Welcome to Desert Pepper, a cerebral look into baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. While a Detroit Tigers fan first, this series will focus on the writer's National League fallback team, and he will always be convinced the 2001 World Series cured him of his mononucleosis.
As of this year, the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are the only two franchises who've never had a Hall of Fame player or coach in their dugout. Hey, they haven't been around that long. They have time.
And even if the retired Curt Schilling (well, retired for now) goes into the Hall of Fame earlier than Johnson, odds are Schilling will be more synonymous with Red Sox postseason glory than his 2001 ring with the D'backs when he started three games and won half a World Series MVP. There's also a real chance he will lobby to go into the Hall as a member of his World of Warcraft guild.
But Randy Johnson, who hardly has a reason to leave him out of Cooperstown, could be the first true Diamondbacks player in the Hall.
Including 2009, he's played for six different teams in his career. We can safely rule out the Expos, Astros, Yankees, and his current Giants as teams which will earn the right to have their emblem on his bronze plaque's hat. That leaves the Diamondbacks and the Seattle Mariners. In the M's favor, he did pitch 10 seasons for them (as compared to Arizona's eight) and appeared in the hit flick Little Big League as Randy Johnson, Extremely Scary Pitcher With Greasy Mullet. That's tough to beat.
But, sadly, t'was not only beaten, it was killed mid-flight. As a Diamondback, Johnson played the reality role of Extremely More Refined Pitcher With A Slightly Less Greasy Yet Still Hideous Mullet. His lone World Series appearance, his perfect game, and four of his five Cy Young awards came with the Snakes. And he was with Arizona when he killed a bird with a fastball.*
Article comments
1 - Aaron Whitehead
Well said.
1) I totally agree that killing the bird is a Cooperstown moment. But what about the pitch in the All-Star Game that nearly beheaded John Kruk? That was just a great moment of theater. Plus, I think we've all fantasized about throwing blunt instruments at the "Krukker."
2) Both Johnson and Schilling will forever be D-Backs to me. Schilling would have picked up at least two Cys with the team if Johnson hadn't been going all Sandy Koufax on the National League. And I'd easily vote for Schilling as a Hall-of-Famer, so long as I don't have to listen to the acceptance speech.
3) If you really need another starting pitcher, and you get to pick between Randy Johnson and Jon Garland for about the same price, who picks Garland? Sure, he'll probably log more innings than the Unit, but when your ERA is in the 4.90 range, that's not such a good thing.
2 - Tan The Man
Johnson would be better comparable to Roger Clemens. Both dominated with their early in their careers (Mariners and Red Sox, respectively) for one team (more years) but became more dominant and legendary for another team (Diamondbacks and Yankees).
3 - Aaron Whitehead
Actually, the more I think about it, there is no good comp for Randy Johnson. Early in his career, he was a wild but effective fireballer; a poor man's Bob Feller. Then he went to Arizona, stopped walking people, and became an elite pitcher. I mentioned Koufax because I couldn't think of anyone else who could strike out 300+ batters without also walking 100+. And because Koufax suffered from similar wildness early in his career.
Clemens is a good comp, too, but Clemens' late-career comeback was nothing like Johnson's. Clemens was legitimately great in Boston. Although his best years came, randomly enough, in Toronto in '97 and '98.
That's the thing about the truly great pitchers; they really are unique.
4 - Tony
I think Randy probably goes in as a D-Back. Statistically he did have his best seasons with them even though this was, at least minimally do, to the massive offensive difference between the American and National Leagues.
A side note, you can't bring up the Randy bird incident without a slight remembrance to the "OG" of bird-aside. Dave Winfield.
5 - Greg M
I think he'll go in as a Mariner. When he left Seattle, he was already a feared and coveted Cy Young Award winning pitcher.
6 - kenny b
i think he'll go as a giant cuz thats when he got his 300th win