Walter Johnson: The Perfect Pitcher
Image credits: Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
Though he stood only 5-foot-6 ½, Clark Griffith was a successful late-19th/early-20th century pitcher who once observed, “I can tell a pitcher just by looking at him walk. Watch his pitching arm. If it dangles loose and limp at his side, the chances are he’s a good pitcher. If it’s stiff and military-like or crooked, he won’t be good for long.”
In 1912, when Griffith became the manager – and eventual owner – of the Washington Senators, he inherited just such a perfect pitcher in the 6-foot-1, 200-pound right-hander Walter Johnson.
Born on a farm in Kansas in 1887, then as a teenager working in the oil fields in California, Johnson had little interest in baseball until he began pitching for company and semi-pro teams in California and Idaho. He was racking up strikeouts and shutouts in Weiser, Idaho, when the Washington Senators signed him in 1907.
Over the next 20 years, Walter Johnson racked up a record that’s difficult to comprehend, most of it with perennial second-division Washington teams: 417 wins, 110 shutouts, 3,509 strikeouts, 2.17 ERA, and – believe it or not – 531 complete games in 666 starts.
Gabby Street was Johnson’s catcher during the rookie’s first four years with Washington.
Gabby Street
Johnson had the perfect build for a pitcher. He could scratch his knee with his right hand without bending. He had a long, smooth motion that kept him free from sore arms.
He threw from third base with a long sweep that had every ounce of his body behind it. Waddell, Young, Mathewson, Grove, Alexander, Dean, Hubbell – they were all built that way. No strain. They had sore arms, but only after 10 years or more.
Johnson had the best wrist action of any pitcher. He didn’t have many bad days. In four years he was knocked out of a game once. He lost more one-run games than anybody.
Overworked? He usually pitched 30 or more complete games a year, worked over 300 innings nine years in a row. 296 the year before that and 290 the year after.
Here’s something the likes of which you’ll never see: In 1908 Washington went to New York for a three-game series September 4, 5 and 7. The team was short of able-bodied pitchers, Johnson volunteered to pitch the Friday, Saturday and Monday games – there was no Sunday baseball.
He pitched three shutouts. The manager, Joe Cantillon, wanted him to pitch again on Wednesday, but Johnson said that was too much. He didn’t pitch again until Friday – and Saturday, winning both games.
His signature pitching motion was unique – a short windmill-style windup followed by a sweeping sidearm delivery. During the first part of his career he relied almost exclusively on a fastball (he developed a good curve around 1913).
For most of his 21 years with the Senators, they were weak-hitting non-contenders. Not until near the end of his career – in 1924 and 1925, when he was 40 years old – did they make it to the World Series.
In five complete games and one in relief, Johnson was 3-3. In a pair of 7-game Series, they defeated the Giants in 1924 and lost to Pittsburgh in 1925. After beating the Pirates, 4-1 and 4-0, he ran out of steam in Game 7, taking a 6-4 lead into the seventh inning in an almost constant rain.
You would expect manager Bucky Harris to bring in the relievers at that point, but this was Walter Johnson out there going for his third win of the Series – maybe the last of his career, and even a tiring Johnson was a better horse to ride than anybody in the bullpen. The Pirates scored 5 runs in the 7th and 8th for a 9-7 win. He had given up 15 hits in his third complete game of the Series.
