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There are some guys that have come in the MLB and were instant stars due to their outstanding play, but then slowly declined as their careers progressed. One of which was Andruw Jones. His rookie year, he hit two home runs in one World Series game. People thought they were looking at a future legend, a future hall of famer. However, he quickly became just an average player, then a mediocre player. But to speak to your point, most of the players that become professional baseball players don't start getting good coaching until they are in high school. This is after years of "they are kids. Let them have fun!" approach to coaching. After high school, they are then inundated with coaches that have a scientific understanding of baseball.
Unrelated to his stats, but I wanted to add Randy Johnson is beloved in Seattle to this day. Mariners fans were pissed when he was let go. The first game he played against the Mariners in Seattle he got a standing ovation when he took the mound.
Its not the Home Run Derby in 1998 that was iconic, it was the home run race during the year between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, they were both shooting for the single season home run record back and forth all year
Don’t forget Griffey who was right behind without the roids but only managed 57 I think. Which would have been a record if it weren’t for Sosa and McGuire
Back then baseball was comparatively more popular too. McGwire and Sosa felt like the two biggest athletes in the US after Michael Jordan (first) retired.
Whenever I think of Randy Johnson, I immediately reflect upon the bird he exploded. Johnson, who is every bit as physically intimidating as his stature might suggest, is an animal lover and a gifted nature photographer. Someone joked that it was a shame that no one had gotten a high shutter speed photograph of the ball splattering the bird at the moment of impact. My man was decidedly unamused.
John Kruk was always one of my favorite baseball personalities. At a bar one night, celebrating a win, he was drinking whisky and smoking a cigar. When a journalist asked, "Aren't you afraid of kids getting the wrong idea from a role model?" Kruk replied laughing, "Huh, role model? I'm just a ball player."
Despite being one of the most intimidating pitchers of all-time, Randy is also one of the nicest athletes I've ever gotten to talk to. On two separate occasions, when I was a kid and his team was in town against us, Randy came over during batting practice, sat down in the stands with us (a group of random 12 year olds who were rooting for the opponents), and just talked with us about ball for ten-fifteen minutes each time. I know it didn't mean anything much to him, but to us as kids it meant the world.
He is a great dude. I left a message above about my Alice in Chains concert encounter, but between meeting him and Will Clark and discovering that they are both ultra nice guys, it makes me grateful to be a Giants fan.
Re: Walks. In general, you might look for 4 or less walks per 9 innings pitched. Randy at his best was down in the 1.5-2.5 range, Randy in the beginning (when they talked about him allowing walks) he was up around 6-7
I agree with you 100% steroids helped Randy Johnson cut his walk rates and he’s a cheater. I applaud you for pointing that out because a lot of people fail to mention that.
@@israymervalentin-arias6313LOL what? I hope that is a poor attempt at sarcasm. How on earth would steroids give you better control? They even mentioned why he ended up lowering his walk rate. He changed his pitching mechanics which increased his control.
another Randy Johnson fact, Alice Cooper owned a restaurant in downtown Phoenix near the dbacks stadium called Alice Cooperstown and they sold a 2 foot hotdog named after Randy Johnson and it was called the big unit
With pitchers guys, quite often it's some seemingly minor little change that the player grows into (a coach may have advocated for it but it never clicked in the players head or muscles/mechanics) that transforms the guy from an also-ran to a can't-be-touched. Really tall pitchers like Randy also are as much disadvantaged as advantaged by their height. They may go through a half dozen pitching coaches (they're all different with their own theories and perspectives on what it takes and how to teach and explain) before, as the mature as athletes, they learn how to pitch, not just throw hard. At most lower levels the really hard throwers can simply overpower the hitters. And then they get drafted and into AA and AAA ball, much less MLB, and guys they thought they could overpower, foul their stuff off through ball four, or actually tee off on it. Then, it time to finally learn to pitch (keep batters off balance physically and mentally). Batting a pitched baseball is the absolute hardest thing in sport to do. If you are successful a mere 30% of the time you are considered extraordinarily good.
The cool thing about baseball and the reason this happens more than in other sports is because both batters and pitchers can go along for 4-5 years with decent success. Then, one off-season, a batter will try a minor mechanics adjustment to their stance and it just unlocks something (a great example of a hitter doing this is José Bautista, he went to a different team with a very different hitting approach. Turns out it was the optimal approach for Bautista). Or a pitcher will tinker with a new pitch or a new grip for an existing pitch and all of a sudden they have a new wipeout pitch.
I remember back to the sixties when another hall of famer, Sandy Koufax scared the hell out of players because he would throw his fastball behind the hitter. He too was wild but talented.
Great reaction, this has probably been recommended before but "the history of the seattle mariners" is a great set of videos. They actually have "the history of the atlanta falcons" and the history of the vikings too
Thank you so much, really appreciate it 🙏 We’ve had quite a lot of suggestions for this one, have got it on our list for sure. May be one more for the off-season time. Thanks for the comment!
I was 17 in 2001. I was away at a summer camp when Johnson hit the bird. The morning after it happened the camp attendees were in the auditorium for the morning meeting-the video guy must have played and rewound that bird practically exploding probably 15 times.😆
Nolan Ryan, in June 1974, threw 235 pitches while striking out 19 and walking 10 in 13 innings... and got no decision. The pitch count didn't seem to hurt him much; he pitched 6 innings in his next start on 3 days rest. At the end of September that year he pitched his 3rd no-hitter.
That experience in the 1993 All-Star Game w/ John Kruk is burned in my mind. Even though the pitch Johnson threw over Kruk's head was way high, Kruk wanted nothing more to do w/ him & just whiffed while trying to jerk his body away from home plate.
I like his later all star appearance when he was calling out the pitches to the batters - 'gonna throw a fastball now' - and they still couldn't hit it
I got to see his last two seasons in Seattle. It was actually a great era, as I got to see him, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens in person. The way pitchers are managed now, particularly with pitch counts, means we won't see that kind of player again.
you guys should react to the documentary "Knuckleball" which is about 2012 Cy Young Winner R.A. Dickey who pitched in the majors despite literally missing a ligament in his throwing arm. After a couple of years trying to be a traditional pitcher, to save his career, he switched to throwing knuckleballs. Good decision! In 2012, he won 20 games, 5 complete games, 3 shutouts, 230 strikeouts and a 2.73 ERA. It really goes in deep on the absolute beauty of the pitch and shows a wide collection of outstanding batters looking quite silly swinging at pitches that seem to go against the laws of physics..... He is the only knuckleballer to ever win the Cy Young.
Watching Randy pitch as a Mariners fan in the 90s was amazing. He was dominant. No one could reliably handle his fastball. The Mariners let him go because they were worried a back injury marked the end of his viability as a pitcher. He only went on to have one of the greatest careers of all time.
In baseball tiny adjustments can make a massive difference. It takes a very specific set of mechanics to be successful and it varies from player to player. Making one small mistake in mechanics can cause a player to go from great to below average and vice versa, its a game of fractions of inches. One small swing adjustment can turn fly outs or groundouts into hits, and one small change in pitching motion can affect a pitcher's entire game like you saw with Randy. That's how you get players who have been in the league for years who suddenly become stars, they make an adjustment and it drastically improves their ability. This happens with pitchers especially, its not uncommon to see a pitcher break out in their mid-to-late twenties.
When they mention the 1998 home run derby they meant the regular season battle between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to break Roger Maris' single season home run record. Went to High School with Randy Johnson - nothing was more terrifying for a 16 year old kid than facing Johnson in the batters box.
11:18 Pitchers especially tend to be late bloomers. In baseball, what's generally considered a position player's prime is their late 20's, while with pitchers their primes tend to be in their early 30's.
Your point about baseball players becoming great much later in their careers is really interesting, and I have to agree that I haven't really seen it in other sports. That being said, it's certainly not the norm. For example, Randy's two Mariners teammates who were mentioned just before you paused to make that point, Ken Griffey Jr and Alex Rodriguez, were both superstars from the moment they entered MLB, and both made their debuts before celebrating their 20th birthday. This is not exactly common either, and most players peak in their early to mid twenties just like in any other sport, but it is cool that baseball has such a wide range of ages for its players who are all playing at an elite level.
Randy Johnson is probably one of the most respected pitchers in history, but his command was kind of a meme before that was a thing. There was an MLB commercial in the 90's making fun of it -- look up "Randy Johnson Mr. Snappy" for a good laugh lol
Long Gone Summer is an amazing 30 for 30 and a semi-popular opinion. Sosa and McGwire belong in the Hall along with a host of other players; Joe Jackson, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, A-Rod, Nomar Garciaparra, Adrian Beltre, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds etc. and if they had on/off field issues then make another wing. The Sosa and McGwire homerun race made people fall in love with baseball again, and that shouldn't go unnoticed.
The Big Unit was amazing - one of the best to ever sling it. And one of the most intimidating pitchers ever too! A true legend. Amazingly he now has a second career in his 50's and 60's as a professional photographer! He runs a studio down in Arizona (the logo, amusingly, is a dead bird) and does photojournalism for NFL games, rock concerts, and wildlife documentaries. He's actually super close friends with Geddy Lee from the band Rush, and was one of their official tour photographers back in 2015. Always cool to see the human side of larger-than-life athletes.
I actually didn't know that about Geddy. Go figure I saw him at a Coheed and Cambria concert in 2017 at the Marquee in Tempe, AZ. I saw this super tall guy taking photos and I was thinking who is that? Got a good look at his face and "wtf that's Randy Johnson" ha. I was never huge into baseball, but I'm an AZ native who went to games as a kid when Randy was here. He's a legend here. Didn't learn about his photography n all that until much later. All around cool guy.
Never forget that time that the Seattle Mariners had Randy Johnson, The Kid, A-Rod, and Edgar Martinez four players that all are or should have been first ballot hall of famers, (A-rod got wound up in the roids, and Edgar Martinez was a designated Hitter) on one team, and failed to get it done. HAHAHAHAHA - Crys in Rockies fan
No clue why, but I absolutely love watching you blokes appreciate American sports. What is the number one English football moment you’d want Americans to witness?
Thank you, we really appreciate that. Most people would say it’s the Aguero moment however for me it’s the Troy Deeney moment in a Playoff Semi Final to qualify for the “richest game in English football”. It was an incredible moment when you realise what was at stake and that at that moment Watford had a 0.001% chance of winning on that play. Damn I’m going to have to watch it again now 😂
I applaud you for keeping a straight face while saying his name! I understand Randy has a different connotation across the pond 😅 My mate's nan has peals of laughter when anyone mentions Randy Johnson. A worse name in baseball history was Rusty Kuntz (seriously). My fav name all time has to be Dick Trickle. He was a NASCAR driver. Cheers lads, another quality video
If he started 40 games in that year, he would be averaging 3 walks per game, which, while not horrible, means that you gave up the equivalent of 3 singles per game on top of any real hits you gave up. 2 walks a game would probably be the average of most pitchers, but if you are a control and strike out pitcher, you will have more walks as well. Some pitchers put the ball in play but don't let you get a good hit so they throw less and more plays are made by the team.
In 2023, starting pitchers are averaging 3.02 walks per 9 innings, and this rate has historically hovered around 3 as well. Johnson's career rate was 3.26, but after 1992 -- his last bad year for walks -- it was 2.65. Since 1901, a total of 59 starting pitchers with at least 1,500 innings have had a BB/9 rate of 2 or lower. It's also not true that being a strikeout pitcher correlates to a high walk rate -- only 5 out of the 19 pitchers in the 3,000-K club had a BB/9 rate of 3 or higher, and even when looking at the ones with the highest strikeout rates it's still only about half that do so.
A few things. First, Johnson did not have the first no-hitter in Mariners history. That was ground ball pitcher Chris Bosio, acquired late in the previous season as a piece in an unsuccessful run for a division title, nipping Johnson to the honor by a month. In 1997 we got the answer to the question a lot of people had been asking: What would happen if Big Mac got all of a Big Unit fastball? The result was the longest home run ever hit in the Kingdome, 10 rows beyond the walkway of the second deck in straight away right field. McGuire definitely won that battle of former college teammates. Mo Vaughn, power hitting left handed first baseman for the Red Sox, once remarked at the start if a season that his hope was to play 160 good games that year. The reporter asked what the other two games were and he replied "The ones where we face Randy Johnson and I get the night off." If you are wondering where else you have seen someone wearing number 51 for the Mariners, you should not have to think about it for very long. Ichiro arrived in 2001 having established that as his number with Orex Blue Wave, and he wanted to wear it here, but it was on the team's "never give out again" list. He wrote Johnson a letter asking permission to wear it, promising to never do anything to bring shame to the number. Late bloomers are in fact quite common in footy...usually wearing the no. 1 shirt. Saying is that a keeper generally doesn't get good until he's about 28. That's why everyone was astounded by Aaron Ramsdale arriving at the Emirates from So'ton at the age 20 and immediately making Bernd Leno surplus to needs. As an American Gooner it's tempting to project him as being the next coming of Bill Seaman.
Kenny Lofton played for the Indians, during an at bat he got a couple pitches inside and complained to the umpire that Johnson was trying to hit him, on tv you could hear Johnson yell "if I wanted to hit you I'd fucking hit you", very next pitch hit Lofton in the kidney.... Randy Johnson and Bob Gibson are the two most intimidating pitches in baseball history.
Idk if you've done any of these but I'd love to see you do some secret base "rewinder" series, my personal, biased favorite being the one about Magglio Ordoñez and the 2006 Detroit Tigers
One of the great things about baseball... You take a guy like Randy Johnson. Overpowers the best of the best hitters in the game... yet a "light hitting" utility player who spent most of his time in the big leagues riding the bench named Joe McEwing COMPLETELY OWNED Randy Johnson. McEwing also hit very well against other eventual hall of fame pitchers like Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez.. but couldn't win an every day job.
Pitchers rarely pitch more than 35 games now, and would pitch about 40 games max during Randy Johnson's career, so he was actually allowing 3-4 walks a game with was slightly worse than average. Which is why he averaged about 34 games a year when healthy.
Excellent point Damo made about baseball players suddenly " figuring it out " after years of struggle .It shows how much baseball is a game of technique and that seemingly minor adjustments in the way a pitcher throws or a hitter swings can make a big difference in performance .Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson are almost a textbook example of opposite types of pitchers who became great . Maddux -right handed ---Johnson left handed ----- Maddux pinpoint control -----Johnson no control at all -------- Maddux average arm ----- Johnson flame thrower. I played fantasy baseball in money leagues for years and got very good at it .At one point I won the league championship 6 years in a row and the other players voted me out of the league , LOL . I saw wild pitchers develop control,singles hitters become home run hitters ,guys who struck out all of the time become contact hitters
Looking at his Baseball Reference page, Randy had a walk rate of 2.4 per game which is good, although in just 26 innings in 1988. As reference, the Giants led in 2023 with 2.53 and the league average is around 3.25. The problem started in 1989 with 7.9 rate per game for the Expos. After being traded to the Mariners, it was 4.8 per game and 5.4 for the season with both teams. Not good. Down to 4.9 in 1990, over 6.0 in each of the next two seasons. Yeah, he had control issues. It wasn't until 1995 that he had a decent 2.7 rate and was good in that department the rest of his career. He even had sub-2 rates in 2004 and 2005 when he was in his 40s which is incredible.
Also, regarding Nolan Ryan, he pitched to the three single season home run record holders after Babe Ruth (who hit 60 home runs in 1927). He faced Roger Maris (61 home runs in 1961), Mark McGwire (70 home runs), and Barry Bonds (73 home runs in 2001). He dominated all three, and never gave up a home run to the trio.
Pitchers in particular can take a long time to blossom. Most position players give a sense of whether they will be great, but pitching is reliant on mechanics and psychology, sometimes it takes guys several years until they hone in their stuff and become dominant. There are pitchers who are great from a young age though, but Johnson was definitely a case of a late bloomer. That is also common with power pitchers, however.
As great as that 4 year stretch where the Big Unit won 4 consecutive Cy Young awards, the last 4 years of Sandy Koufax's career might have been even better. 97 wins and his ERA never finishing above 2.04,. 3 Cy Youngs back when there was only a single Cy Young award for all of MLB, with a 3rd place finish the one year he didn't win. His elbow was shredded and his career over at age 30. A similar story of a power pitcher who couldn't find home plate finally gaining control and his career taking off, albeit at a younger age than Johnson.
You're correct that late development is fairly common in baseball compared to other sports. My theory is that it's the mental aspects of the game, baseball is more mental than most sports, and mental maturity often comes with age and experience. This is just a theory.
Met him at a Hooters in Baltimore when he was on the Mariners….nice dude….he signed a receipt for me and his signature was so tiny you can barely see it
I remember Johnson getting blasted by Mark McGuire. 100mph fastball VS MM mighty swing. Est 500 ft. Randy like most pitchers' don`t watch HR`s they give up. After the game Randy said "I threw it as hard as I can, Mark hit it as hard as he can. I just had to watch how far it would go!".
For perspective, sticking with a Mariners pitcher, George Kirby (currently in his 2nd year) has walked 16 batters on the season. That's extremely low just for the record.
So for average walks by a pitcher, it helps to rememebee 162 games and a starter will generally play no more than 1/5 of those so that’s around 32. 150+ walks in a season means he’s walking around 5 guys a game, which means more innings than not involve him walking someone. On average a team will typically walk a little more than 3 players per game, and that’s not just the starter, that includes when the starter comes out for a reliever, so an average starter probably has half of what Johnson had his first piece of his career
You should check out Bob feller ,he probably would have been the greatest pitcher ever, but he served in ww2 , there’s a video of him throwing a baseball in street clothes when a motorcycle goes by during ninety miles per hour,the ball beats the motorcycle to the target sixty feet away
Possibly the best slider in the history of baseball. I'm not sure what an acceptable WHIP is (walks+hits per innings pitched) but i would guess around 1.2 may be acceptable. 150 walks is very high considering most starting pitchers pitch not much more than 200 innings. Add the hits he gives up onto that and the WHIP would probably be around 1.5+. That's well below average I would think. It's kind of a pity the Yankees missed out on the WS just a month after 9/11 but nobody was upset about the D-Backs winning in just their 4th season.
Alright if we're gonna talk about pitchers that will not die and throw crazy stuff then you must follow this up with Phil Neikro..the King of the "knuckleball".....he played a few years more then Randy....and nobody including the pitcher or the catcher had a clue where that ball was going. There's a MLb remembers video on him.
makes you think of and appreciate the coaches and trainers who gave guys like Maddux and Johnson a chance when they started their careers putting up mediocre numbers. they must have had a real eye for talent
The 2001 Yankees were already the 3-time reigning champs and had won 4 of the last 5 World Series going into this. The DBacks beating them in the World Series, especially getting clutch hits against Mariano Rivera, was no small feat.
That's always the question: Is the organization letting a player go before they're fully-developed, only to see them bloom with another team, or are they not developing the player properly, and sending them to organization that will develop them properly?
The thing that people don't get is not just how hard he threw. But he was so tall that the ball was leaving his hand than a foot closer to the plate than any other pitcher in history. Maybe that doesn't sound like much That cuts into a batter's reaction time significantly. Everyone knew from day one that if Randy could develop control he could be unhittable. But that is a big if. Physical control always seems to be a bit of a challenge for very tall human beings.
4:59 150 walks in a season is high. Starting pitchers play 30-some games a year so that's like 5 walks a game. Nearly one every inning since in those days starters typically pitched 6 or 7 innings regularly. EDIT: at 6:36 they say he lead the league in walks. Definitely not a stat to be proud of.
