Randy Johnson

Randall David " Randy " Johnson ( born September 10, 1963 in Walnut Creek, California ) is a former American professional baseball player in Major League Baseball. His nickname was The Big Unit.

Career

With its 2.08 m of left-handed pitcher after Jon Rauch was the second greatest player who ever played in the MLB. Even in high school and at the University of Southern California, he stood out both in baseball and basketball. His career in the MLB, he started with the Montreal Expos in 1988., Where he had a good start, but fell off in his second season. The Expos traded with him and four other players against Mark Langston and transferred him to the Seattle Mariners. By the year 1993 Johnson had great difficulty with the control of his throws, so he always suffer many walks. This year, the first time he stood less than 100 Walks at 308 strikeouts to beech, a success which even Nolan Ryan is attributable, who coached with him.

Breakthrough in Seattle

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

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

Successful Years in Arizona

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

On 18 May 2004 Johnson threw a Perfect Game 2-0 victory against the Atlanta Braves. Johnson was only the 17th player to have managed, and with an age of 40 years, the oldest pitcher of Perfect Games in MLB. Johnson was so after Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan and Hideo Nomo, the fifth and the first left-handed pitcher who had thrown in both the American League and in the National League a no-hitter.

New York and the career end of 2009

The seasons in 2005 and 2006 Johnson played for the New York Yankees, returned there in his first season but only average performance from 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 on 4 June 2009 the 300th win of his career succeeded. After the season 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 second in the all-time best list of major-league pitcher.

672263
de