There’s a great story about him going to a Rush concert. Rush was playing about an hour away from where Randy was pitching one night. Randy told Geddy Lee he was going to come to the show. And Geddy, the big baseball fan that he is, said “Randy, your game starts at 7 and we go on at 10. You’ll miss the entire show.” Randy said “I’ll pitch a fast game” I think he pitched a complete game, lasted about 2 hours and he made it to the Rush show

That he was tipping his entire career is nuts.

I saw Randy Johnson once at Fenway when he was with the mariners. He didn't pitch that game but I saw him during BP and warm-ups, and I was just flabbergasted by how gigantic he is, even compared to all the other players.

And after he retired from baseball, he's now a very acclaimed photographer. What a legend.

When you were listing his statistical accomplishments, you forgot that he also won a world series. Against the Yankees.

What's funny is that in that Ozzie at bat, he's obviously standing so far away from the plate for fear of that 100 MPH heater. But Randy doesn't waste much energy and simply attacks him with a slider. It was a mind game with this man! He had three 80-grade pitches with wicked velocity and movement and still tried to get in your head like Greg Maddux. That's a dangerous combo and why I personally think he's the greatest pitcher of all time

Randy nuking that bird is an all time classic moment in baseball

There are some players that I still can't believe played during my time on earth. Randy is one of them.

Early in his career, Johnson walked a lot of hitters like so many power pitchers do. However, once he gained command of his pitches and lowered his walk rate to less than 4 per 9 innings, he became one of the most dominating pitchers to ever take the mound. I remember one All-Star Game when I think even Barry Bonds or Tony Gwynn was afraid to bat against Johnson. Johnson's exceptionally long arms and sidearm pitching angle made his fastball look as if it was coming from first base.

I saw Randy pitch in the Astrodome during his 3 month stint with the Astros. The atmosphere was electric. I was crushed when we didn't sign him (even knowing that he's from AZ and was likely to go there no matter what)

Its crazy that some of the most intimidating and dominant pitchers mainly utilized 2 pitches to terrorize the league. Johnson and Gibson with the fastball/slider, and ryan and koufax with the fastball/curveball combo. To this day, I rank Randy's slider up there with koufax's curve and ryan's fastball as the most unhittable pitches of all time. Especially during his time in AZ, as a hitter you had no chance of hitting the big unit's slider AND you knew it was coming. Easily my favorite pitcher to watch growing up.

I have recently gone through some Randy Johnson footage from his playoff runs in 1998 and 2001... Correct me if I'm wrong but I think his slider had two distinct velocities. He had a slider that would go in the low 80s like 80-84 and a hard slider that would go 86-89.. occasionally touch 90. You could've sit on his slider all you wanted but he had the ability to just drop in a 83mph slider when you were expecting an 88mph one.

I remember seeing him at Englishtown NJ for the NHRA Summer Nationals as a photographer. Much love for the big unit.

I love that he looked like the meanest bastard on the planet when he was on the mound, but now that he's retired, he's just the nicest guy. Never woulda thought he'd take up photography.....seems more like he'd be a member of fight club or something.

I remember seeing a comment a while back that still makes me laugh. Randy Johnson looks like a civil war calvary officer. 😂

Wanted to see Randy pitch and got too in 2001. My favorite pitcher as a kid

The fact that this video does not have 50 million views is bothering me more than it should

I am loving these historical PN segments!! More please.

Unit is so fucking cool. I saw his 300th win in person as a kid. Visiting DC on vacation, and had tickets to the game that got rained out. Went to the 300th win. All I remember: my dad taking a picture of me and my brother in front of the jumbotron congratulating him on the 300th W. “Son, this is a big deal.” My dad maintains we saw the last 300th win ever in person. Doesn’t think there will ever be another guy to rack ‘em up. Thanks for the memories, Randy! See you in the funny pages

A lil pitching ninja never hurt nobody....awesome content everytime....LOVE how u brake down everything....

I was going to see his 300th win. The game was rained out and we had to fly back home. He got his 300th the following day.

I watched Randy Johnson beat out the throw on an infield chop single during spring training. I was even sitting front row behind 1st base. One of his more incredible baseball accomplishments. Total delight to see. And hilarious. Must gangly runner ever, but boy did he hustle!

Your break downs on hall of famers/ greats are must see videos for me!

I’ve seen Seaver, Gibson, Koufax, Sutton, Richard, Jenkins and the rest. No one was as terrifying as Johnson.

My favorite pitcher of all-time, I never knew the bit about him tipping pitches. Great video!!

"He threw a slider from hell, basically treating the batter like they were the 10 pin in bowling"

If this story is true, then it is an absolutely BRUTAL indictment of every pitching coach and manager and maybe even front office staff for every team he ever played for. The idea that no self-scouting ever caught this is absolutely criminal negligence. That's why I have a hard time believing he was doing this his whole career. Some teammate would have noticed, or someone who used to hit against him and then joined him would have tipped him off.

The Big Unit makes my Rushmore of baseball nicknames.

It's kind of hard to believe that he never had a single coach who knew this and wouldn't say something. I'm so confused.

He was so great, what a legend.

I'm still upset with how he left Seattle, but damn do I respect his ability as a pitcher. One of kind.

I'm happy I was a baseball fan during prime Clemens, Maddux, Martinez and Johnson. You could pick them as the 4 best ever and not be wrong.

haha, you might know what pitch was coming but not even Randy knew where the ball was going. 99 that might be at your head or on the outside corner, phew, doesn't sound like fun to me. Great video!

He didn't tip that bird he demolished... 🕊

The Big Unit was my childhood hero. I'm short and right handed, but he was still an inspiration

Unit and Clemens are my 1 and 1A. Can't really decide whose better. Johnson struck out 68% more batters than league average (2nd alltime) and lefties were totally neutralized. Clemens struck out 42% more. But prevented HRs 35% better than league average. (3rd alltime). Johnson was 12% better, and was 88th alltime. The fact Clemens was a top 12 strikeout guy and was the 3rd hardest guy to HR off of in relative terms. I think he takes it by a bit.

watched him in the Kingdome when i was a kid. what i would give to see one more game in there.

I don't know what's more amazing. That he was tipping his pitches or that he didn't realize he was tipping his pitches. Unreal.

I call bullshit on the tipping pitches. Isringhausen and Armando Benitez also tipped their pitches and managed to catch it when a new teammate or coach joined and spilled the beans. Johnson's peak lasted for more than a decade on two different teams. He played with lots of smart players and coaches who would have wanted to keep him from tipping and would have noticed something that obvious or told him when they joined. And if this was such common knowledge, the idea that Johnson didn't find out until some time between 2015 and 2018? No way.

That's crazy. Even crazier than the video, maybe on This Week in Baseball, that I saw once the show that Nolan Ryan grunted when he threw a fastball. But by the time the sound got to you it was too late.

Randy was in my team's division during his Cy Young years what a nightmare that was.

Randy was so dominant that even if he was tipping his pitches, it wouldn't have mattered. His stuff was just that nasty.

Awesome video!

0:54 - you forgot most birds killed by pitcher stat

My fav player of all time

Just remember when he played for the Mariners he was pitching in the King Dome, not exactly a pitcher friendly park. The guy was a strikeout machine.

Let’s go Rob!!!! Love the content. First comment.

I was there when he hit the bird in Tucson, Arizona. I wasn't paying attention when it happened lol

Was he tipping, though? He was a two pitch pitcher with over 300 wins. Was he just messing with batters, since it was such common knowledge and all? As I recall, Randy had a pretty deliberate setup and staredown, do you think he might've been 'flashing the leather' a bit there to get the batter where he wanted them sometimes?

randy wore 51 cause he was so big, anywhere he was located was also considered a state.

Anybody have stats on how many times Randy faced off against McGwire/Canseco/Sosa/Bonds & who was most successful against him, i.e....BA/total hits/K?

His late 90s-04 run was absolutely insane. If he woulda had that meeting with Nolan Ryan a couple of years earlier then you’re looking at the strikeout king. The dude K’d over a thousand in 3 seasons which is mind boggling

I wish he tipped his pitches in the Show😂

I easily have Randy as the best LHP ever and it’s not even close. Koufax is the one I see most often at people’s lists but if you compare Randy’s 5 best seasons they are just as good, if not better, than Koufax’s top 5. The big tie breaker is the opposing batting average for lefties: The most important task a LHP has is to get the LHB out, and Randy was the best to ever do that. Randy has a similar career WAR to Greg Maddux over a similar number of seasons. If Randy had better run support he could have won 350 games in his career.

What?!? He was tipping his pitches? I thought he was kind of overrated because he was just a tall and his pitches were just hard to feel out because of his height. But if they knew what was coming, that totally changes everything on what i think about Johnson. Might be the GOAT.

Yeah maddux was similar to Pedro but when Mariano entered things got complicated and boom wettland became the icon

If he wasn't tipping his pitches, he probably would have racked up 6000 strikeouts. Even still, he's arguably the greatest lefty ever to step on the mound, right up there with Koufax.

GOAT pitcher. Prove me wrong.

Imagine if Johnson knew about the spin rate, mechanics, and tunneling that pitchers know about now. He may have had a 500 strikeout season.

It's the most effortless looking 100 there is

That tipping story is absolutely nuts. What I'm about to say is probably blasphemous ... but in today's game hitters are a little more used to high-90s heat on a regular basis, so I wonder if tipping his pitches would hurt him more. But lefties would probably still be DOA given his arm slot.

Just curious, any idea if all the players knew? You’d think if they all knew, eventually he’d have run into a player that would’ve told him… unless all the hitters had a “don’t tell Randy” policy lol

Damn look at all them swords

The most casual 100mph ever

That's crazy that no one told him how he was tipping his pitches. Pitching coaches and teammates?

The only picture I know that could walk the bases loaded and then strike out the side

Randy Johnson’s slider INVENTED the term SPIN RATE. Someone had to measure that after watching his slider break the laws of physics….

Randy Johnson was a beast. He never struck me out though.

It's not as surprising as it seems really I mean pitchers like Rivera, it was no mystery what was coming. It just didn't matter if you knew because the pitch was unhittable

He also is the only pitcher that I know of that made a bird explode in a game.

Larry Walker got into the Hall of Fame for that at bat.

Do Maddux next, please. I think him and Johnson have the best arguments for GOAT pitchers.

im not sure but is Randy Johnson a side arm pitcher?

TBH I'd be even more scared if i knew what was coming. "Please don't be fastball please don't be the heat, please fucking pl- FUCK! Oh fuck here it comes"

I don't know if everyone knew, you would think a teammate or coach would have caught wind and told him at some point. Right?

The thing is, his arms and range got so close and his ball was so fast you had very little time to even see.

How did he not know? Did none of his teammates know? Surely some of them faced him on previous teams

Griffey, Big Unit, Arod, and then a few years later Ichiro. What could have been if they all stayed with the Mariners.

I didn't see the difference between the 2 pitches

Volquez and cueto had been punishing the Mets for so long they rebuilt Harvey syndergaard and degrom wheeler and matz

GOAT 🐐 LHP. Easily

Imagine if he didn't tip his pitches 💀

Saying that “everybody in baseball knowing what was coming” for his entire career is a pretty big stretch. Lol. I mean we have one story from one person. But I guess he needed that clickbait title.

I have a hard time believing that the whole league knew what Johnson was throwing. I saw batters get fooled by that slider countless times with my own eyes.

If he had cleaned that up... god, could you imagine th K's he would have had? 😳

Everyone knew what was coming...except for the bird.

How the hell did his coaches and teammates not make him stop tipping pitches?

One of the few humans who keeps a baseball on their nightstand in case of a break in instead of a gun. Why use a gun when you already have a cannon? Honestly though...on a serious note...I may well choose a bullet over baseball going triple digits. How embarrassing would it be to get taken off the census because you broke into a house and dude threw a baseball at your head and caved in your shit?

Also, "johnson" is another name for "fastball"

And all that greatness in the steroid era, what makes it even more astonishing. Only Gibson could be as intimidating as the Big Unit.

F’s in the chat for the birdie

Great pitcher and any left handed batter that had the misfortune of facing him I feel bad for you.

Not everyone knew he was tipping pitches. His own team didn't know or they would have told him.

Video FAIL. Footage of Randy tipping his pitches would have been nice.

The big eunuch

On top of all of his stats he is the only pitcher to kill the national bird of Canada and was arrested for it after the game, And terrorized birds across the US nation!!!!!

Did he trow a “sweeper”?

how many pictures have killed a pigeon in flight with a thrown baseball?

Mike piazza was injured, he would've smoked that if he wasn't @1:11

🐐