The baseball world during Justin Verlander’s MLB debutplayJustin Verlander discusses decision to retire at end of season (1:07)ESPNMultiple AuthorsJul 14, 2026, 09:00 AM ET
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After a long, accomplished ride, Justin Verlander’s career is finally coming to a close.
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Last Wednesday, Verlander unveiled that this current season, his 21st in the major leagues, would be his final campaign. The three-time Cy Young winner and 2011 American League MVP will play in his final All-Star Game as a Legend Pick selected by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
The oldest player in MLB has pitched in 556 career games across the past two decades, making his debut as a 22-year-old in 2005. Needless to say, the big leagues looked a lot different when Verlander first broke through.
Here’s a look back at what the MLB was like during his 2005 debut season.
An inauspicious start to Verlander’s career
Justin Verlander would end a two-decade-long career as a shoo-in Hall of Famer, but his first glimpses of major league ball were much more indicative of a young prospect than a future icon. He made two starts for the Tigers in July, going 0-2 and giving up a combined 15 hits and nine earned runs. Interestingly, one of the hitters he faced in his unmemorable debut start was none other than future Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora (who went 0-for-2 against Verlander).
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Verlander to find his footing in the majors. In his second season with Detroit in 2006, he was an effective starter, winning 17 games and the American League’s Rookie of the Year award.
More notable debuts around the league
A number of other major names also played their first MLB game in 2005, including Robinson Cano, a 19-year-old Félix Hernández and Nelson Cruz. Verlander will be the last of that year’s crop of debutants to hang up his cleats in the majors — though he’s not without closer competition than you may expect.
Journeyman pitcher Rich Hill played in his final MLB game — suiting up for his 14th different club — last summer. The most recent game played by a player who debuted in 2005 not named Verlander or Hill was Adam Wainwright’s final outing in 2023.
Other notable players to make their big league debuts in 2005 include Ryan Zimmerman, Edwin Encarnación, Hanley Ramírez, Brian McCann and Shin-Soo Choo. Verlander will have outlasted the final major league game of anyone in that group (Zimmerman in 2021) by a full five years.
A future pope watches on as the White Sox win it all
The Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 2005, and they had one of the most famous people to ever attend a baseball game on hand for the series opener — but nobody knew it yet.
Chicago native Pope Leo XIV — at that point Robert Prevost, Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine — is a dedicated White Sox fan and was in attendance for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, even making a brief cameo on the game’s broadcast in the ninth inning.
A series sweep would eventually earn the White Sox their first World Series in nearly 90 years, and in June, Chicago’s catcher for the series, A.J. Pierzynski, gifted the pontiff the ball from the final out from that fateful Game 1.
The White Sox’ Rate Field contains art depicting Pope Leo XIV, a longtime fan of the team who attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesBonds on hiatus in chasing historyBy 2005, legendary slugger Barry Bonds was well in the hunt for the MLB’s career home run crown, having ended the previous season with 703 blasts to his name. With 45 home runs added to his total in the 2004 campaign, 2005 figured to be the year where he put himself in striking distance of catching Hank Aaron’s record of 755 in 2006.Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. Operations on Bonds’ knee over the offseason ended up causing him to miss the majority of the year, and the slugger didn’t make his season debut for the San Francisco Giants until September. He’d play in 14 games that season, hitting five home runs. However, the largely lost season didn’t stop Bonds from breaking the record. Although his home run pace slowed following his knee operations, he’d at long last catch Aaron in August 2007, at 43 years old.
The year of Derrek Lee (and A-Rod) at the plate
One of the unlikeliest stories of the 2005 season was the play of Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee. He entered the season with 1,027 games under his belt, a reliable but generally unspectacular hitter coming off a career-best year in home runs (32) and RBIs (98). But even a strong 2004 didn’t indicate the numbers Lee posted at the plate in 2005 — in addition to hitting 46 home runs and driving in 107 runs, Lee would lead the MLB in hits, doubles, batting average and slugging percentage.
Lee wasn’t the only player to see a serious jump in 2005. Future Hall of Fame outfielder Andruw Jones had never totaled more than 36 home runs or 116 RBIs in his career to that point — in 2005 he posted 51 and 128 respectively, the former leading the league.
Elsewhere in the majors, New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodríguez clubbed 48 home runs en route to American League MVP honors, while Albert Pujols won his first MVP on the National League side.
Roger Clemens still throwing smoke at 42
On the mound, plenty of interesting storylines abounded. The Houston Astros made a run to the World Series in large part due to a stacked rotation of starting pitchers — a 42-year-old Roger Clemens led the league in ERA during the regular season with an impressive 1.87 number, teaming up with Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt for an impressive stable that accounted for three of the top six vote getters in the National League Cy Young race.
None of Houston’s three top arms won the award, however, as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter beat out Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins for first place. On the American League side, future 21-season journeyman Bartolo Colon — he of one career home run — took home the Cy Young on the back of a 21-win season.
The Nationals embark on their first season in a new home
The 2005 campaign saw a team play its debut campaign — or at least its debut campaign in new colors. The Washington Nationals, previously the Montreal Expos, played their first game in Washington in April 2005.
It wasn’t a particularly memorable season for the newly christened Nationals, who finished 81-81, but residents of the U.S. capital seemed to take to their new squad. Washington finished the year with a cumulative attendance of 2,731,993, bolstered by a 45,000-plus seat capacity at their temporary home of RFK Stadium.
The Washington Nationals played their first season in Washington D.C. in 2005, calling RFK Stadium home. Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty ImagesCurrent top prospects are bornIn a remarkable testament to Verlander’s longevity, while he was entering the league, some of his now-counterparts in the majors were entering the world.In July 2005, current Tigers rookie star Kevin McGonigle was still a month shy of his first birthday. Recent Seattle Mariners call-up and top prospect Colt Emerson was still 16 days from being born when Verlander made his big league debut, and highly touted Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin wouldn’t be born for another nine months.
Recent changes to the game? Never heard of them
The MLB a new fan might know today isn’t quite like the league they would find if they time traveled back to 2005.
One of the most notable such recent developments has been the implementation of a pitch clock, one of multiple measures the MLB has added to speed up the pace of play in games. Has it made a difference? Well, in 2025, the average length of a nine-inning game was 2 hours and 38 minutes, down eight minutes from an average of 2:46 in 2005.
Other major changes made to the game that a 2005 fan wouldn’t recognize include restrictions on infield shifts and the addition of an automated ball-strike system as well as “ghost runners” starting on second in extra-inning regular-season games.
