Randy Johnson is not only one of the greatest pitcher of all time, but he also had swagger most of us never knew existed. On Tuesday night this clip of Eduardo Perez talking about Johnson from the 2018 College World Series resurfaced, and a funny anecdote about The Big Unit’s pitched tendencies got a lot of attention.
Randy Johnson let everyone know what he was throwing, and was still unhittable
Did you know Randy tipped pitches his whole career?
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
There is no reason to doubt this is true, because it truly wouldn’t surprise me if Randy just didn’t care enough to attempt any pitch subterfuge. You reach a point where you’re so dominant, so unhittable, that you’re playing Major League Baseball with cheat codes turned out. That’s how it felt when Johnson took the mound a lot of the time.
According to Perez, Johnson would close his glove around the ball when he was throwing a fastball, and leave it open when throwing his signature slider. There was also a sinker, though less often than his other two pitches — and we don’t know if he had a special tip for that one too.
Either way, this is just astonishing. There is absolutely no way batters didn’t pick up on this, but who is going to admit it? Nobody wants to be the player who says “I knew exactly what Randy was about to throw and couldn’t hit it anyway.” So it just hangs around as a big secret nobody wants fans to learn about.
Of course, the subject of pitch tipping was a big one on Tuesday night as people began to ponder if the Phillies were keying in on a Lance McCullers tell.
McCullers says he wasn’t tipping, not that he’d admit it following a brutal World Series loss, but for now we can just enjoy thinking about Randy letting hitters know his plans for years on end, and still being a monster.
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