Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson (born September 10, 1963, Walnut Creek, California, U.S.) is an American professional baseball player who—with five career Cy Young Awards (1995, 1999–2002) as the best pitcher in either the American or National League—is considered one of the greatest pitchers in the sport’s history.

Johnson excelled in both basketball and baseball through high school. He earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he played basketball for a few years and starred on the baseball team from 1983 to 1985. The National League (NL) Montreal Expos drafted him after his junior season, and he made his major league debut on September 15, 1988.

The physically imposing Johnson quickly built a reputation as the pitcher major leaguers most feared facing. His exceptional height—at 6 feet 10 inches (2.08-metres) he was for a time the tallest player in major league history—and low delivery angle only increased the difficulty of hitting his fastballs (which could sometimes reach 102 mph [164 km/hr]) and hard-breaking sliders (pitches that appear to be heading toward a left-handed batter before suddenly veering toward the plate). The novelty of his height at first overshadowed Johnson’s work on the mound, but, as his pitching improved, the accolades increased. He was named to the first of his 10 All-Star Games in 1990 as a member of the American League (AL) Seattle Mariners, who had acquired him from the Expos the previous season. Johnson led the AL in strikeouts for four consecutive years (1992–95), and in 1995 he won the AL Cy Young Award. Johnson and the Mariners management began to have contract disagreements on a regular basis, and he was traded to the Houston Astros at the1998 trading deadline.

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A free agent at the end of the 1998 season, Johnson signed with the NL Arizona Diamondbacks, where he led the NL in earned run average, innings pitched, and strikeouts on his way to the 1999 NL Cy Young Award. Johnson won Cy Youngs in each of the following three seasons, but his most impressive feat took place at the 2001 World Series, where he tied a record with three wins in a single World Series and earned Most Valuable Player honours, along with fellow pitcher Curt Schilling, while guiding the Diamondbacks to their first championship. In 2004 he became the oldest player to pitch a perfect game and the 17th pitcher to accomplish the feat.

After pitching for two seasons with the New York Yankees, Johnson was traded in 2007 to Arizona for a second stint with the Diamondbacks. The following year he recorded his 4,673rd strikeout, passing Roger Clemens for second place on the all-time strikeouts list—behind only Nolan Ryan. Johnson signed with the San Francisco Giants after the 2008 season. On June 4, 2009, he recorded the 300th victory of his career, a landmark that had been reached by only 23 other big-league pitchers in more than 120 years of American professional baseball. Johnson retired in January 2010. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.