Randy Johnson

This week's Diamond Conversations welcomes "The Original Unit", former MLB infielder, Randy Johnson. Randy's 40+ year career in pro baseball started with being drafted by the New York Mets in 1978 and took him on a wild ride through the minor leagues ultimately landing him in the place he would get his big break, in Atlanta with the Braves in 1982. But that is not the end of the story, "Rags" as he is known would play ball in Atlanta as well as try his hand at playing in Japan for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp where he would have one of his best seasons ever playing baseball. Johnson also worked as a scout for the Rockies, A's and Tigers and he shares his insight on the changes made in baseball over the last ten years and if he likes the evolution of the game.

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Episode Transcript

(00:17):
All right, let's get back inhere on Diamond Conversations. Of course,
every single week here on the CreativeControl podcast network, if you didn't know
by now, my name is IanAnd every single week we sit down and
we have a Diamond conversation with somebodyfrom the world of baseball. And this
week, of course it's no differentas we are sitting down to talk to
a familiar name, but it mightnot be who you're thinking of. And

(00:39):
I know that because he says iton his Twitter profile. I of course
I'm talking about former Major league orforty two years in professional baseball, mister
Randy Johnson joining me today. MisterJohnson, thanks so much for coming on.
Great to be here. Anne.I'm sure it's at tired an old
joke at this point, right,I don't need to say it with the

(01:00):
name, of course, being RandyJohnson. You of course came before the
Big Unit. You played Major LeagueBaseball before the Big Unit. Talk about
what it's like being mistaken possibly inname for somebody like Randy Johnson. The
Hall of Fame picture. Ah,it's inevitable that somebody's gonna say, didn't
you use to be a picture?And I'd say no, no, that
was the that was the big unit. I am the either original unit or

(01:25):
the little unit or Rags, whichis my midd nickname. But yeah,
I still get I get his baseballcards constantly. I always send them back
and say sorry to disappoint you,but I'm not the big unit. I'm
the former third baseman for the Braves. So yeah, it's it's gone on

(01:46):
my whole career. We actually trainedtogether in West Palm Beach when he was
with the Expos and I was withthe Braves. And if you want me
to talk here, I'm the letterI got from a young lady and in
West bomb Beach. I will.But it didn't help me with my first
marriage, I can tell you thatmuch. She h. She didn't want

(02:06):
to believe me that it wasn't forme, It was meant for the other
other. Randy Johnson, oh ohboy, that's uh, yeah, that's
an issue one. I don't knowhow much you have to talk about.
We can read between the lines,I think on that one. But I
hope, I hope. I wasalways hoping one day they'd send me one
of his checks accidentally. Hey,you can't mistake the name if it's in

(02:28):
black and white. It's got tobe the real thing. But yeah,
I like the original Randy Johnson Moore, and of course, and I think
of you. I do think ofthe early nineteen eighties Braves, those those
powder blue Brave uniforms of shining throughon a lot of those baseball cards.
But you know, but no,we're not going to look past the fact
that you spent so many years inprofessional baseball and of course seeing all the

(02:49):
changes, seeing everything, how it'sevolved to some say, some might say
it's devolved. Where do you kindof stand with how baseball's progressed over the
last forty years you've spent in thegame. Well, obviously it's changed.
I'm I'm an old school guy.I obviously had to app as well as
I could. Um, I'm nota fan of the all or nothing hitters.

(03:12):
Um. I'm one of the firstguys to mention that the Dave Kingman's
strikeout percentage was basically major league averageright now, and come to find out
that Reggie Jackson's is actually below average. So I'm not a fan of the
all or nothing. I'm not afan of the juice baseballs and the smaller
ballparks and the one swing, onerun is the motto nowadays, um it

(03:37):
lacks for action, excitement. Ilike it at the slow, slow pitched
softball for for the last ten years, and again, it was really hard
for me as a scout to toget excited about guys that you're hitting in
the low two hundreds but have somepower, but but don't don't walk and
strike out a ton, And Ijust I don't like to wear where the

(03:58):
baseball game is right now, themajor league level, and I'm hoping there's
there's a lot of there's a lotof talk from people like yourselves and other
people that are online that I wantedto go back to where it was with
the bat and the ball, action, hit and run, doubles and triples,
great defense. So it's it's evolvedto the point where I'm afraid to

(04:23):
say I don't watch much. Thisis my first year out of the game,
and sad to say, I'm notmissing it. I'm enjoying my retirements.
I'm more relaxed. It's been along time coming, and I hope
it. I hope it it comesfull circle or at least part way back
to where it used to be.And I think in the end it probably

(04:43):
will. I think we all kindof yearned for that, And of course
you're exactly right. You hit thenail right on the head, you know.
With the shows that I do,you know, I'm doing it as
a novice. I'm doing it asa fan that I'm talking to guys that
I grew up really liking, andI like that era. So I'm trying
to stick into that general time atime zone because I like to talk about
the old school way to play.There's no more strategy, you know,

(05:05):
there's no more really, you know, the good pitching beats good heat and
hit hitting. It's like the goodpitching is just dominating the bad hitting.
But where did you kind of seethe change happen over your years as a
scout? Uh? Probably started tento fifteen years ago. Um, you
know, pictures were seemed to beahead of the hitters more so than than

(05:28):
past years. Um, strikeout becameacceptable when in my era it was,
you know, it's the worst outcome. Now it's it's just uh, hang
with him. You know he didn'the at least he didn't hit into double
play or something to that, tothat source. But uh, it's it's
slowly gotten worse. And I again, I I blame it on the newer

(05:51):
ballparks. People don't understand how howshort the gaps are and most of these
ballparks now, and guys aren't evenhaving to wear the ball up to hit
home runs, and especially the oppositeway. It's in my era, when
guy take a ball the other way, it was they stayed behind it and
they drove it. And it's nowfly balls the other way, which are

(06:12):
supposed to be out or carrying outof the ballpark to right center and right
field for rights and left and leftcenter for lefty. So it's, uh,
it's it's really hard. I playedwith Dale Murphy and when he hit
a ball out the other way,it looked like a left handed line drive.
Um. And you really, youreally had to earn it the other
way. I don't think I evercame close to hit the ball out in
the opposite field and my career untilI went to Japan where the ballparks are

(06:34):
even smaller. So it's, uh, it's it's it's been happening for a
while. I mean, it's thebaseball's been different for the last fifteen twenty
years. Um. And when Istarted scouting and got to to Detroit and
standing behind home play just listening tothe different sound of the ball coming up
the bat. It's, uh,it made me wonder what the hecks inside

(06:57):
that ball? And it is whatit is now, I mean, it's
it's it's tough to pitch. It'samazing to see what some of these guys
are doing. But as they're teachinguphill swings and they're all they're at the
same time teaching their pictures to pitchup in the zone. So it's kind
of to me that that is thehammer on the nail is these younger,

(07:19):
number driven executives in development people arepreaching swing up on the ball. Yet
there's preaching to throw up with foursteamers to combat that. So it really
kind of it created its own messin my eyes, and that's I think
the main reason why the game iswhere it's at. It's it's simple as
that. Yeah, And also,you know, an influx of non baseball

(07:43):
people making baseball decisions and kind oftinkering a little too much with just the
basics of where everybody kind of youknow, what gets you to the dance,
and it's being tinkered with in sucha major way that we think back
to the late nineties, you know, with all the pe D talk and
the way the bald was flying offbecause guys were on performance enhancing drugs.
It's like, well they've kind ofmade that, uh in vogue. Now

(08:05):
the power is the is the allure. But now the pitching has become just
like on another level. Uh.It's kind of funny. It's like they
almost got to be at their owngame. Yeah they did. It's it's
uh, you know, they're they'reobviously throwing a hell of a lot harder
now than than they did in myday. Um, but what comes with
that is the lack of command anda lot of times lack of being able

(08:26):
to throw a secondary pitch for strikes. But you know, the elites are
the elite. The good pitches uptoday are obviously incredible and would dominate at
any time in baseball. Um,but some of the some of the better
hitter not the elite hitters. Iwonder how they would have fared in the
in the eighties and the early ninetiesand even before that. But the talent

(08:48):
level is, I think is betterthan this ever been. Uh. But
the way they're going about it isis different, and you know, you
lacked at slap hitter now or theguy that's testy that battles at the plate
and it makes pictures work thirl picture, you know, get him out of
the game early. It's just all, uh, you know, there's got

(09:09):
a lot of pictures now because there'sa lot of strikeouts. You don't very
often see the Ketty Loptin's of theworld, of Bret Butler's of the world.
Even to Tony Gwinns, there's there'sno more of those kind of hitters
around, and I can't figure itout. It's like people don't think Pete
Rose would have been good in today'sgame, or even Tony gwen To hear
to hear guys talk chat about thatonline, I just shake my head and

(09:31):
say, come on, that's yeah, that's that's blasphemy, to be quite
honest, that's absolutely ridiculous. Butyou mentioned something there and it's a part
of the story. I really wantto get over with talking to you.
Is your your play in Japan?And and I mean I've I've studied you
know, Japanese sports, and Iknow you know, coming from the world
of pro wrestling, how big prowrestling is in Japan, what kind of

(09:54):
a culture shock. Was it foryou to go over to play baseball in
Japan? And I think you startedwhat nineteen eighty seve then you made your
way over to Japan to play ball? Yeah, I aged. That was
my first year. I had playedin Triple A with Rick Lancelotti and Phoenix
and we both went to the sameteam to hear mccarp. That made it
a heck of a lot easier,being that I already knew Rick really well

(10:16):
and we had fun. But wewe shook our head most of the time
at the training and how hard theyworked and actually overworked. The way the
game was played was a bit different. It was to us the perfect the
perfect outcome was the tie game wherenobody loses his face. And sometimes I'd
turned around the infield and turned andlook out to wreck and left field and

(10:37):
just shake my head and say,say, what are we doing? We
were trying to We're trying to winthis game or were trying to tie it,
and it was it was frustrating attimes. It was frustrating for me
that I wasn't playing every day Iwas. I was actually chatty and if
I like I did with Bob Horner, but I was doing it for Sachio
Kinagasa that was breaking lou GARBS recordat the time. So I was leading

(11:03):
the team and hitting and the actuallya bench player. So it was frustrating.
And over there the home run waseverything. You'd go on the road
and hit two or three home runsor we even one home run, and
I would go and get twelve hitsand come back and Rick LAMPSILTI have a
locker full of prizes and I'd havenothing. It was kind of I got

(11:26):
an introductory introduction to that in Japanas to where the game is now,
and they expected the Americans to hitfor power, and they rewarded you when
you did. You know, heled the he led the league and home
runs and hit one night I thinkit was, and basically had I think

(11:46):
he had forty nine home runs inabout seventy five RBIs, which that doesn't
that doesn't equate to me. Andyou see that quite off of nowadays there
a guy twenty five runs and havefifty five or sixty ribbies, so obvious
they're not they're not they're not gettingfuch singles or doubles. They're they're missing
a lot of scoring opportunities with theapproach they have now. Yeah, Rick

(12:07):
hit thirty nine home runs in eightyYeah, thirty nine home runs in eighty
seven, and he hit two eighteen. You hit six home runs in eight
seven, but you hit three nineteen, so you hit literally a hundred points
better than he did. And youknow, I'm looking at that being like,
man, that's a great year,you know, and you probably thought
you were seeing like a beach ballevery time you step into the box.
So it's just kind of funny theway they treat it differently. But what

(12:28):
about the atmosphere of the games.You know, it seems like all the
excitement of every game feels like it'syou know, one regular season game is
a giant game. The way theytreat it well before soccer came big,
which was I think right after Iplayed there, it was it was the
spot you were a superstar over there, even if you weren't a really good

(12:50):
player. They loved the game.It's absolutely amazing to see the fans and
the way they get into the gamethere. There's costly cheerleading going on in
music being played for every hitter forboth teams. It was. It was
extraordinary, It was fun. Itwas one of the best experiences of my
life, and I'm glad I gotthe opportunity. I even was able to

(13:13):
go back and scout there a fewtimes after that, and I love the
country. It's amazing. Yeah,the sports over there is a basing.
I watched a documentary about Japanese baseballand the Americans going over that. It's
they had treated like royalty in someregard, you know, And obviously there's
a culture cultural difference in the waythe game's played. But you know,

(13:35):
if you can make it over there, you know, it seems like you
could have a pretty good career.You were there for two seasons. Did
you stay there, you know,longer than you needed to be or did
you get right back home to theStates after the season was over? No,
I mean the second year, Iactually got hurt, which was kind
of my m O. I hadtrouble staying healthy my whole career here in

(13:56):
college in the States in Japan.But no, I wasn't no heard you
get home. I mean I washomesick and it was a lot different back
then where um it cost you anarmored leg the phone home, So he
really didn't stay in touch much.It was obviously before the days of the
the being able to talk face toface on on a computer on a phone.

(14:18):
It's uh, it's a lot differentnow. He Actually, in my
case, I kind of felt likeI was losing out on being home.
I think it's a lot different nowwith how communication has changed and how everybody
is so close to each other bythe you know, this touch of a
of an iPhone or a computer.So it's it was tougher back then,

(14:41):
it really was. It was harder. Um, I ended up marrying my
first wife my second year. Thereactually no no ceremony, just went to
an embassy and plant some papers.No wow. So yeah, and then
we had some of the other playersthat are over there in the US from
the US put on a nice partyforce. That's true. Yeah, it
was. It was different. Itwas different back then than it is now.

(15:05):
It's a lot easier to go there, I think now and be away
from home for ten months instead ofnine months. It's a it's a longer
season or where they start spring earlierand they have that extra two or three
weeks where you play makeup games afterthe end of the season, so it's
quite a bit longer. Yeah,it really is. Geez, that did
not realize it was that long ofa of a time. Now, I'll

(15:26):
just go back to the beginning ifwe can. I did not realize that
you were drafted by the Mets,and that was to me, you know,
that's that's fascinating because I always thoughtof you coming through the Brave system
and to see you were drafted bythe Mets in nineteen seventy eight. Who
was the who was the official draftat that point, who was the farm
director for the Mets. I'm notone hundred percent sure, but um I

(15:52):
think he ended up becoming a GMlater on in his career. I really
draw on a blank on that,but yeah, I ended up getting drafted
by them. After a couple ofyears. It was utility infielder in Jackson,
Mississippi, and the Braves came tothem and wanted a third baseman in
double A, and the Jackson Metswanted another outcular, so they just made

(16:17):
a double A trade and it turnedout being the best thing that ever happened
to me. And I guess HankAaron was a farm director at the time
for the Braves, so he hada hand in getting me over to the
Braves, which turned my career around, it's hard to remember the other guy
when the other farm directors Hank Aaron, Yeah, I believe Joe McDonald was
the GM of the Mets and seventyeight, so that's why I was trying

(16:38):
to remember who the farm director was. But you go, you're drafted by
the Mets at a time where it'snot really a great place to be drafted.
It's kind of their their dark periodfrom about seventy seven to almost nineteen
eighty three eighty four, and youmade your way through the low end of
the Mets farm system and Jackson beingwhat it was, wasn't the most glamorous

(17:00):
place in the world to play.But what are some of your early minor
league memories. Well, I thinkthe first my first half season, I
was I was home from Sanjose State. I signed my contract and headed to
West Bomb Beats, Florida or Ithink it was West Bomb Beats could have
been Sarasota for their extended spring training, and they had a little mini camp

(17:22):
there for us, and a guyby the name if Chris Kegger was going
to be our manager, a littlefALS or who was the manager there.
He was in charge of the thetraining of the mini camp, and I
had never run that much in mylife. It was like I was getting
ready for a marathon, or wewere all getting ready for a marathon.
We were really weren't joining it,and we're double guessing our Mustrisian to sign

(17:45):
and they said this, if thisis baseball, this is gonna be It's
gonna be a long career. ButI ended up playing a few weeks in
Little Falls and then got called upto Wausau, Wisconsin. But it was
my first first six experience with humidweather and big storms. So I can
recollect one day going into a restaurantbefore going to the ballpark and it was

(18:07):
hot and humid out, went inand had lunch and I looked outside and
the rain was going sideways, andI'd never never experienced that in my life,
along with being completely silk and wetafter the end of the game,
from head to toe. Growing upin California, we didn't ever have to
deal with that. The new experiencefor me and going to Jackson, Mississippi,

(18:32):
which was the hottest place I've everbeen in my life for a year
and a half and then on toAtlanta, but a couple of years later
experiencing that heat again, but thatwas that was a big shot for me
as a change in the climate.And I always tell myself, I'm really
really elected. My parents moved fromOhio before I was born to California.

(18:56):
Yeah, it's a little bit differentthan that southern California weather. I actually
tell you the truth, I didn'teven remember the Mets having a farm team
in Wasaw, so I see Ilearned something new today, even as a
lifelong Met fan. But we've heardthat about Jackson. I can't remember who
else said it on the show,but somebody talked about how hot it was
in Jackson, and that's what Isaid. Not the most glamorous place because
that weather is so oppressive, Butin Atlanta obviously, you know, yeah,

(19:18):
you had some pretty hot summers aswell. How about, if you
can before we start to wrap itup, just talk about making your major
league debut with the Braves and whatthat felt like, finally getting the chance
to step on the old major leaguefield. Well, we started a season
fourteen and oh and I believe Iwas the only one on the roster that

(19:38):
didn't step foot on the field duringthose fourteen games. So it took me
a while to get my first abatand I believe I had what forty summit
bats my first year in Atlanta,and I was there basically the whole of
your year, So yeah, fortycents a bats. So I know my
first a bat was against with agood curveball and I'm drawn a blank right

(20:02):
now and who it was. ButI ended up striking out, which was
a rarity for me. If youlook at my numbers, I think I
struck out about eight percent of thetime, and that was you know,
I didn't didn't get much opportunity thatyear, but I was really happy that
I got the stay of the wholeyear and I get a years experience and
then I learned from it. Iplayed very hard and warm ups and did

(20:23):
my thing. And the following year, when Horner got hurt, was when
I actually got a chance to playa little bit. How was Joe Torre
as a manager at that point,I couldn't imagine there being a better players
manager. He was super. Hewas still pretty young at the time,
probably was only about fifteen years olderthan than most of the players, and

(20:48):
it was great, you know,as far as it's strategist, I don't
know. He was the only majorLeague manager I had, So we had
good years all three years. SoI was really surprised when I let him
go, And had he not beenlet go, I'm sure I would have
got a couple more years in.Yeah, he was only about forty years
old. I think when he gotto the Braves he was only a few

(21:10):
years off of being a player manageras well. He still had his hand
in the you know, in thegame from both sides of it. But
yeah, those teams, you know, you guys, you had some You
had a really good year at eightythree. I mean, you guys won
eighty eight games. It's a it'sa pretty good season. But how do
you kind of approach being in areserve role? Do you just have to
be ready at any moment or areyou just kind of knowing you'll get called

(21:32):
on at some point, just matterof which game it's going to be.
Well, I was. I wasactually a bench player in Double A with
the Mets for a year and ahalf before I got traded, And that's
the only time I'd ever played regularly. Was was the second half of that
nineteen eighties season, and then eightyone I played probably eighty percent of the

(21:55):
season as a regular after a thirdbaseman got hurt and gave him my big
chance. But I actually was perfectto be in that role. I made
you know, I had a shortswing, I didn't strike out, I
battled pitchers. I could play thirdbase, second base, first base.
I was the third catcher all threeyears in Atlanta, so I was one

(22:17):
of the earlier on guys that couldplay everywhere. And I went there really
for my bat, except that Idid fairly well against lefties. But I
see there's more and more of thosekind of players now, and you look
at the Dodgers. They've got somany different different guys they can plug in
at different positions, and I thinka lot of teams are trying to do
the same thing or probably trying tofollow that. But I just think I

(22:41):
was room for that, and Ithink and it showed when I played every
day. I might have been overexposed when I was in there every day.
So I think I was I wasbest served as as a guy off
the bench or a role player andfeeling when guys got hurt. I was
actually I was watching game preparing forour interview today, where you came into

(23:03):
pinch hit in the ninth and unfortunately, you know that you made the last
out. But what you're saying aboutyour short swing was shown so much on
display in that at bat that itlooked like it was dropping, but it
just hung up a little bit inthe in the center field and made the
play. But you hit it rightthere. And it was like, man,
this is how you could tell somebodylike yourself as an expert in this
position. And you know, I'mlooking at your nineteen eighty three numbers,

(23:25):
you know, used as a pinchhit or thirty two times. You know
they call on you for a reason, and uh, yeah, that's quite
the you know, it's quite forone short at bat that I was watching,
it was pretty It was pretty impressive. Yeah, I mean I probably
could have hit for more power ifI if, I mean, I can
have golf ball three hundred and thirtythree hundred forty yards. I just hated.
I hated to strike out, andI could never do what the hit

(23:49):
hit or due today with the bigleg kick, I couldn't even do that
in slow softball. It was itwas hard for me to time the ball
with the leg kick. And Ijust am amazed that these guys can do
that. Uh, at a majorLeague level with guys stall on ninety five
to one hundred miles an hour andthen having to adjust to something soft.
But I think because it's it's mostlypower pictures now and it gives them a

(24:11):
better chance. I think the junkballers or the off speed guys, uh
would would give a lot of thesebig hitters that are all or nothing,
all kinds of troubles. But beingthe strike zone being what it is now,
it's so much smaller than an ourera that it's it's it's been I
think, easier on the hitters tosome extent, and harder on the pictures,
and it's I would have liked tohit right now, I'll tell you

(24:34):
that much. I'd rather watch awhole gaggle of the players from my generation
of watching come up and take acouple of swings in some of the times.
I'm watching the real professional game rightnow because I yearned for that old
school style of play, and I'msure you do as well. All Right,
before we say goodbye, you knowI'm following you on Twitter as we

(24:55):
speak at I am Rags. Beforewe say goodbyes, is there anything else
you'd like to leave us with onyour way out. I appreciate you taking
the time to talk to me.Everything to baseball. It's the greatest support
in the world, even as itis now, it's it's been my life
and I'm very very grateful. Igot a chance to play a kid's game

(25:18):
and work in a kids game mywhole life. So I'm very lucky that
I was able to to get fortytwo years in and the professional game.
Absolutely, and I appreciate you takingthe time here to speak with me today,
and maybe again we could have thischat in the future. See,
maybe the game can change a littlebit, maybe we can get back to
basics at some point. So ifanybody wants to follow me on social media,

(25:40):
it's at chad em b on Twitterand Instagram. And again, just
so happy to be joined by RandyJohnson today. So for everybody here listening,
we appreciate you and we will catchyou on the flip side. Hey,
it's your old buddy. The chatsare from Ice up here with Francine,
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(26:48):
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