A small bone, a half-hearted kudos, tossed to ex and current Diamondbacks starter Randy Johnson. In his introductory press conference yesterday in Arizona, Johnson buried hatchets, took the slow boat on the water going under that fabled bridge, saying among other things "The run that I had, as short-lived as it was, as well-documented as it was in New York, I wouldn't change a thing. I think those are life experiences that make a man."
Wow. This from a guy whose first quotable after landing in New York as Yankee was "get outta my face [sic]" as he shoved a WCBS camera man by the lens with his Arsenio Hall-sized tallons. He could have said, Hey I pitched over 400 innings and won 34 games the past two seasons. Get outta my face! We have witnessed a transformation from the don't-even-look-at-this-guy-on-gameday, to the guy who is just happy to be wearing the number 51 again. Approachable Unit. And seeing the posed pictures from the press conference, the Unit beaming for the cameras, how can we be sure Randy didn't want to go back to Phoenix to get into the snazzy new red uni's the D-backs got going on. Makes you wonder if Yankees GM Brian Cashman dropped that in somewhere to Randy thoughout the negotiation process, Hey Randy, you know if you go back to Arizona, you know you don't have to wear bright purple anymore.
Seriously though, everybody's saying the right thing, but everybody is happy to have this chapter closed. Randy Johnson is home, playing in NL West anonymity, wearing number 51 in a half-emtpy beautiful retractible- roof stadium; and the Yankees get younger (for the moment, they are surely on speed dial with the Rocket), they have $14 million they can spend on someone who they know can pitch in the Bronx, and they continue to stockpile young arms.
Oh, and...
Without getting into the steroid debate- here's one thought on the Hall of Fame voting results, announced yesterday. Shame on voters, albeit 2-2.5%, who didn't vote for Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken. If ever there was a chance for unanimous entry, these guys were it. Leave it to the writers who feel it is their duty to not vote anyone in on the first ballot, based on principle. Which begs the age-old seemingly unanswerable question, if a guy isn't a hall of famer this year, why is he the next year? Or in five years? Ten? (Hang in there Goose, 21 votes to go.) I could keep going- and rag on the guys who turned in a blank ballot (see Paul Ladewski of the Daily Southtown in Chicago) in part because no one is above supsicion in this era of baseball- but this is just a tag, which is why I refuse to go into the whole steroid debate.
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