Hasta La Vista

I agree 100% with that post!

Now I can sleep comfortably !!!!LOL

LOL! Good one.

One of the all time greats imo.

Got to agree with you guys on that one!

What was it they called his slider in his prime? "Mr. Snappy" i think.
Man, to bat off him from the left side would get your blood flowing wouldn't it?

I could never imagine what it would be like to step into a batter's box and have such an imposing "lefty" force staring down at you. Just knowing that you are about to be carved up and there ain't a thing you can do about it.

Although all major league pitchers (except maybe Wakefield) are potentially lethal ,Johnson seemed to release the ball from about 45 feet from the plate and threw across to lefthanded hitters. You had to be disciplined and brave to hang in there, much less get a hit.

quote:

Originally posted by YoungGunDad:
I could never imagine what it would be like to step into a batter's box and have such an imposing "lefty" force staring down at you. Just knowing that you are about to be carved up and there ain't a thing you can do about it.

Hey its Arnold Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once Johnson got some control and an offspeed pitch he was scary. For the ten years starting when he stopped walking 100 per season he was 175-58.

One of the happiest baseball calls we ever had from our son was in 2005 when he faced Randy Johnson in the last Spring Training tune up before the start of the regular season.
As he described it, if you were patient, you could work your way through an AB off his fastball.
What you could not do was see his slider. It looked exactly the same out of his hand as the FB. The spin was so tight, you really didn't know...until you committed and it started to break.
Well, the next morning his first AB was on ESPN and everyone in the facility had a blast watching and commenting.
On the other hand, those AB's earned him a roster spot out of ST and a confidence that began a magical year for him.
By now, his story may be that he "owned" Johnson but that would be a very liberal use of "ownership."
However, since only one AB was on ESPN, who will ever know?
I can assure you that if he ever gets a vote for the HOF, our son votes "YES."

Good story infielddad. I remember back when that happened.

PETA probably won't vote for him after he killed the bird while pitching.

Who remembers him from this 1999 episode of "Cops"

poor bird

I was a D-Backs Season ticket holder when Randy was here. You can talk about how tough he was on lefties but my favorites were the times he'd throw the big breaking slider to a right handed hitter who'd flail away at it and then suffer the indignity of having it hit him in the foot.

I think the real downhill slide was well underway. However, since it started from a mountaintop instead of a hilltop he was still pretty high up at the end.

When I first saw the thread title, I thought TR was bidding farewell. Glad to see it's just the Unit.

Great pitcher who will probably be in the HOF on the first vote, deservedly so.

As a Mariner fan, I'll never forgive or respect him for sandbagging his last season in Seattle.