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Johnson was intense and combustible. When it was his turn to pitch, the edge in the left-hander’s attitude was severe enough that even teammates kept their distance.
Wilson, cerebral and businesslike, approached his craft in a low key that earned the trust of high-maintenance pitchers.
Opposite forces were at work, and the amalgamation was as dependably adept as, well, a battery.
Johnson and Wilson on Tuesday were named to the Mariners’ Hall of Fame, where they’ll join Alvin Davis (1997), Dave Niehaus (2000), Jay Buhner (2004) and Edgar Martinez (2007). While the field-entry selection of Johnson and Wilson hardly ranked as an upset, the news of their simultaneous induction – they’ll be honored on July 28, before the Mariners face the Royals at Safeco Field – was a surprise as pleasant as it was fitting.
“I recently was asked how many catchers I had during the course of my career, and I think it was around 15,” Johnson told reporters on a teleconference call with Wilson. “But two of them caught most of my games: Dan Wilson and Damian Miller.
“Both of them understood what I was about and knew how to get the most out of me. They had a major impact on my career.”
Wilson had appeared in only 48 big-league games before the Mariners acquired him in a deal with the Reds during the winter of 1993.
“I had a chance to catch Rob Dibble a little bit in Cincinnati, and he threw 100 miles per hour, but I’d never caught somebody like Randy,” Wilson said.
“With his fastball and slider, not too many left-handers were successful against him. There wasn’t a lot of mystery. We knew there’d be eight or nine right-handers in the other team’s lineup, and we came up with gameplans that made for some of the great afternoons I had during the course of my career.
“He’d face nine right-handers and finish with 18, 19 or 20 strikeouts. Guys would flinch at the plate. I can still see Rex Hudler tipping his cap after Randy made him look silly. You don’t get that with an average pitcher.”
Because Johnson is regarded as the best pitcher in franchise history, and Wilson the best catcher, their time together seems longer than it was. Still, between Wilson’s quiet arrival in Seattle and Johnson’s controversial departure 41/2 years later, the battery was an indispensable cog of the team that preserved big-league baseball in Seattle.
If the prevailing memory of Johnson in the Kingdome was his Sunday-night stroll from the bullpen in Game 5 of the 1995 Division Series against the Yankees, his favorite Mariners’ moment was the ninth-inning strikeout that clinched the AL West seven days earlier.
“It really kind of came full circle that day,” Johnson said of the one-game playoff against the Angels. “I faced Mark Langston for the first time in that game. He was the pitcher the Mariners traded to Montreal for Brian Holman, Gene Harris and me. I look back on those things now and kind of smile.”
As does Wilson, whose embrace of Johnson remains the indelible symbol of a magical year.
“When you boil a whole season down to one game and are able to come out on top, there really isn’t any better feeling,” he said. “To strike out Tim Salmon on a slider and run out and give your pitcher a big hug, for me that was the finest moment of my Mariners career. It was the culmination of a lot of team-oriented things.”
Johnson went on to win four Cy Young Awards with the Diamondbacks, in addition to a ring from the 2001 World Series, of which he was named co-MVP with Curt Schilling. Don’t be a shocked if his Hall of Fame plaque finds him in wearing an Arizona cap – he’ll be consulted for an opinion, although it’s the Hall’s call – but whatever team Johnson is affiliated with in Cooperstown, he credits the Mariners for giving him the opportunity to excel.
A chance meeting with Texas pitching coach Tom House late in the 1992 season turned Johnson from a hard-throwing project into a beast. A fellow product of USC, House saw Johnson in front of the visitors’ dugout at the Kingdome and called him over for a chat. The chat turned technical and presented a question: Was Johnson interested in watching the great Nolan Ryan throw a bullpen session?
“Sure,” Johnson answered. “Why not?”
Studying the legend in action, Johnson noticed that the pitcher was landing on the ball of his foot during his delivery.
“And I’d always landed on my heel, which affected my mechanics and deprived me of consistency,” Johnson said. “It’s as simple as that. Watching how Nolan Ryan landed on the ball of his foot changed my career.”
Johnson’s career found him retiring in 2009 with 303 career victories and 4,875 strikeouts.
“This is just Randy’s first stop on the way to Cooperstown,” said Wilson, humbled to share equal billing with his friend in the Hall of Fame of a franchise whose very existence can be traced to the symmetry they achieved in 1995.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
