Randy Johnson To Announce Retirement

Most exciting baseball player I have ever watched on a regular basis. Not even close.

Randy’s return to Seattle back in May was one of my favorite moments of the year.

His SLG against in 1995 was .303.

I’m glad he’s leaving the game on his terms and not because he’s completely broken down and getting lit up every five days. He was an amazing pitcher and I’m glad i was fortunate enough to see him in person as many times as I did.

Imagine if we still had him in 2001…

So, I had the opportunity to actually meet RJ a few months after he was traded to the Mariners in 1989. I got to spend 20-30 minutes talking to him when he made an appearance at a baseball card show at the Puyallup Fair. I went through the line 3 times — the last time there really wasn’t a “line.” I still have several of the autographs from that event.

That should tell you how well-known he was at the time of the trade. And how excited people were that he was traded to the M’s. Granted, baseball wasn’t anywhere close to as popular in Seattle as it is now, but still – people forget how unknown RJ was at the time of the trade. I still remember Holman being the gem and main target of that trade, with RJ being considered a “massive project with some upside” in the deal. And nobody cared about Gene Harris. Nobody still cares about Gene Harris.
  
To make a really really really long story short, when I determined I’d bugged RJ enough, I asked if I could shake his pitching hand, being a fellow lefty and all. He was happy to oblige and I wished him the best of luck and told him to kick ass for the Mariners.

I’d say he listened.

No question.

’Nuff said.

I was really hoping him and Jr. would go in on the same ballot. I was also hoping he’d come pitch for us.

Thank you for everything you did for Seattle and Arizona. I’m so sorry for bullshit the DBacks put you through in the end that caused you to finish your career in San Francsisco.

It was a thrill and a privilege to watch the greatest left hander in the history of this game pitch for so many years.

This leaves A-Rod and Griffey as the only two active 1995 Mariners. Well, there was a third, but he didn’t make the playoff squad. Bonus points to whoever gets it without cheating.

your mullet will be greatly missed.

Thanks for a great career, Randy.

I was at the Kingdome, when he pitched against Mark McGuire. I think that McGuire was on the A’s at the time (and all juiced up) when he hit the longest HR ever hit there. I was sitting about 30 rows deep in left field, and it went screaming over to the wall to my left on the 200 level. One of the remarkable things about that game was that Randy had like 19 strike outs and still lost the game.

I rarely even watched the team in the first half of 98 but when the news came down that we had traded him I was devastated. He was always one of my favorite opposing pitchers to watch and is one of the reasons that I love high strike out pitchers so much. Finally getting to see him pitch in person is probably my favorite memory from 2009, with the standing ovation given to him by the fans at Safeco likely being the first time in almost a decade that the fans there have impressed me. I was really holding out hope that he would come back to Seattle for a truly special pennant run and so I could finally be able to call him mine but alas it wasn’t to be.

Of all the stars that left, Randy was the one that I never disliked and if I had it my way he would be the second person in the hall to wear a Mariners hat.

He lived baseball. Without it he would have been nothing. With it he achieved greatness.

It was weird watching the announcement, realizing I had lost track of Randy’s age, that part of me thought he’d play forever, but weirder still to see the Q13 guy use the announcement as a chance to air dirty laundry. What fucking timing. An’ he wondered why Johnson might be hostile towards the media.

Watching Johnson damn near kill Mike Greenwell is among the greatest sports moments of my life. Not pleasant, per se, but singular and poignant. It was a brutal but dazzling display of a crazy refined skill with no purpose outside the diamond. Thanks Randy. Thanks for letting little kid me know what the beginnings of a riot in Fenway feels like. Thanks for helping make me fan.