Baseball superstar Justin Verlander doesn’t think hot ride company Uber is worth it anymore. It’s not that he can’t afford it (he’s got a $200 million contract), it’s just that Verlander doesn’t want to get played. Uber, he thinks, is playing him. What’s their game? Surge pricing. Verlander used the old poker adage and looked around the Uber table–he didn’t see the sucker, so he figured it must be him. “@Uber I used to love you and now your ridiculous surge charges are causing me to take my talents elsewhere. #lyft,”, Verlander wrote on Instagram.
That means when Verlander and his girlfriend, supermodel Kate Upton, go out on the town, they’ll be riding with Lyft, the top Uber competitor. It’s bad news for Uber, which seems to have a knack for irking people. The company might say who cares about Verlander, but paparazzi pictures of Kate Upton habitually getting in and out of Uber rides is pretty valuable to the brand. Don’t be surprised if Verlander gets a Lyft endorsement deal. Then Verlander’s agent can start teaching Lyft something about surge pricing. The Tiger pitcher is a hot commodity, not to mention the lady he has riding shotgun with him.
