Player #54F: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson. "The Big Train". Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1907-1927. 417 wins and 34 saves in 21 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1913 and 1924 AL Most Valuable Player. 3-time triple crown. 6-time AL wins leader. 5-time AL ERA leader. 12-time AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 2.17 in 5,914.1 innings pitched. He pitched a no-hitter in 1920. He holds the MLB record with 110 career shutouts. MLB All-Time Team. Inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1936. One of his best seasons was 1913 as he posted a record of 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 346 innings pitched.
We go back to pick up Deveaux's account of Johnson's contract developments before the 1915 season: There was only one thing to do (renege on his contract with the Chicago Federals and accept an offer from Washington), according to Clarke (Fred, Pittsburgh Pirates owner, Kansas resident, and Griffith emissary), and he soon had Walter in tears. It was arranged that he would meet Clark Griffith summarily. At that meeting, Johnson agreed to sign for Minor's $12,500. Walter got the Old Fox's word that he would do everything in his power to get the best pitcher in baseball a big increase after that. This is what happened, and Johnson was very satisfied the following year to sign a five-year agreement, good through the 1920 season, at $16,000 per.
For the moment, however, there was still for Clark Griffith the problem of paying Walter Johnson the $6,000 bonus he had been promised by the Chicago Federals. To match that, Griff approached Ban Johnson and tried to sell him on the importance of retaining Walter Johnson in the American League. The league's "emergency fund" had grown to nearly a half a million dollars, and surely, Grifith pleaded, this was an emergency. Despite the league's healthy resources, Ban Johnson initially turned him down.
Charles Comiskey was reportedly with Ban Johnson while the league prexy discussed the matter with Griffith over the telephone. Johnson, exasperated, asked to confer with Comiskey. Griffith impressed upon the tightwad owner that if Walter Johnson headed for Chicago, that would be formidable opposition for his White Sox. Then Comiskey agreed to cover the $6,000, and the deal was finally done. Johnson turned the bonus over to his brother Earl, who wanted to buy a garage back home in Coffeyville, Kansas.
The squabble over the contract was humiliating for Walter Johnson, as was related in the April 1915, issue of Baseball Magazine. In the detailed article, the letter Johnson had received from Nationals president Ben Minor was reprinted in its entirety. In the ten pages it took to explain why he had signed with the Federals, Walter admitted he had broken his contract with the Chicago outfit only because he felt that that would be less serious than the harm he would do to baseball in Washington, D.C. Damned if he did, and damned if he didn't, he had been humbled more than he ever could have been by actually playing the game he excelled at.
It is worth noting that it was at this time that the nickname Big Train originated. Bud Milliken wrote in the Washington Post that the "Big Train" had been prevented by "a storm" from getting to spring training on time, an allegorical reference to the pitcher's absence. Milliken reintroduced the moniker a couple of weeks later, and it got picked up by other writers. Still, it would be nearly a decade before it would be universally adopted. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)
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