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Walter Johnson

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Walter Johnson was born on 6th November 1887 in Humboldt, Kansas and died on 10th December 1946, in Washington, D.C. His height is six feet and one inches with weight 200 pounds. He was inducted with the Hall of Fame in 1936.

In an era lacking electronic speed guns, Johnson was generally thought to throw the fastest ball in the game. In 21 seasons with the Washington Senators, Johnson won 417 games. There was no pitching category in which he did not excel. In 1914, for example, he led the AL, the American League in wins, games, starts, complete games, innings, strikeouts, and shutouts. He eventually amassed 110 shutouts, the most ever. His 38 1-0 wins are, by far, an all-time record.

Among his accomplishments were 16 straight wins in 1912, a string of 56 scoreless innings, and a 36-7 mark in 1913, five wins, three of them shutouts, in nine days in 1908, 66 triumphs over Detroit, the most for any AL pitcher against any one team, 200 victories in eight seasons, and 300 in 14. He had his disappointments where 65 of his losses were by shutouts, 26 of them by 1-0 scores. He lost six of eight duels with formidable Red Sox lefty Babe Ruth and for all of Ty Cobb's dark-day embarrassments. He batted .335 in 67 games against Johnson.

After going 13-25 his third season in 1909, he turned things around and became the AL's premier pitcher. For the Senators he was both starter and relief ace. Ultimately, he was 40-30 in relief, with 34 saves. Johnson's control was exemplary. His catchers swore by him. In 802 games, he gave up a mere 1,405 walks, less than one every 4.1 innings. But he had wild streaks and still has a piece of the AL record for wild pitches in one season.

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