“Big Unit” Randy Johnson retires after 22 seasons, a 300 game winner.

San Francisco Giants Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson, who was virtually unmatched in his ability to intimidate and dominate hitters, announced his retirement from baseball during a Tuesday evening conference call.

Johnson relied on a fastball ranging between 95-100 mph and a hard slider through much of his 22-year career to gather numerous accolades, including five Cy Young Awards and 10 All-Star selections. His statistical dossier bulges with notable accomplishments: 4,875 strikeouts, topped only by Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 on the all-time list; a 303-166 career record, which made him the 24th pitcher in Major League history to exceed the 300-win plateau; and two no-hitters, one of which was a perfect game at Atlanta on May 18, 2004.

Johnson, 46, combined style and substance as few others could. Other pitchers threw hard, but they lacked Johnson’s 6-foot-10 frame that made his deliveries appear downright wicked. Other pitchers were physically imposing, but Johnson’s snarling demeanor cowed opponents before they stepped in the batter’s box against him.

“Ten years from now, he could be 55 and throwing only 85 mph, but it doesn’t matter,” San Francisco Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand said. “He’s not only an imposing figure on the mound; he’s as intense and competitive as anybody who has ever laced up a pair of spikes and toed the rubber. He’s out to not only beat you one pitch at a time. He’s out to prove a point with every pitch he throws.”

The point Johnson wanted to make was that he wasn’t just another fireballer or physical freak. He dedicated himself to the art of pitching, and he wanted his performances to reflect that.

Said Scott Bradley, who caught Johnson early in his career with the Seattle Mariners, “Randy didn’t want to be known just as the 6-foot-10 pitcher who threw hard. He wanted to have the same game plan as Greg Maddux.”

Johnson’s competitiveness was reflected most vividly in his postseason appearances. Facing the Yankees in the 1995 ALDS, he struck out six batters in three innings of relief with one day’s rest in Game 5 to help Seattle advance to the LCS. “To see him stride in from the bullpen was pretty phenomenal,” said Dan Wilson, Johnson’s primary catcher at the time. “It exemplified the tenacity he had.”

Pitching for Arizona in the 2001 World Series against the Yankees, Johnson started and won Game 6 before working 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief the next night as the D-backs scored their clinching triumph. “You kind of take it for granted at the time, but that just shows you what kind of teammate he was,” then-Arizona catcher Damian Miller said. “He wasn’t all about Randy Johnson. He was for his teammates as well.”

Johnson demonstrated this trait until the very end. Last season with the Giants, the “Big Unit” urged his fellow starting pitchers to adopt his refuse-to-lose philosophy. It was no accident that Matt Cain, 15-30 in 2007-08, made the National League All-Star team; that Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive Cy Young Award; that Barry Zito, known for uneven efforts in his previous two Giants seasons, pitched well enough for the team to win 18 of his 33 starts; and that Jonathan Sanchez, prone to inconsistency as Johnson was early in his career, no-hit San Diego on July 10.

“He’s not a first-three-inning guy. He plays all the innings,” Cain said last year. “He pitches the first inning the same as the seventh inning. He’s not a guy that slows down toward the end of the game. Even at his age, he’s still sharp later on in the game and I think that has a lot to do with his mental approach.”

Johnson might have gone down in history as a mere curiosity were it not for an August 1992 chat with Ryan, who was close to finishing his Hall of Fame career with the Texas Rangers. Ryan suggested some mechanical adjustments and provided encouragement to Johnson, whose performances were wildly erratic. For instance, from 1990-92, Johnson struck out 663 batters but walked 416, nullifying his imposing stuff.

In 1993, Johnson finished 19-8 with a 3.24 ERA for Seattle. From then on, excellence was his near-constant companion. That season, said Mariners catcher Dave Valle, was when Johnson “turned the corner and became the most dominant pitcher in the game. Not only the most dominant but also the most feared.”

The end of Johnson’s career may have been hastened by a strained throwing shoulder which he sustained last July 5 against Houston. Johnson returned to the Giants in September and made five relief appearances, but indicated that he wouldn’t want to continue playing unless he could start.

After enduring back surgeries in 2007 and 2008, Johnson finished 8-6 with a 4.88 ERA for San Francisco last year in what proved to be his final season. He secured win No. 300 in a 5-1 Giants triumph at Washington on June 4, yielding only an unearned run and two hits in six innings during the first game of a doubleheader.

Johnson filed for free agency this offseason but prompted little or no interest on the open market. Asked in a conference call with Giants beat reporters earlier Tuesday whether any chance existed of bringing back Johnson for the 2010 campaign, San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean expressed doubts about the hurler’s willingness to remain active. “I don’t know what his penchant is to keep pitching,” Sabean said, adding that he had not spoken with Johnson’s agents. Re-signing Johnson, Sabean said, was “not an option at this point.”

The Giants were Johnson’s sixth team. After breaking into the Majors with the Montreal Expos in 1988, Johnson was traded to Seattle in May, 1989. The Mariners sent him to Houston before the 1998 Trade Deadline. The following year, Johnson began the first of his two stints with Arizona (1999-2004 and 2007-08). Johnson also spent 2005-06 with the New York Yankees.

Johnson likely will next be heard from as a first-ballot selection to the 2015 class of the Hall of Fame.

By Chris Haft / MLB.com

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