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Randy Johnson won his 298th game last night. He's scheduled to pitch this Saturday at home against the Mets. If he wins on Saturday, Randy is next scheduled to pitch Friday, May 22nd in Seattle. How improbable could it be that Randy might be going for his 300th win that day? Wouldn't that be something!

Not only does Randy have 298 career wins, he also has 4828 career strikeouts, 2nd place on the all time list, and putting him only 172 strikeouts away from 5000 career strikeouts. Nolan Ryan is the only other pitcher with 5000 career strikeouts, ending his pitching career with a total of 5714. Only two other pitchers besides Ryan and Johnson have reached the 4000 strikeout milestone, Roger Clemens (4672) and Steve Carlton (4136). Twelve additional pitchers have reached the 3000 strikeout milestone in their careers.

I think Randy has been quite aware of these pitching milestones, and I fully expect him to keep pitching until he hits that 5000 career strikeout mark, as 300 wins seems all but inevitable already. What a remarkable pitching career this ex-Mariner has had. Assuming that he gets his 300th win, and is able to hold on and get to the 5000 strikeout mark, Randy could end his career with these accomplishments:

1) 300+ wins
2) 5000+ strikeouts
3) 5 Cy Young awards
4) 37+ career shutouts
5) 10 time All-Star
6) 1st or 2nd in career strikeouts per innings pitched
7) A career ERA of 3.35 or lower
8) 2 no-hitters, and one perfect game
9) Led the league in strikeouts 9 times
10) Led the league in ERA 4 times
11) 1 World Series MVP award
12) 1 World Series ring

What a career. 9+ years with the Mariners. Certain Hall of Famer. I wonder how long it will be before another pitcher wins 300 games, as nobody is feasibly close now? No pitcher might ever have 5000 strikeouts within their grasp again, perhaps not even 4000 strikeouts. With the 5 man rotation, the closer watch of pitch-counts, and the growing importance of the bullpen, to even consider getting near these milestones you need to have a quite long and productive career.

Anyway....just a little Randy Johnson admiration.

The amazing thing is that he was able to reach these career milestones despite being a late bloomer. He didn't crack the big leagues until he was 25 and really didn't become a dominant pitcher until he was 30. He's the most extreme example of a certain profile of pitcher that also includes Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton and Hal Newhouser. All of them took several years to become consistently dominant, but none of them stayed on top as long as Johnson has.

Unfortunately, you have to figure he'll go into the HOF as a D-back, where he won 4 Cy Young awards and a World Series. I'll always resent those 2001 Snakes, a team full of players who seemed like they belonged somewhere else. (Johnson was a Mariner; Schilling was a Phillie; Mark Grace was a Cub; Matt Williams was a Giant; Jay Bell was a Pirate. The team was as unnatural as Luis Gonzalez's 57 homers.)

I seriously hope the M's fight like hell to keep Johnson from winning #300 on their turf. If he does it anyway, hats off.

interesting... wakamatsu should start silva that day.

and i think that he will always be remembered as a mariner. he had his best years (or prizes) with arizona, but when you think of him you see him in a seattle uniform.

When I think back upon the big 3 that left, Randy, ARod, and Junior, couldn't you make an argument that Randy was the one most deserving of a Mariners' fan's sympathy? ARod left because he was offered an insane contract paying him roughly 25 million a year for 10 years. If ARod wasn't his own worst public relation's nightmare ("it wasn't about the money"), one could easily understand his leaving. Griffey was the most revered/beloved athlete in Seattle sport's history, so he had that going for him; but he did engineer his trade out of Seattle, even if it was for apparently family reasons, rather than being about the money.

In Randy's case, however, it seemed as if the franchise abandoned him, rather than the other way around. Sure, Randy could make Bedard seem a teddy-bear by comparison in his lack of congeniality and approachability, and one could have some resentment for him playing the "diva", and seemingly tanking his own performance before he was traded. I was always a little angry at the organization for not doing what they could to keep him in the fold. Though his back was a cause for concern (he missed most of the 1996 season), he was a true ace, and stormed back in 1997 with a 20-4 record, 2.28 ERA, and 291 strikeouts. Had not Roger Clemens had a similarly brilliant year on the mound, Randy would have earned his second Cy Young award with the Mariners.

I was listening to sports radio in Seattle, and I was a little surprised that callers expressed some lingering resentments for Randy. All personality and likeability issues aside, this guy worked on developing his game while he was with us, and by the time he left was one of the most dominating pitchers in the game. When you talk about 1995, the season that saved the franchise, he doesn't seem to get the credit/adulation players such as Griffey and Edgar get. He only went 18-2, with 294 strikeouts, an ERA of 2.48, and won the Cy Young award. I still get a chill when I remember him warming up in the bullpen to pitch the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings of game 5 of the playoffs against the Yankees.

Anyway...just some random thoughts.

Bulltalk, thanks for the memories. i'm always nostalgic about those mid 90's mariners' seasons...