Don Johnson
Donald R. "Don" Johnson. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1951-1952. 27 wins and 12 saves in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the New York Yankees in 1947 and 1950. His best season was 1954 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted an 8-7 record with an ERA of 3.13 in 144 innings pitched. He finished his career with the San Francisco Giants in 1958.
Excerpt from Johnson's SABR biography: Johnson spent a little over two years in the military, moving to the Army of Occupation in Japan. Discharged before the 1947 season and still only twenty-one-years old, he reported to Yankees spring training on a plane carrying celebrities Joe DiMaggio and Jack Dempsey, and another rookie, Yogi Berra, who was wearing Navy fatigues because “he didn’t have any other clothes.”
The upstart Johnson made the 1947 Yankees out of spring training. During the season he was befriended by DiMaggio, whom he called “the best player I ever saw in my life.” The six-foot-three, 200-pound Johnson made his Major League debut in the second game of a doubleheader on April 20, starting against the Philadelphia Athletics in Philadelphia. It was a memorable appearance; the Yankees won in ten innings, 3–2, and Johnson pitched all ten innings to earn the victory. “I was throwing good,” he remembered.
Six days later Johnson followed his debut with another complete-game victory, this time 3–1 over the Washington Senators. The good fortune did not last, however. On May 3 Johnson yielded six runs in just four innings while losing to the Chicago White Sox. After that, manager Bucky Harris used him sparingly, with mixed results. Following a June 29 win, he pitched only eight more times during the season and finished with a record of 4-3.
Johnson blamed his limited usage in the second half of the season on Charlie Dressen, one Harris’s coaches. “Charlie Dressen went and said, ‘Don, you’re lifting your leg too high.’ I said, ‘Stick it man! I’ve got four wins.’ I didn’t pitch much after that. If you talk back to some of these big shots, you don’t pitch anymore. That’s it.”
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1626862967
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1626862977