Competitive fury, unwavering focus put Johnson on Hall of Fame path
PHOENIX -- The numbers paint a clear and unambiguous picture of Randy Johnson.
A picture of a pitcher who could have made the Hall of Fame by acclamation, and almost did, named on 97 percent of the BBWAA ballots in his first year of eligibility. The other three percent must have been lost in the mail.
He has the second-most strikeouts in major-league history behind mentor Nolan Ryan, and his 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings best is the best average among starters in history.
His five-year stretch from 1998-2002, which encompasses his first four seasons with the Diamondbacks, is arguably the best ever posted. He was 100-38 with 2.63 ERA, won four Cy Young Awards and three ERA titles, and had 300 strikeouts every year, with 41 complete games and 17 shutouts.
That, in an era of monitored innings and bullpen specialists.
So there's that.
But those who worked closely with Johnson during his Arizona heyday saw a side that the public never consumed. They shared some of their stories prior to Johnson's Hall of Fame induction on Sunday in Cooperstown, painting a deeper, more nuanced portrait of one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.
Before Game 2 of the 2001 World Series, Johnson stayed loose in the clubhouse by engaging in a putting contest with Mark Grace, who always called Johnson "big fella." Grace laid out a course on the carpet, and the two went at it.
Grace: "He had a putter in his locker that someone had delivered. I was like, 'All right big fella, let's see what you got,' expecting him to probably throw the putter at me. This is about two hours before he is going to go out. We sat there and we putted for about 20, 25 minutes. Then he got his game face back on. (The makeshift hole) was almost like a pool rack, except it didn't have the one side. He had a little more room than a normal golf ball. But he needed all the room he can get to make putts."
Johnson's competitiveness resonated in everything he did.
"Randy is a very intelligent guy," Grace said. "People a lot of times mistake Randy for the pitcher Randy. Randy pitched and played with fury. It was anger, it was fury, that made him great. But Randy is also a very intelligent guy. He is big into photography, he's into music. He travels the world. He's got a lot of friends in the music business. If you actually stop and have a conversation with him besides baseball, he knows what he is talking about. He's an intelligent guy, and a guy who would really surprise you with his level of intellect.
"The great thing about Randy was, he was so driven to be great. He needed that fury and focus. When you were driving to the ball park that day, you're thinking, 'OK, we win. We win.' There are not many pitchers you can say that about.
"You just made sure you left him alone, because you wanted him to be in his right place. Any time he took the mound you might see something special. You might see a perfect game or a no-hitter or 15 or more strikeouts, so why go mess with that, because now you are messing with possible history every time he takes the mound.
"He was a guy you stepped lively around when you were at the ballpark. But once you got to know him, you realized he was really a sensitive, intelligent guy, not near as harmful as that scowl."
Johnson threw 104 pitches in seven innings in the D-backs' 15-2 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series, a victory one long-time baseball man described as remarkable for the way manager Bob Brenly regrouped his troops after devastating walkoff losses in the two previous games at Yankee Stadium.
Most starters throw little if at all on the day following a start. All wear turf shoes in the dugout. Johnson showed up in the dugout in spikes.
Glenn Sherlock, then the bullpen coach and now the team's bench coach: "Earlier in the day, some of the players were giving Randy a hard time because he had his spikes on. He said, 'Game 7, you never know. I might have to pitch.' In the seventh inning he came out to the dugout and starting walking toward the bullpen and the place was going crazy. Anyway, he sits down, and B.B. (Brenly) called down and said to get Randy up for Paul O'Neill, because he was the fifth hitter that inning. So Randy starts warming up.
"I thought this was going to be interesting, because you don't know how he is going to warm up after throwing seven innings the night before. But he had a lot of adrenaline going, and the ball was just flying out of his hand.
"So we were getting ready for O'Neill and they had just announced over the PA that David Justice was pinch-hitting for the pitcher. Randy look at me and said, 'Who did they say?' I said David Justice. He immediately said, 'Call in there and tell them I'm ready for Justice.' That gave me goose bumps when he said that. He is the ultimate competitor."
Johnson didn't get the call to pitch to Justice but entered two batters later to face O'Neill, who was replaced by pinch-hitter Chuck Knoblauch. Johnson got Knoblauch to fly out with a runner on second to end the inning, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning that concluded when he struck out Jorge Posada.
FOX Sports Arizona will have a crew in Cooperstown beginning Thursday night to cover Randy Johnson's weekend and Hall Of Fame induction. Be sure to watch the Diamondbacks-Brewers series for Todd Walsh's daily reports and check out FOXSportsArizona.com and our social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for exclusive looks at this historic weekend for D-backs baseball.
Joe Garagiola Jr. was general manager at the time.
"I have never felt he got the credit he deserved for Game 7," Garagiola said. "All he's asked to do is basically get the last four outs, recognizing that if the Yankees get any more runs, we're probably sunk. It's 2-1, with (Mariano) Rivera looming. So the chances you are going to get some big rally and score a lot of runs, not too good. He hasn't pitched out of the bullpen since 1997. You couldn't come into a bigger situation. That was quite a thing. All you need to know about him as a competitor."
Garagiola was the general manager when Johnson signed his $51.4 million free-agent deal with the Diamondbacks prior to the 1999 season, the best money the D-backs ever spent.
Garagiola: "Maybe one thing people didn't realize was how thoughtful he was about pitching, about how he approached each start. This notion that he was just out there winging fastballs in there was so completely incomplete in terms of where he was as a pitcher.
"He was a complete pitcher. He worked at it. He made fun of (hitting) in one Nike commercial, but he worked at that. He worked at becoming a very serviceable bunter. He worked at fielding his position. They did not see the work. His physical condition. He had developed very specific exercises to strengthen his core and he was religious with them.
"To the extent there was this impression that this is just a guy who is 6-foot-10 inches tall and can throw really hard and that's it ... you talk about missing it. From time to time, we would get talking about pitching and his approach to pitching. How much went into each start and how when he would come off the field after a start, he was spent because of his focus, not just the physical effort but his mental effort leading up to it and in the game ... he left it all out there."
When he arrived in Arizona in 2002, Mike Fetters was given a locker adjacent to Johnson's and got to know Johnson well.
Fetters: "He lived a good life, other than he was mean-looking. So what? He does have a funny side to him. I'm sure not many get to see that part of it. I first got to this team in '02, and my locker is right next to Randy's. And it's a day he is pitching.
"I'm sitting in my locker, and I'm trying to keep myself occupied so I don't want to say anything to Randy, not even a 'good luck.' I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs, waiting to go out and shag for BP and get my work in. Randy is there about the same time, and he's sitting there fiddling with his stuff, getting ready for his start.
"All of a sudden we both look over at each other and he says, 'What, you don't want to talk to me?' I said, 'Well, I've been told you really don't want to speak to anybody, and it would be best not to speak to you on a day you pitch.'
'I'm talking to you right now, aren't I?'
'Yeah.'
'OK, now shut up, I have to get ready for my start.'
"It was comical, but he basically wanted to let me know that it's OK, but he also wanted to let me know that he needed his space. It's not that he didn't talk to anybody. It's rather that he stayed focused. His focus was off the charts. It is hard to focus as much as he did and for as long as he did for the length of a game. To me that's more amazing than anything he did physically.
"I was a reliever. I only did it for short stints, and it gave me headaches at times. Mentally, he might be one of the toughest guys you'll ever meet because of the fact of how long he had to concentrate during the course of the game."
Fetters and Matt Mantei were watching the Original Kings of Comedy on the team plane one time when Johnson came up to see what they were laughing about.
"No one ever sees Randy laugh, really laugh. Me and Matt are laughing and using some of the words. So Randy comes to the back and is standing over my shoulder and asks what we are watching. 'You want to hear some of this?' He goes, 'yeah.' So he puts the headset on and he's watching. He starts giggling. He said, 'Do you mind if I watch it.'
"He took it to his seat. His seat was always in the exit row because of his long legs. He's watching, and all of sudden you see Randy and his shoulders and his head are bobbing and he's dying of laughter. Everyone says what's wrong with Randy. I told them he was watching the Original Kings of Comedy.
"It was funny to watch. You got to see that side of Randy, laughing. He watched the whole thing. I'm like, 'This dude's awesome.' He watched the whole thing. He was special."
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