Big Unit brave in face of near-certain end
By The Heckler
Baseball Big Mouth
baseball news
Careers of famous athletes rarely end as the athlete themselves would want, or perhaps — more poetically, more deservedly – as they should. Not everyone goes out on top like a Jim Brown: nine years and a cloud of records, even scoring three touchdowns in his final game, the 1965 Pro Bowl. Immortality assured. One of the greatest ever. Frozen, forever, in time, in fans hearts - at his apex. Atop the heap.
Today, somewhere far from that peak, sits a downtrodden Randy Johnson. Forty-three years of age, facing back surgery, 16 wins away from 300, destined to tap-out to Father Time, wishing for just one more year, one more chance to compete again, one more chance to continue doing the only thing he has ever done.
Johnsons’ 4616 career K’s trail only Clemens, Ryan
“I have no intention at this time of retiring,” said Johnson at a news conference Friday. “I’ll cross the bridge of surgery and be willing to go through the process of rehabilitation again because I know I can still pitch. And I love pitching. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was 7 years old.”
These are truly not the best of times for the five-time Cy Young award winner. Considered washed-up after last year’s debacle in the Big Apple (a 5.00 ERA for the year sure to stand out on the back of his baseball card for time eternal, as conspicuous as a piece of spinach on a bikini-clad Paris Hilton’s tooth) Johnson rebounded somewhat this year with a 4-3 mark and 3.81 ERA, that is until his back — twice operated on prior, including just last year — decided, once again, to start acting its age. “He tried to work his way through it,” said manager Bob Melvin, “but it just didn’t get any better.”
At his age, can it really be expected to get better? Or is Johnson falling into the trap that so many have before him — Steve Carlton suiting up for whoever would pay him; Darrell Evans, still sitting in his Tigers’ uniform, making calls from the clubhouse to other teams; Ricky Henderson playing before a few hundred fans in the Northern League — and that is outright refusing to believe that the curtain is, in fact, falling?
“I surely don’t want to end my career because I had surgery,” he added. “I would much rather call it a career being healthy and being ineffective and say `You know what? I can’t do it anymore. But that hasn’t been the case.”
“I think this one is a little more serious than the one he had last year,” Melvin noted.
Full marks for vowing to comeback, Big Unit. No one can ever say that 6′ 10″ body held no heart. Apparently your only fault lies with a brain that refuses to admit your career is — in all likelihood — unofficially over.
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Photos used with permission of Early Era Baseball Photos.com