Randy Johnson has signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, and that’s good news for baseball fans by the bay. Even at 45, The Big Unit has some good games left in that 6′10″ frame. The move to the Giants will be a bit of a homecoming for Johnson, who grew up nearby in Livermore, Calif. He’s aiming to reach 300 career victories (he needs five), and I suspect the Giants hope in between starts he’ll be able to tutor Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and the other young pitchers on staff.
Johnson is a thoroughly modern superstar in that he’s hopped from team to team in this era of free agency. He came up with the Montreal Expos and spent several years with the Seattle Mariners, although I can’t recall ever having seen him pitch in the Kingdome when I lived there. He played briefly for the Houston Astros in 1998 (a stretch of his career I can’t remember at all) before signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had some great years there, jumped to the New York Yankeees for 2005-06 before returning to Phoenix.
The MLB Web site didn’t waste any time posting a picture of Johnson in his new orange-and-black threads and cap. The Giants will have an excellent pitching staff in 2009. Now if they could only add a power hitter or two, then they’d really have something.
4 responses so far ↓
Joe Cortez // February 5, 2009 at 11:50 pm |
Dan,
I’m wondering if that’s truy a Giants cap on his head, or if they doctored a Diamondbacks cap. The reason I ask? Notice the gray underneath the bill. All new 59Fifty Major League Baseball caps have are black under the bill (something about cutting down glare). Personally, I prefer the gray. Just something to think about.
ballcaps // February 6, 2009 at 7:28 am |
I was suspicious myself. That mug was up almost instantly.
I kind of miss the pre-digital days, when Topps would crudely remove from a baseball card the logo from the cap of a guy who got traded over the winter.
Ken Griffey Jr. returns to the Seattle Mariners… « The Ball Caps Blog // February 19, 2009 at 7:56 am |
[...] can see the catch at the start of this Griffey highlight reel posted on mlb.com. That’s Randy Johnson, the Big Unit, on the pitching mound. I believe No. 29 at the plate for the Yanks is Jesse Barfield [...]
Let’s go, Big Unit! « The Ball Caps Blog // June 2, 2009 at 8:36 am |
[...] will be wearing the orange and black of the San Francisco Giants tonight. No matter what cap he’s worn, he’s been a dominant [...]