major League Baseball video game commercial.
“She’s been the most amazing woman and mom,” Verlander exclusively told Us in 2019 of watching Upton become a parent. “I knew that she would set a great example for our daughter, no matter what. It’s the person that she is, it’s the person who I married. I’ve always appreciated her for her strength.”
