300.

We may have seen our last 300 game winner. “The Big Unit”, Randy Johnson, retired from baseball yesterday. Ending a 22 year career, 46 year old Johnson leaves us as the best left handed pitcher of all time.

When Nolan Ryan retired in 1993, it took no time at all for the void to be filled as a tall, lanky, unhittable, flame thrower. Intimidating as hell, 6-foot-10, untamed mullet hair, crazy 80′s mustache, Randy Johnson stares in for the sign from his catcher, but we all no whats coming, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t hit it. Before you know it a fastball that’s been consistently clocked at 100 miles per hour is in the catcher’s mit and you’re headed back to the dugout.

In the new age of baseball, I really don’t think we’ll ever see a pitcher compile anywhere near the achievements that The Big Unit has put together. I really think he is the last of the breed. The old school, hard nosed, hard working pitcher. Baseball has changed, maybe for the worse? Players are coddled, babied to a point where they don’t even have the opportunity to put together numbers that rival Johnson’s. How many current pitchers that just throw smoke, pitch after pitch, are going to be able to pitch into their mid 40s and actually hold their own? I don’t see any out there.

Randy Johnson dominated batters his entire career. He dominated both the American and National Leagues, winning at least one of his 5 Cy Young awards in each league. Johnson is a 9 time strike outs leader, second all time and the total strike outs leader for 2 separate decades even. Leading through both the 90s and 2000s, proving that he was blowing away batters over his entire career. A 10 time all star, I can’t understand how its only 10 really. He should’ve been a 15 time all star, there is no prolonged stretch of time where he wasn’t among the best pitchers in baseball. In 2002, Johnson won the pitching Triple Crown leading the National League in wins, earned run average and strikeouts.

Johnson leaves the game where he left behind so many great moments. The exploding bird,  throwing at John Kruk’s head in the 93 all star game, the great Mariners teams of the 90s, the 2001 World Series when he earned 3 wins and pitched in relief in game 7 on no rest, and the most important of all: winning his 300th game. That 300th win was a thing of beauty. On the road facing the Nationals, the home fans were actually rooting against their Nats. Hearing “300!” chanted throughout the entire game and the standing ovation Johnson received was a true class moment in baseball that I won’t forget.

I think the most impressive part Randy Johnson’s career has been is the time period he worked in. It’s no secret that the past 20 years were marred by the use of steroids. But somehow that had no effect on Johnson’s ability to strike out batters with ease. It didn’t matter how jacked you were. You can’t hit what you can’t see. And Randy Johnson just reached back and threw it right past you. Never fearing any hitter, never backing down, always going for the throat. He’s the last of a breed. We won’t see another Randy Johnson.

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