{"id":1234,"date":"2009-05-28T08:53:08","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T15:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/28\/the-impact-of-a-big-mac-on-the-big-unit\/"},"modified":"2009-05-28T09:08:35","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T16:08:35","slug":"the-impact-of-a-big-mac-on-the-big-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/28\/the-impact-of-a-big-mac-on-the-big-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of a Big Mac on the Big Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Randy Johnson is one of the most accomplished pitchers of the Steroid Era.\u00c2\u00a0 What does that say about him?\u00c2\u00a0 More importantly, what does it say about us?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>Last night, Randy Johnson, that tall holdover from an era bereft of pitch counts, that embodiment of intimidation, that mainstay of modern baseball, won his 299th career game.\u00c2\u00a0 He allowed three hits and one earned run while striking out six over six innings against the Atlanta Braves.\u00c2\u00a0 One more victory and Johnson collects that magical number 300.\u00c2\u00a0 The dominant pitcher of his era, Johnson is without a doubt a Hall-of-Famer; 300 victories will simply solidify his place in baseball lore.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, there remains one minor issue, Johnson pitched in the Steroid Era.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like any other player of this time period, Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career will be vulnerable to suspicion and doubt.<\/p>\n

As time passes, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m increasingly convinced that the defining image of this era isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to be some monstrous moon shot of a homerun, the abnormally large head of Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro defiantly wagging his finger at Congress, or even Alex Rodriguez speaking frankly to Peter Gammons while dressed in his royal blue sweater.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to remember a somewhat leaner Mark McGwire, gray peppering his once orange beard, in a pale green tie, dodging the questions and asserting that he did not come here to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153talk about the past.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 As baseball fans, the more we kick over the rocks of the past, the more uncertain we become of the present.<\/p>\n

In the May 25, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated, Tom Verducci produced a wonderful retrospective of Randy <\/a>Johnson.\u00c2\u00a0 Hidden somewhere in the midst of the hyperbole and hubris that comprise Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character, the 45-year-old pitcher says, that he \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dabbled in all kinds of powders and tried to put weight on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 He goes on, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I took a lot of different things that, you know, maybe at that time, maybe early enough, if I would have been tested, who knows? I could have been taking stuff had they tested me back then. Maybe I would have tested [positive for a banned supplement]. I don’t know.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an admission of guilt like that of Alex Rodriguez, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far from a denial.<\/p>\n

<\/a>As a Yankee fan, I never rooted for Johnson, but I certainly appreciated what I saw.\u00c2\u00a0 In the 1995 ALDS, his virtuoso performance: picking up two wins\u00e2\u20ac\u201done in the key relief appearance of the series in the tenth and eleventh innings of game five\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhile allowing three earned runs and striking out 16, cut me deep.\u00c2\u00a0 In the 2001 World Series, as a Diamondback, he and Curt Schilling ripped out my heart.\u00c2\u00a0 When he joined New York in 2005, his 4.37 ERA and .642 winning percentage were by no means bad, they just did not live up to expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover, Johnson always seemed gruff, aloof, recalcitrant. As opposed to fireballers of previous eras, he just seemed inaccessible.\u00c2\u00a0 Nevertheless, he was a singular, once-in-a-lifetime talent.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longevity will ultimately define his career.\u00c2\u00a0 As Verducci put it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He has more wins in his 40s than he did in his 20s.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 In this era of questionable numbers and bulked up athletes, that longevity is going to draw some negative attention to an otherwise impressive career.\u00c2\u00a0 How does someone in his late 40s still touch 95 mph?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not accusing Johnson of anything, I am just curious to see how all of this goes down.\u00c2\u00a0 Will some intrepid reporter look into Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past and his patronage of GNC?\u00c2\u00a0 Will some long last trainer or drug test surface as Johnson nears retirement and Cooperstown?\u00c2\u00a0 Or does Johnson record his 300th win and stroll leisurely into baseball Elysium clean as a whistle?\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, the shadow of Big Mac hangs over Johnson as much as it obscures most of baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always going to look at the numbers from this decade slantwise, never fully trusting what we saw.\u00c2\u00a0 The legacy of Randy Johnson is not the first and certainly will not be the last to suffer due to the sins of others.\u00c2\u00a0 A <\/a>veritable asterisk will always exist next to numbers put up in this decade: 300 wins, 762 career home runs, and maybe even Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strikeout total of 4843 and counting.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really nothing we can do about it except follow McGwire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice and force ourselves to move forward.<\/p>\n

Mark McGwire once appeared on an episode of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Simpsons,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where it is revealed that Major League Baseball used satellite technology to spy on the residents of Springfield.\u00c2\u00a0 McGwire appears and exclaims, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you want to hear all about the spying or do you want to see me hit some dingers?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Springfield resoundingly opts for the dingers.\u00c2\u00a0 So did we.\u00c2\u00a0 All it cost us was our peace of mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randy Johnson is one of the most accomplished pitchers of the Steroid Era.\u00c2\u00a0 What does that say about him?\u00c2\u00a0 More importantly, what does it say about us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t