Walter Johnson: The Dominance of Baseball's Big Train

[00:00:00] On July 22, 1923, one of the greatest pictures that's often forgotten about Walter Johnson becomes the first picture to ever strike out 3,000 betters. And that's not all he did as he continued his success throughout his career, putting up numbers that many thought were impossible in the modern era.

[00:00:24] Here's the story behind Walter Johnson, today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I mean, then Reese, you're a guide to a deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is what record does Walter Johnson still

[00:00:48] hold in Major League Baseball after almost 100 years since he last played? Now Walter Johnson was born in Kansas in 1887 to a big farm family. And he was the second of six kids. But when he became a teenager, his family moved from Kansas to California and search

[00:01:08] of a better life. And this is where Walter really made a name for himself in baseball as with his high school team. He won time struck out 27 batters in a 15 in-game. And he continued the success when he joined the Idaho State League where he worked for

[00:01:26] a telephone company and played for their team. And he was spotted by a Washington Senator Scout. In the 1907, he finally signed with the Washington Senators at the age of 19. Now, the crazy thing is if you ever watched Walter Johnson pitch, he has the most effortless pitching motion.

[00:01:44] A very different than when you would see today. And his style of pitching is mainly with his elastic arm and doesn't use a whole lot of his lower body. Just takes an easy step and has his arm to about a three-force throw with not a whole

[00:01:58] lot of elbow involved. And even with this unique unorthodox style of throwing, as it would be considered today, it's estimated he threw the ball anywhere between 91 and 95 miles an hour at the time. Which at the time they didn't have radar guns to really tell the exact time.

[00:02:16] But they would use S. and based on how long the ball took to leave his hand to the catchers mid. Now, the reason why that is significant is because at the time, pitchers were pitching

[00:02:28] closer to 80 miles an hour rather than in the 90s what we're used to today. We had just come into the modern era pitching which has changed a lot. And his fastball was very overwhelming.

[00:02:39] As Ty Cobb once said, Walter Johnson was the most threatening site he had ever saw on the ball field. He was powerful arm that had ever been turned loose in a ballpark.

[00:02:50] Now one thing he did really well, now is similar to a previous episode we did on Nolan Ryan was he pitched well despite his team not being that great, which was an issue that Nolan Ryan also had.

[00:03:03] And we also talked about the Washington senators in the previous episode where they bounced around and eventually ended up becoming the Atlanta Braves. Despite this challenge with the team, he had 12 seasons where he won over 20 games including 10 he did in a row.

[00:03:20] And twice he topped 30 wins in 1912 and 1913 where he had an earned run average of 1.4 in 1913 which is the fourth lowest ever recorded at the time. And it's still today the sixth lowest ERAP for a season in 1913 he won 36 games which

[00:03:42] was equivalent to 40% of the total wins for the team. But after pitching for over 17 years in the major leagues, the Washington senators actually put everything together and made it to the world series in 1924 allowing him the chance to pitch to win a championship.

[00:04:01] But he didn't have success as he lost those first two games and then the deciding game 7 he came back to pitch in relief pitching for scoreless innings in a game that went to extra innings giving Washington and Johnson their first world series title.

[00:04:18] What's it Walter Johnson apart from other pitchers was his strike out ability. Yes, he had a strong arm which allowed him the chance to strike out even more hitters. And the most strikeouts he ever had in the season was 313 strikeouts and he averaged

[00:04:34] over 167 strikeouts his entire career and he finished his career with 3,500 and 8 strikeouts. A record that stood until 1973 when it was passed by Nolan Ryan. He has since been passed by seven other players all of which are in the whole of fame

[00:04:55] except for Roger Clemens but he still sits at number 9 all time on the strikeout list. And he joined Saeyang as becoming the only pitchers to ever win more than 400 games as he finished his career with 417 wins behind Saeyang's 551 and the current leader in

[00:05:16] the major league baseball in major league baseball for wins is just some verlander at 260. And he finished his career with 110 shotouts which means you completed the entire game and did not give up a single run.

[00:05:33] A record that he still holds to this day and one that will like the never be broken as baseball has changed as pitchers pitch much less complete games. So when his career was finished he had a career ERA of 2.17 was a two time MVP won

[00:05:51] the pitching triple crown three times leading in wins ERA and strikeouts led the American League and strikeouts for 12 seasons and despite having 110 career shotouts only pitched one no hitter in his life on July 1st, 1920. But he was not done when he retired in 1927 after 21 years of playing baseball.

[00:06:16] He moved right into managing the Washington Senators and would move on to manage the Cleveland Indians for a couple years as well having a winning percentage as a manager of 550. And he was winning the original Hall of Fame members in the inaugural class along with

[00:06:33] Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Horne S Wagner, Kristi Matthewson and he deserved to be the best pitcher. He's often forgot about pitching lore as Siong has the award named after him for the best pitcher in league and water Jones, most of his records have been broken and only has

[00:06:51] that one championship. So his legacy is as strong but when you dive into who he was as a player, a guy that pitched as often as he could with little to no injuries and is still on the top list

[00:07:05] for baseball players all time but we often forget about him when listing the best pitchers that ever lived. But even more so, he was a great sportsman and even a friend of your friend as he would

[00:07:15] give up hits to his friends regularly to allow them to enjoy the game as well. And that's a little bit about Walter Johnson today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have a topic you would like us to cover please leave us a review wherever you're

[00:07:27] listening or go to dailysporthistory.com, leave us a voicemail or message there what sport or event you want us to cover and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question?

[00:07:42] What record does Walter Jones still hold to this day? The answer is complete game shutouts with 110. A record that will probably never be broken.