The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York has announced its newcomers this year. The most dazzling name among them is Pitcher Randy Johnson, perhaps the best left-hander in the history of the sport. SPOX looks back on his career, the best games and explains why birds and John Kruk may not be his biggest fans.
We write the 4th. November 2001: The World Series has its game 7 as late as never before, as the MLB, like everything else, continues to play after the 11th World Series. The Commission is aware of the fact that it was temporarily suspended on 9 September. In the “Bank One Ballpark” of Phoenix/Arizona, the previous three-time series champions, the New York Yankees, took the lead 2:1 in their eighth inning. The moment for Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly to take starter Curt Schilling out of the game after an out in eighth place. It comes Miguel Batista, who forces Derek Jeter with Runner on the first base to a force out. Next, it would be Paul O’ Neill’s turn at the plate, his clutch hitter and left-handedness.
Brenly returns to his bullpen and brings Randy Johnson, the man who had won game 6 with a Complete Game the day before. Yankee manager Joe Torre also reacts, bringing right-handed Chuck Garlic as a pinch hitter, ending O’ Neill’s career with titles. It’s his last game. Johnson achieves the necessary out, mowing down the Yankee greats Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada in the ninth inning, thus enabling his team-mates to overcome Mega-Closer Mariano Rivera and win the World Series thanks to Luis Gonzalez’s Bloop single.
“The Big Unit” is the hero of the evening and together with Schilling Co-MVP this case Classics. It is perhaps the greatest moment in the career of the great left-hander. But certainly not the only one on his way to the holy halls of Cooperstown.
Five years after his last pitch, Randall David Johnson from Walnut Creek, California is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Lefty is now one of the biggest players in this sport because he has shaped an era like no other left-handed starter before him. Sure, others may have won more games. But none of them was as dominant as the 51-year-old.
Randy Johnson recorded in Hall of Fame
A Hall of Famer is by itself the best that a generation in a sport had to offer, and much better than Johnson was simply none over ten to fifteen years between 1990 and 2004. It was just a ring for him, but the Arizona Diamondbacks would certainly not have won it without him. In addition to this most important achievement, however, The Big Unit has repeatedly provided other outstanding moments of baseball.
In his prime time, Johnson, who is an imposing figure anyway due to his height of 2.08 meters and who for Pitcher was rather untypical from above and did not pitch from the side, distinguished himself primarily by an extremely hard fastball in the upper 90-mile-per-hour range as well as a slider that flew over 90 miles per hour. He had such an extreme flight curve, that he always looked as if the ball was heading straight for them – only to break away brutally to the outside. A sure bet for strikeouts. And one of the reasons why many managers against Johnson simply foregoed their left-handed hitter.
Despite its size, the Lefty was extremely slim and downright lanky. In addition, there was an official moustache and in his wild years a long mane, which blew epically in the wind at its height. He owes his nickname Big Unit to his former team mate Tim Raines, who once collided with the pitcher in training, and was shocked and shouted:”You’re a big unit!
John Kruk, an infielder of the Philadelphia Phillies at the time, had a little less fun with Johnson. In the 1993 All-Star Game, he had the dubious pleasure of facing Lefty, and the sheer fear of watching him, especially since Johnson had fired a fastball over his head – for fun, of course. At the end there was a strikeout and a visibly relieved crucifix:”When I entered the box, I said:’ All I want is to touch the ball somehow,’ and after the first pitch I thought to myself:’ All I want is to live,’ and I stayed alive. So I had a good at-bat!”
Certainly the 2001 World Series was Randy Johnson’s most outstanding series and masterpiece, but his biggest match was on 18 January 2001. May 2004. A perfect game at the 2:0 of his Diamondbacks at the Atlanta Braves. And they had a relationship with Chipper and Andruw Jones and J. D. at the time. Drew or Methuselah Julio Franco some good-sounding names at the start. But nobody managed to reach the first base.
The best attempt was made by Catcher Johnny Estrada, who spent a miserably long At-Bat with the Southpaw, but was sent back to the Dugout by strikeout. In the end there were 13 strikeouts for Johnson, for whom it was the first and only Perfect Game – the 17th. in the history of the MLB. In 1990 he also pitched a no-hitter (with six walks) for the Mariners against the Tigers.
After Johnson had a earned run average of 4.82 in his first full season in 1989, this figure should be below 4 at the end of a season until 2002 – and in some cases even below 3.1995, for example, when he won his first of five Cy Young Awards for the best pitcher with a 2.48 ERA, an 18-2 record and 294 strikes.
The best season or at least the best part of the season, however, should not succeed in either the Mariners’ or the D-backs’ jerseys. In the middle of the 1998 season Johnon was traded to the Houston Astros. A trade that brought Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen to the Mariners. The deal gave the Astros the best starter of the year. Johnson made eleven starts for the Texans and won ten (one defeat) with a microscopic 1.28 ERA and 116 strikeouts in just 84 1/3 innings.
This achievement finally earned him a highly remunerated deal at the Diamondbacks, with which he won the Cy Young every time between 1999 and 2002, making him one of only four pitchers in both the American League and the National League.
Page 1: World Series, Hall of Fame and John Kruk
Page 2: Stats, icing on the cake and USO