Quote:
Originally Posted by Hankphenom
BTW, Brian, you should also ask for forgiveness from Hank Thomas!
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None required, Val or Brian. Although I never mind making his case, Walter's record speaks for itself. I love this quote from Clyde Milan from "Walter Johnson: King of the Pitchers."
"Tell you about Walter? I can tell you this. If I were manager of a team that had one game to play--the one most important ball game in all the world to play--and the good Lord called down and said, 'Milan, you can choose your own pitcher for this. Jut tell us what you want and we'll make up a pitcher to fit your specifications. He can have Matty's curve, or Rusie's speed, or Griffith's shrewdness and anything else you want.' Well, if that happened, I'd say never mind the specifications. Don't make me up anything fancy. Just send me Walter Johnson when he was about twenty-six years old, and you don't have to add even one little item. He'll do for me, thank you kindly."[/QUOTE]
It may be apocryphal but I remember reading a story where a batter, after taking three strikes from Johnson, turned to the umpire and said, the third one sounded low.
And I wish I could find an analysis I read a long time ago about how many wins Johnson and Mathewson would have had had they switched teams. A bit artificial no doubt, but I think Johnson gained 50 or so wins.