The Cubs were assembling in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to board the team bus to Shea Stadium. The late Moe Berg, a former reserve catcher who spoke seven languages and in recent years has become somewhat of a cult hero for his spying activities during World War II, was at my side.
I said to him, “Moe, would you like to meet some of the players?”
“No,” he said.
Why not?
Thirty years later and I still can hear his reply: “Because they think it all started with them.”
Berg’s words leaped to mind Monday night during a pregame interview with pitcher Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners, baseball’s reigning strikeout king who last Thursday came within one victory of equaling the American League record for consecutive victories, 16.
If Berg had known Johnson he would have given him a bear hug, especially after Johnson observed, “Without the players (who have gone before) baseball wouldn’t be what it is today.”
Johnson went on to explain that sluggers Mark McGwire of Oakland and Ken Grifffey Jr., his Seattle teammate, wouldn’t be chasing the one-season home run records set by such ancients as Babe Ruth and Roger Maris.
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And if not for Luke Appling, the White Sox shortstop who batted .388 in 1936, it would not have been possible to claim Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners last season had the best all-around offensive year of any shortstop in baseball history. Records are meaningless without a basis for comparison.
“The players from the ’20s through the ’60s set the stage for today’s players,” Johnson said.
I told him he was the first player I had heard express these views. Most of them, as Moe Berg was aware, had little, if any, curiosity or respect for baseball history.
Johnson also revealed there are times when he wishes he would have pitched in the 1920s and 1930s when Ruth and Lou Gehrig were in their prime. He insists many players secretly harbor this desire.
“It would be fun to go back and find out,” he said. “I’d like to know what the lifestyle was, what it was like riding the trains and what the players did in the clubhouse before gametime.”
I told him if he had pitched in the 1920s and ’30s and even as late as the ’40s and ’50s, he would be an even bigger standout than he is today. The hitters are stronger and tougher than ever. The batting stars of yesteryear, with very few exceptions, hit against comparatively mediocre pitching.
Whatever, this is a debate for the ages and may never be settled but there is no doubt today’s pitchers, on an average, throw much harder than their predecessors. Johnson’s fastball has been timed at 100 m.p.h. More often than not, it comes in at 93-96 m.p.h.
Johnson is a strong competitor but not without a fault. Opposing hitters sometimes dig in at the plate because he isn’t a knockdown pitcher. Still, when the occasion demands he will come inside, just not too far inside. Above all, he doesn’t want to hit anybody.
At 6-feet-10-inches, Johnson is the tallest player in baseball history. Some bibliophiles insist Eric Hillman, an obscure pitcher with the New York Mets, was also 6-10.
“There have been arguments about that,” said David Aust, the Mariners’ principal spokesman. “I get around it by saying, `There has never been a pitcher taller than Randy Johnson.’ “
But there can be no denying Johnson is the most terrifying.
Frank Thomas of the White Sox said: “Nobody is anxious to get in there and hit against him.”
Johnson is also tallest in the strikeout department, the only pitcher with more strikeouts than innings pitched. Going into his Tuesday start against the Brewers, he has 1,769 strikeouts in 1,568 innings, a nine-inning 10.15 average. Nolan Ryan is second at 9.59, Sandy Koufax third at 9.28.
“I’ve been a strikeout pitcher most of my career,” Johnson said. “But that’s not very important to me. When people say Randy Johnson they think of strikeouts but I want to be remembered as a guy who gave his all every time he went out there. I want my bottom line to read, `All he wanted to do was win.’ “
Moe Berg would have been delighted to meet him.