Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson
Randall David "Randy" Johnson, nicknamed "The Big Unit", is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1988 to 2009 for six teams, primarily the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. His 303 career victories rank as the fifth-most by a lefthander in major league history, while his 4,875 strikeouts place him second all-time behind Nolan Ryan and are the most by a lefthander. He holds five of the seven highest single-season strikeout totals by a lefthander...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth10 September 1963
CityWalnut Creek, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I was used to a few reporters in Phoenix who would walk by in passing and asked me how I was feeling. Here, I had 10 guys asking me about two innings in spring training.
I expect to win every time I go out. The way I would draw it up would be exactly like tonight not very many strikeouts, no walks and a few hits. For the most part, I was pretty efficient.
How do you explain something like that? It's the one thing that I'll walk away from this game not really understanding.
I didn't feel like I had a lot of breathing room. I felt like I was walking on eggshells.
I felt the camera incident was a bad start. I wanted to make a good first impression. From that point on I was kinda walking on eggshells (with the media). I made myself accessible but I didn't feel as if I had a whole lot of breathing room after I made a major mistake.
The key is you don't want Damon to get on base any way. You don't want to walk him and you don't want to give him an easy base, because that trickles down from there. Then you get into the No. 2 hitter, and you get into all their power. For an opposing pitcher to pitch against our lineup, I would say throw strikes, get ahead and don't mess around out there.
We won 55 ball games in eight years, and that's a good record for anybody. My only regret - that 4-5 season sticks in my craw. I'm retiring as a coach, and I feel good about my retirement.
We control our own destiny. I'm sure it'll come down to those last three games in Boston.
I've pitched some pretty meaningful games, and some games where if we lose, we're done, ... That wasn't the case, but it would have been more difficult. We're three games back right now. It's not insurmountable.
I've pitched some good games this year where I haven't been that animated, that locked in,
The stuff?s there, obviously. It?s been there all year. It?s been in hibernation.
I've been at this a long time, and it's time to sort of step back. I've been doing this for 34 years. When you're looking at the watch to see what time to end practice, that's pretty much an indication that it's time to sort of kick back.
They actually swung today. The sooner they get their swings down, the better for me as well. I'm not trying to break bats and strike people out, I'm just trying to throw my pitches and feel like I'm accomplishing something. The more I throw, the better my pitches will get.
Felt great, ... Still a little bit of kryptonite in my back, though.