Praising Arizona
Johnson confident Diamonbacks will win
Posted: Wednesday December 02, 1998 09:31 PM
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Randy Johnson (right, with CEO Jerry Colangelo): "I'm one of the winningest active pitcher in all of baseball right now ... I don't know why anybody would think that's a bad investment." AP |
PHOENIX (AP) -- Randy Johnson
says it wasn't the chance to play a few miles from home that persuaded him
to sign with the Arizona
Diamondbacks, it was the team's recent addition of players who can
build a contender.
"I'm coming here because I feel we can win, first and foremost, and
because I felt my family would be comfortable here," Johnson said Wednesday
at a news conference to introduce him as a Diamondback. "If I felt this
team was going to lose, I wouldn't be here."
He said Arizona only became a leading contender when Diamondbacks owner
Jerry Colangelo signed free agents Todd
Stottlemyre, Armando
Reynoso, Greg Swindell
and Greg
Colbrunn.
"If those things hadn't been done, I'd probably be holding a press
conference somewhere else," he said.
Johnson has heard the criticism that at age 35 he's thrown away any
chance of winning a World Series by signing a $52.4 million, four-year
contract with a second-year expansion team that lost 97 games this year.
He's heard talk that he's sacrificed the ultimate team goal that has
eluded him throughout his career for the convenience of playing a short
drive from his Paradise Valley home.
"It obviously disappoints me when media people think I'm taking a step
backward," he said. "You know, 'He's not going to win.' I mean, who are you
to say I'm not going to win? I have a lot of respect for writers, but none
of you have ever been in my shoes and realized the expectations that I have
in a game."
Johnson said there was no certainty he'd get to a World Series no matter
which team he chose.
"Baseball is a funny game. There are no guarantees," he said.
Johnson's contract has a no-trade clause, so he and the Diamondbacks seem
wedded until he's 39. He could pitch for five years, since the deal
includes a fifth season at the club's option.
He said he expects the Diamondbacks to be much better next season and
contend for a wild-card spot or the NL West title in 2000.
His contract makes him the highest-paid pitcher and second-highest-paid
player in baseball. Only Mo Vaughn of the
Anaheim Angels, who
averages $13.33 million in his new contract, makes more.
But Johnson has no doubt he is worth it.
"I'm one of the winningest active pitcher in all of baseball right now,"
he said. "I've struck out more hitters in the '90s than anybody else. I've
been able to pitch with anybody in the game. I don't know why anybody would
think that's a bad investment. I'm one of the best pitchers in the game."
He said he will not allow the Diamondbacks to continue to lose.
"I won't let that happen," he said. "I think with the intensity that I
have, the intensity that Todd Stottlemyre brings, every fifth day, people
feed off of that.
"When we would be in a three- or four-game losing streak in Seattle,
there was a reason my teammates would come up to me and say, 'Randy, when
are you pitching next?' I don't mind that at all."
With his 6-foot-10 frame nattily attired in a pinstriped suit, his
mother, wife and three young children among those in the crowded room at
Bank One Ballpark, Johnson said it is important for him to pitch in front
of his family.
"A lot of people don't realize that what makes me tick out on the field
is when I look up in the stands and I see my family up there," he said.
"That really motivates me and makes me dig down a little deeper."
Johnson was asked about last season in Seattle, when he was a grumpy 9-10
with a 4.33 ERA before he was traded to Houston. With the Astros, he was
10-1 with a 1.28 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 84 1-3 innings.
"I wasn't happy in Seattle," he said. "I don't want to go back too much,
but when you're pitching a major league ballgame, you need to be 100
percent mentally focused out there and it was a situation where I wasn't.
"For people who say I didn't give it my all, it's not a fair assessment.
I was leading the American League in strikeouts for five weeks after I
left. I pitched a couple of shutouts. I almost threw a no-hitter up there."
Johnson said choosing among the four finalists -- Arizona, Anaheim, Los
Angeles and Texas -- was extremely difficult. It came down to Arizona and
one other team, he said, presumably the Angels.
"I probably could have made more money somewhere else," Johnson said.
"I've made a lot of money in my career. I could retire right now. I'm
getting a lot of money from Jerry and the organization, that's true, but
that wasn't the deciding factor. I feel I can win here. I feel the team can
win here, and I feel it's in the best interest of my family, too."
Johnson insists he didn't demand that he be allowed to keep his long hair
and mustache. Manager Buck Showalter already has said that the Big Unit
won't be subject to the team's no-facial hair, no-long hair rule.
"If I have to look like Jay Buhner I
will," Johnson said, "but hopefully I won't have to. I'll lose my hair fast
enough. I don't expect preferential treatment, but I don't see where my
mustache and my hair are going to not make me throw strikes or should be
that big an issue. It's not like I have my hair in dreadlocks or anything."
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