Now Pitching in Relief, Walter Johnson

The headline refers, of course, to the fact that Beloved and Respected Kommish Dave has opted to pull himself from the game for a week and has summoned the Big Train in from the bullpen to serve as Guest Blogger for the week. Incidentally, a check of the record book shows that Walter Johnson did occasionally come out of the bullpen for the old Washington Senators, often enough to have accumulated 34 saves in his Hall of Fame career. More on Walter Johnson later. In any event, I only hope that I can live up to the Pulitzer worthy prose that Dave puts forth each week. My words alone will have to suffice since I will not be putting in the jazzy photos that always appear in Davey's blogs.

Week Four turned out to be an exciting week for Yours Truly, as I was able to string together the high score for the second week in a row. This has pushed me into third place ahead of fellow Colonial / Highmarker John Frissora. He and I have been see-sawing back and forth quite a bit over the last week or so, and I suspect that that will continue. At least I hope to remain in a position where I can be battling for a top spot.

Very quietly in Week Four, Dave Jones' Kids and Piffy's 69'ers had strong weeks and vaulted back into contention in the NPL race. Piff's 516 points moved him into the first division and Dave's 492 (third best for the week) have him a mere 7 points out of fifth place. It should be noted however that only 95 points separate spots 5 through 10 in the standings, so any one is just one hot week away from grabbing a money spot.

At the top of the heap, Rock Cat John has established a 73 point lead over Harv, but I, for one, fully expect Harv to be challenging for the top spot all season long. I mean, isn't Harv always in the money?

At he other end of the spectrum, Al fell below the Mendoza Line with a mere 321 points for the week. It has gotten to the point where Al actually selected a Pirate - Ryan Doumit - in the weekly pick-ups!!! By the way, I see that in tonight's series lidlifter in Brewtown, Doumit is playing first base and Adam LaRoche is riding the pine for the Buccos. Did you get some inside dope from David K. Littlefield on that move, Al?

A final comment on the NPL's teams (sorry, but I will not be as detailed as Dave always is in his analysis), and that comment is...Whither Big Daddy? The defending Champ front loaded on pitching on draft night, and that strategy shows up on 720 pitching points, third best in the NPL. The other side of the coin, however, shows that his hitters are ranking dead last in the league with 1,135 points. Pitching may be the name of the game, but you gotta have some hitting, too (as a certain major league team I can think of is currently proving in the National League Central).

SOPRANOS THOUGHTS

As has become the custom, I must offer my thoughts on Episode 4 of the final Sopranos season. It was a slow episode in terms of action, as no major player got taken out, but the storm continues to brew between New York and New Jersey. One comment I read this week summed up the situation between Tony and Phil thusly: "Sooner or later, one of these guys is going to push, and the other is going to shove back and disaster will follow."

Speaking of disasters, could you believe the action of Little Vito in the school showers? Man, I never saw THAT coming. That certainly broke a barrier in home entertainment. And how about the counselling sessions he got from Phil and Tony? I can't understand why those meetings didn't straighten the kid out!

SOME WORDS ON WALTER JOHNSON

I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a little with you about the inspiration for my team nickname, Walter Johnson, the original "Big Train."

Johnson was one of the five original inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and if you wanted to tell me that someone other that he was the greatest pitcher of all time, you will have to work mighty hard to convince me.

Consider the Johnson's numbers:

WINS - 417 career wins, second of all time. Of all pitchers in the post-WWII era, only three are in the top ten in this category: Warren Spahn, 363 (6th), Roger Clemens, 348 (8th), Greg Maddux, 335 (10th).

COMPLETE GAMES - 531, fourth all time. Only Spahn of the post-war era is even in the close, and he's way down the track with 382 CG's (21st).

SHUT OUTS - 110, first all time, and this one is really amazing. The second most on the list is Grover Cleveland Alexander with 90. I was surprised at how many post-war guys are in the top ten in this category, though: Spahn, 63 (6th), Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver, 61 (T7th), Burt Blyleven 60 (9th), and Don Sutton, 58 (10th). Among active guys, Clemens, 46, Randy Johnson, 37, and Maddux, 35 are way down the list. Paul Maholm has 1.

STRIKE OUTS - Johnson's 3,509 has fallen to 9th on the all time list, but it took almost 50 years before someone finally caught up with him, and it took 30 years until any pitcher got to within 1,000 K's of Johnson's total.

(As an aside here, when you do research like this, you keep seeing Burt Blyleven's name amongst all of these all-time greats. Shouldn't Burt have plaque in Cooperstown, too? Just asking.)

ERA - 2.17. Lowest in baseball history for anyone pitching at least 3,000 innings.

Over the course of his career, his lifetime record of 416-279 is 137 games over .500. On the days that he didn't pitch, his teams were 180 games under .500 on the days that he did not get the decision.

He won games by a score of 1-0 38 times, more than twice as much as any other pitcher (Alexander is second with 17).

In his book, "The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball", Leonard Koppett wrote of Johnson: "When I call Johnson 'the greatest of all pitchers,' I may get an argument and be judged wrong, but I can't be accused of coming to an unreasonable conclusion."

Not much more I can add to that.

TO THE KOMMISH

Thanks for giving me the chance to come in in relief for you. We'll all look forward to your return next week