Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson
Johnson at a 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame event
Starting pitcher
Born: September 10th, 1963 Walnut Creek , United States
Strikes: Right	Throws: Left
Debut in Major League Baseball
September 15,  1988  at the  Montreal Expos
Last MLB assignment
October 4,  2009  with the  San Francisco Giants
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Win - Loss	303-166
Earned Run Average	3.29
Strikeouts	4,875
Teams
Montreal Expos ( 1988 - 1989 ) Seattle Mariners ( 1990 - 1998 ) Houston Astros (1998) Arizona Diamondbacks ( 1999 - 2004 ) New York Yankees ( 2005 - 2006 ) Arizona Diamondbacks ( 2007 - 2008 ) San Francisco Giants ( 2009 )
Awards
1 × World Series winner ( 2001 ) 1 × World Series MVP (2001) 5 × Cy Young Award (1995, 1999–2002) 4 × Warren Spahn Award (1999-2002) 10 × MLB All-Star Game ( 1990 , 1993 - 1995 , 1997 , 1999 - 2004 ) First of the AL in ERA 1995 First of the NL in ERA 1999, 2001, 2002 First of the NL in Wins 2002 First of the NL pitched in innings in 1999, 2000 First of the AL in strikeouts (1992-1995) First of the NL in strikeouts (1999-2002, 2004) Perfect Game on May 18, 2004 Second best player of all time in strikeouts with 4,875.
member of
Baseball Hall of Fame
Recorded	2015
Quota	97.3%

Randall David "Randy" Johnson , nicknamed The Big Unit , (born September 10, 1963 in Walnut Creek , California ) is a retired American baseball player in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the position of pitcher .

In 2015 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame .

Career

Beginnings

At 6 feet tall, the left-handed pitcher was the second tallest player to ever play in MLB after Jon Rauch . Already in high school and at the University of Southern California , he excelled in both baseball and basketball . He started his MLB career at the Montreal Expos in 1988. There he got off to a good start, but fell off in his second season. The Expos traded him and four other players for Mark Langston and transferred him to the Seattle Mariners . Until 1993, Johnson had great difficulty controlling his throws, so he always allowed many walks . This year he had less than 100 walks in 308 strikeouts for the first time , a success that can also be attributed to Nolan Ryan , who trained with him.

Breakthrough in Seattle

1995 Johnson had his first outstanding year, winning 18 games with only two losses, an ERA of 2.48 and 294 strikeouts. He first won the American League's Cy Young Award . He also showed excellent performance in the play-offs against the California Angels and the New York Yankees , but in the American League Championship Series the Mariners had to admit defeat to the Cleveland Indians .

In the next season was hardly used due to injuries and only found back to old form in 1997 and won 20 games with four defeats. After the 1998 season he became a free agent , but the Mariners could not make him a financially lucrative offer and transferred him to the Houston Astros . With the Astros he again reached the play-offs, but lost with his team to the San Diego Padres .

Successful years in Arizona

As a free agent he played for the Arizona Diamondbacks from the 1999 season , for a four-year contract he received the sum of 53 million dollars. At the Diamondbacks he won his second Cy Young Award in 1999, followed by the third in 2000. With the engagement of Curt Schilling , the Diamondbacks had one of the strongest left-hander-right-hander combinations in baseball from 2000 and in 2001 they reached the World Series against the New York Yankees in their fourth year of existence . Schilling and Johnson were jointly named MVP of the World Series , both were used in the decisive seventh game and defeated the favored Yankees. In 2001 and 2002 Johnson again won the Cy Young Award , and in 2002 also the Triple Crown . In 2001 he was also by the magazine Sports Illustrated for Athlete of the Year chosen.

On May 18, 2004, Johnson threw a perfect game in a 2-0 win over the Atlanta Braves . Johnson was only the 17th player to do so, and at the age of 40, the oldest perfect game thrower in MLB. Johnson was the fifth pitcher and the first left-hander to throw a no-hitter in both the American League and the National League, after Cy Young , Jim Bunning , Nolan Ryan and Hideo Nomo .

New York and the end of your career in 2009

The seasons 2005 and 2006 Johnson played for the New York Yankees , but delivered there in his first season only average performances and disappointed in the American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim . For the 2009 season, Johnson moved to the San Francisco Giants , in whose service he achieved the 300th victory of his career on June 4, 2009. After the season ended, Johnson became a free agent. On January 5, 2010, Randy Johnson announced the end of his active baseball career.

With 4,875 strikeouts, Randy Johnson is in second place on the all-time leaderboard for major league pitchers.

Web links

Commons : Randy Johnson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Player information and statistics from MLB  or  ESPN  or  baseball reference  or  fangraphs  or  baseball reference (minor league) (English)
• Randy Johnson in the Baseball Hall of Fame (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hall of Fame Class of 2015. Accessed January 8, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Lefty Johnson retires ( English ) In: espn.com . Retrieved March 12, 2012.