WHEN THINGS DIDN'T GO WELL FOR THE BIG TRAIN, WALTER JOHNSON

A few weeks ago, I went on at length about the greatness of Baseball Immortal Walter Johnson. I retract nothing of what I wrote then, but in doing some reading recently, I stumbled across some writing that detailed a series of head-to-head matchups between and the Big Train and another futyre Hall of Famer wherein Johnson didn't fare so well.

In 1916 Johnson, who was in the midst of 10 consecutive 20 win seasons, and this mound opponent squared off against each other on five occasions:

April 17 - Johnson was a 5-1 loser in a rain-shortened six inning affair in which he gave up 11 hits.

June 1 - Johnson lost 1-0 as his Senators managed only 3 hits against the young opposing hurler.

August 15 - Another 1-0 loss for Johnson who pitched 12 innings and gave up 5 hits.

September 9 - A complete game 2-1 loss. The Senators managed only 4 hits.

September 12 - Two days later, the same two pitchers hooked once again. The Senators trailed 2-0 heading into the ninth, but the opposing picher was removed from the game when the Senators scored two in the ninth to tie the game. The Senators would win the game in the tenth as the "other" HOFer received a no decision.

Throughout the 1916 season, Johnson and this other pitcher won a total of 48 games, and neither surrendered a home run.

This other pitcher had previously beaten Johnson once in 1915 and then again in 1917 to run his streak aganst the Train to 6-0 before Johnson would finally beat him by score of 6-2 in September, 1917.

Oh, it just ocurred to me that I haven't mentioned the name of Johnson's nemesis opponent back in '16. At this point, I think I'll leave it that way and see if any of you baseball gurus in the audience can provide the name of this future Hall of Famer.