Randy Johnson's Perfect Game

I was recently asked what I thought was one of the great feats in baseball. Now that is hard to judge because there were so many. But as an old pitcher, I guess I am partial to pitching performances that are above and beyond the normal every day on the mound and sometimes bring back memories of my own glory days on the mound.

It was May 18, 2004, at Turner Field in Atlanta in front of 23, 381 fans. A 40-year-old pitcher took the found and confounded every batter that came up to bat. When the game was over that 40-year-old had 13 strikeouts, threw only 117 pitches, and went to a three-ball count on one-hitter. One ball off the bat of Andruw Jones was hit hard. The 40 years that night walked off the mound with a perfect game and became the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball to pitch a perfect game. The pitcher, Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, caught my attention when he said “…everything was locked in.”

That brought back memories of my last no-hitter as a teenager. As I warmed up behind the stands, everything seemed to be locked in. My catcher was taking his hand out of the glove and shaking it each time I threw a fastball which seemed to move better than it had ever moved and had an extra 3 or four Miles per Hour on it. Everything I threw hit the spot and felt special. I said to myself, “this is going to be something special.”

I would bet that when Randy was warming up, he felt that same thing that I had felt. Neither one of us could have known what was ahead but we knew it would be special.

As I took the mound and threw my warmup pitches, I still had the same zip on my fastball that I had warming up behind the stands. The game was a close one and a couple of errors put a win in jeopardy for us. However, when the game ended, I had struck out 10 batters. We did not have pitch counts back then so I could not tell you how many pitches I threw that day.

I am not comparing my performance to Randy’s because nothing compares to a perfect game. I am merely comparing the feelings as I was warming up to what Randy must have felt as “everything was locked in.”

Just as Randy did, I got a standing ovation from everyone in the stands except there were only about 100 fans that witnessed my no-hitter that day. But I am sure we felt the same things as each of us walked off our respective mounds and acknowledged the fans with a tip of our cap.

Among the 100 fans was an old, weathered pitcher who had stopped when I was throwing to my brother in front of my house. He showed me how to get more movement on my fastball. I will tell that whole story at another time.

Randy Johnson’s performance at age 40 is a feat that I am amazed at to this day. Baseball fans know how rare perfect games are and appreciate a great performance even if it was against their favorite team.

Randy Johnson was locked in that day and that is a feeling that comes once in a career.

As a side note when I retired, I knew I had to keep busy, so I took up photography. Ironically when Johnson retired, he became a good photographer. Maybe something to do with lefthanders and the way we look at things.

There will never be another Randy Johnson. I was amazed every time he took the mound.