I wrote the article you see here in March 2005 at the request of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). I sought out the assistance of a professional author and editor, my nephew Craig Carey, to produce a work which was ready for publication and of which I could be proud.

The article which eventually appeared in the SABR publication, Deadball Stars of the American League, two years later, is not my article, but is rather the result of much editing by people who seem not to have anything better to do than make many minor changes to the work of others, without improving noticeably its quality or style.

This article contains virtually no new research. It draws heavily on Henry Thomas' biography and on the articles which Henry and I wrote about Walter Johnson's California and Idaho days, but should still be a good read for anybody who just wants to get a quick overview of the great pitcher's career.

WALTER PERRY JOHNSON
RIGHT-HANDED PITCHER 1907-27

On August 2, 1907, a young man later described by Frank Graham as "beyond doubt, the greatest pitcher that ever scuffed a rubber with his spikes" made his big league debut for the Washington Nationals, losing a 3-2 decision to the pennant-bound Detroit Tigers. The great Ty Cobb admitted his fastball "made me flinch" and "hissed with danger." By the time he hung up his spikes 20 years later, Walter Johnson had recorded statistics which seem beyond belief—417 wins and 279 losses, 3,508 strikeouts,1 110 shutouts, 12 20-win seasons, 11 seasons with an earned run average below 2.00, and what seems almost incomprehensible a century later, 531 complete games in 666 starts. But, as superlative as his pitching record was, in Shirley Povich's words, "Walter Johnson, more than any other ballplayer, probably more than any other athlete, professional or amateur, became the symbol of gentlemanly conduct in the heat of battle."

Walter Perry Johnson traveled a circuitous and improbable route to his major league debut and subsequent stardom. He was born November 6, 1887, in Allen county, Kansas, the second of the six children of Minnie (Perry) and Frank Edwin Johnson. As a child, he helped his parents scratch out a living on their 160-acre farm and found time for hunting and fishing, which became his lifelong passions. Other than occasional schoolyard pickup games, baseball had no place in his early life.

At the turn of the century, Frank Johnson was forced to give up his farm as a result of the persistent Kansas droughts. The family moved into the town of Humboldt, where Frank worked at odd jobs and Walter attended the eighth grade. At this time, Minnie's parents and siblings were all moving to the oil fields of Southern California, attracted by the good weather and plentiful jobs. After years of poverty in Kansas, a move to the Golden State seemed very appealing to Frank and Minnie. They joined the migration in April 1902, settling in Olinda where Frank found work with the Santa Fe oil company as a teamster.

Working on the Kansas farm and in the oil fields, Walter developed a strong, muscular, 6'1" frame which eventually filled out to 200 pounds. At sixteen, he started pitching for a boys team sponsored by the oil company. Soon after his seventeenth birthday, he started his first game against adults. Although he lost a 5-4 12-inning outing, his performance was so impressive that a reporter commented, "Johnson was presented as a high school kid, but he is certainly a graduate in the science of delivering the ball."

The unorganized baseball action of Southern California continued year-round, pitting town teams, company teams and barnstorming teams against one another. During the winter, the rosters were augmented by major and minor leaguers who needed to pick up some extra cash. Over the next five years, it was in this environment that young Walter honed his pitching skills, if indeed they needed honing.

As Johnson readily admitted, his gift for pitching was not of his own doing, but God-given: "From the first time I held a ball," he explained, "it settled in the palm of my right hand as though it belonged there and, when I threw it, ball, hand and wrist, and arm and shoulder and back seemed to all work together." His style of pitching—a short, "windmill" windup followed by a smooth, sweeping sidearm/underarm arc—was unique, his signature. During most of his career he relied almost exclusively on a fast ball which inspired Ring Lardner to comment, "He's got a gun concealed on his person. They can't tell me he throws them balls with his arm."

In April 1906, a former teammate arranged a job for Walter with Tacoma in the Northwestern League. After one exhibition outing, Walter was released, but another ex-teammate landed him a job playing for the Weiser (Idaho) town team. In Weiser, he was paid $90 a week, ostensibly to work for the local telephone company, but actually for playing baseball on weekends. There was plenty of time to enjoy hunting and fishing in the nearby mountains during the week. Pitching until July for Weiser, Johnson racked up a 7-1 record, then returned to his California home.

It wasn't until after Walter returned for a second season in Weiser and was on his way to a 14-2 mark that his pitching prowess came to the attention of major league baseball. Manager Joe Cantillon of the Washington Nationals began receiving telegrams touting Johnson's feats and the wire services were spreading far and wide the story of the young pitcher's string of perhaps as many as 77 scoreless innings. Finally, Cantillon sent an injured catcher, Cliff Blankenship, West on a scouting trip. Blankenship persuaded the young phenom to accept a Washington contract. The 19-year-old was so reluctant to accept the offer that he demanded a train ticket to return home to California in case he didn't make good, and insisted on wiring his parents to obtain their permission to sign.

A large crowd of friends and admirers came to the Weiser depot on Monday evening, July 22, 1907, to see him off. As Johnson said goodbye to his pals, there were tears in his eyes. A group of appreciative Weiser fans had tried to convince him to stay, offering to set him up with a cigar store on the town square. Johnson thanked them sincerely but allowed as how the Washington offer might mean more to him in the future. "You know how you are at 19," he explained later. "You want to see things."

The team to which Walter Johnson reported was on its way to another finish such as was described by the old vaudeville joke "Washington... first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." The Nationals had never finished higher than sixth in the American League. They closed the 1907 season with a 49-102 mark, 43½ games behind the Detroit Tigers.

Walter's presence in their pitching rotation made scant difference during the next two seasons. After improving to seventh place in 1908, the woeful Nats returned to the cellar in 1909, finishing 42-110, 56 games behind the Tigers and 20 games behind the seventh-place St. Louis Browns. This is not to say that Johnson pitched badly, although he must have been extremely disappointed with his 13-25 won-lost mark in 1909. His 2.21 ERA that year was better than average, even in deadball days. And in 1908, Walter had recorded one of the greatest pitching performances of his life over the Labor Day weekend. With his pitching staff in shambles, manager Cantillon sent the sturdy Johnson to the mound in New York for three consecutive starts over a four-day period. Walter didn't disappoint, shutting out the Highlanders on six, four and two hits, in a feat that electrified the baseball world.

On March 9, 1910, the Fullerton Tribune noted, "Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Johnson, accompanied by their son, Walter, left for Coffeyville, Kansas." Frank Johnson had just returned from a trip there to buy a farm, and now his family was moving back to Kansas, permanently. Walter had never gotten completely used to the constant climate of Southern California, and he and his father wanted to be Kansas farmers again. Now, after three years of major-league salaries, he was in a position to do something about it, settling near the Oklahoma border where he raised grain, blooded Holstein cows and white Orpington hens, and where he told a reporter that he "could be here all the year round and be contented."

In 1910, with Walter Johnson posting a 25-17 record with a 1.35 ERA and 313 strikeouts, the Washington team improved all the way to seventh place! This marked the beginning of a ten-year run of 20-victory seasons for the big right-hander, who acquired the nicknames of "The Big Train" for the blinding speed of his fast ball, and "Barney", after race car driver Barney Oldfield, for his flamboyant motoring habits. During this decade, the Nationals achieved some degree of respectability, finishing second in 1912 and 1913. In 1918, they were closing in on the Red Sox and Indians when Provost Marshal Enoch Crowder's "work or fight'' order brought the curtain down on the baseball season on Labor Day with Washington 4 games out, in third place.

Washington's improved performance during the second decade of the Twentieth Century was due mostly to Walter Johnson's pitching. This can be illustrated by a breakdown of its won-lost record into games where Walter was awarded the decision and games won or lost by other pitchers:

WJ games265143.650
Other pitchers490594.452
Total755737.507

That Johnson recorded as many losses as he did was due to the mediocre quality of his team's batting and fielding. This lack of support is reflected by the fact that he holds major league records for number of 1-0 wins (38) as well as losses (26).

Walter's peak years were 1912-13, when he went 33-12 and 36-7, winning a Chalmers automobile as American League MVP during the latter year. He was now admired all over America not only for his pitching exploits and his fierce competitiveness, but also for the modesty, humility and dignity with which he conducted himself, never arguing with umpires, berating his teammates for their errors, brushing back hitters or using "foreign substances" on the baseball. At a time when many ballplayers were ruffians and drunkards, Walter was never in a brawl and didn't patronize saloons. During the Summer of 1913, Walter Johnson met the love of his life, Hazel Lee Roberts, the daughter of Nevada's congressman. They renewed their acquaintance when Walter returned from Kansas in 1914 and their romance soon became the talk of Washington society. The couple was married June 24, 1914, with the Chaplain of the U.S. Senate officiating. Their marriage was blessed with six children, of whom five lived to adulthood.

Walter's string of 20-win seasons was broken in 1920 when a combination of a bad cold, a sore arm, and pulled leg muscles limited him to an 8-10 mark in only 21 appearances. Although his health returned in 1921 and he posted a 17-14 record, tragedy struck when Frank Johnson died of a stroke in July and two-year-old daughter Elinor died from influenza in December. Burdened with the memories of these tragedies, Walter and Hazel sold their farm and moved away from Coffeyville, eventually making Bethesda, Maryland, their year-round home.

Johnson decided to make 1924, his 18th major league season, his last hurrah, planning to become the owner of a team in the Pacific Coast League. But Nationals owner Clark Griffith finally had assembled a team worthy of its pitching ace. Walter shared mound duties with Tom Zachary, George Mogridge and relief specialist Firpo Marberry, while such quality players as Joe Judge, Goose Goslin, Ossie Bleuge, Roger Peckinpaugh, Sam Rice, batterymate Muddy Ruel, and second baseman and "boy wonder" manager Bucky Harris, were in the daily lineup. Outfielder Earl McNeely was purchased in midseason for $40,000 and batted .330 during the regular season, but would have an even bigger role in October. The Nationals outlasted the New York Yankees in the 1924 pennant race, denying them a fourth consecutive AL pennant. A rejuvenated Walter Johnson was the key to their victory and the league's MVP, delivering a 23-7 record and leading the league in ERA, strikeouts and shutouts. In the words of Will Rogers, "everybody's pulling for Walter" to lead the Nationals to victory in the AL pennant race and in the World Series.

Facing John McGraw's New York Giants in the opening game of one of the most dramatic World Series of all time, Walter pitched well but lost 4-3 in 12 innings at Griffith Stadium. Perhaps still tired from that 165-pitch effort, he turned in a lackluster performance in the fifth game, losing 6-2 in the Polo Grounds. The Nationals were now one game away from elimination and it looked as though Walter Johnson might never have another chance at World Series glory. In the sixth game, however, Washington rallied for a 2-1 win behind Tom Zachary to set the stage for the seventh game. On a beautiful Indian summer afternoon, as the Giants and Nats battled to the finish, an ovation echoed across Griffith Stadium when Walter Johnson headed for the bullpen in the sixth inning. In the top of the ninth, Bucky Harris, who had just singled in two runs to tie the score at 3-3, called the Big Train in to pitch. He handed him the ball with the words, "You're the best we've got, Walter, We've got to win or lose with you."

Walter didn't disappoint his manager, or his millions of fans, holding the Giants scoreless for four innings, pitching his way out of one jam after another. Twice, after giving intentional walks to Ross Youngs, he fanned major league RBI champ George Kelly. Finally, a series of bizarre events in the 12th inning gave the Nats the win. With one out, Giants catcher Hank Gowdy stumbled over his own mask while pursuing Muddy Ruel's foul pop. Reprieved, Ruel doubled. Shortstop Travis Jackson then fumbled Johnson's grounder while Ruel remained on second. Earl McNeely's grounder toward third base struck a pebble and bounded over Freddie Lindstrom's head. The slow-moving Ruel scored and a dazed Johnson tagged second base as 35,000 delirious fans poured out of the stands to begin a District-wide celebration which lasted far into the night. Washington had won what would prove to be its only world championship!

Following his World Series triumph, Johnson traveled to California, visiting his boyhood home in Olinda, pitching an exhibition game against Babe Ruth, visiting Hollywood movie studios and trying to wrap up ownership of a PCL team. After the purchase fell through, he decided to return to Washington for yet another big league campaign. 1925 was a superb season. The Nats won the pennant handily and Walter delivered his final 20-win season while setting a record for the highest batting average by a pitcher—.433. But 1925's World Series turned out to be the exact opposite of 1924's. After Walter notched 4-1 and 4-0 wins, disaster struck in the seventh game on a muddy, rainy day in Pittsburgh. In a game which should never have been played, Walter and his team went down to a 9-7 defeat.2

After 1927, his final season, Walter Johnson managed for a year at Newark in the International League, then returned to Washington, where he served as manager for four seasons. He also managed at Cleveland, where he was constantly under attack by the local press. Although his managerial style was criticized as too easygoing, it should be noted that his teams had an overall win percent of .551 and that the Athletics and Yankees teams which won pennants during Walter's tenure at Washington were among the most dominant in baseball history.

The biggest tragedy of Walter's later years, though, was Hazel's death at the age 36, August 1, 1930, the result of exhaustion from a cross-country drive during one of the hottest summers on record. After he lost the woman he idolized, a cloud of melancholy descended over the rest of Walter Johnson's life, darkening what should have been tranquil, happy years of retirement on his Mountain View Farm in the Maryland countryside.

During his later years, Walter kept busy on the farm, served as Montgomery county commissioner, was brought back by the Nationals in 1939 as their broadcaster, and made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the U.S. Congress. On June 12, 1939, along with such other greats as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson was inducted into the newly-created Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. During World War II, he made several brief playing appearances in war bond games, including serving up pitches to Babe Ruth in Yankee Stadium.

After an illness of several months caused by a brain tumor, Walter Johnson died in Washington December 10, 1946, and is buried next to Hazel at Union Cemetery, in Rockville, Maryland.

— Chuck Carey

1 After I wrote this article, Walter was credited with one additional strikeout, giving him a total of 3,509. The work of baseball's statistical revisionists goes on and on. Given the sloppiness of the reporting and compiling of stats a century ago, I question whether anybody will ever know the true numbers!
2 My friend Joe Wayman sent me a story about this disastrous seventh game which I thought interesting enough to quote at length here...

The game scheduled for October 14 was rained out by a powerful deluge.

The field was still in poor shape when the sun dawned through cold and drizzly skies the morning of October 15. But Commissioner Landis wanted the game played. And play they did.

Washington blew Aldridge out of the box in the very first inning, sending him to the clubhouse showers by scoring four times before Aldridge had retired two men. The great Walter Johnson held a 4-0 lead. By the third inning the drizzle had become a steady downpour.

A three-run rally in the last of the third brought the Bucs to within one run, but the Senators reopened the distance between them with two more in their half of the fourth. By the fifth, Fred Lieb said, "A dark mist hung over the field, and the outfielders looked like ghoulish figures in the general gloom."

But Johnson couldn't hang on. The Bucs tallied a solo run in the fifth. They added two more to tie in the seventh, aided greatly by Peckinpaugh's seventh Series error. After driving in the tying score, Traynor's attempt to break the tie by stretching his triple into a homer failed.

Peckinpaugh broke the tie with a solo homer in the eighth. In the last of the eighth, Johnson called for the groundskeepers for the eighth time to bring sand to keep the mound's footing as clean as possible. What Walter didn't know was that the men who brought out the wheelbarrows full of sand had been keeping it soaked under a garden hose. Johnson would get no advantage from the Pirates this day.

With two outs, Earl Smith doubled. Carson Bigbee matched Smith's hit and the game was tied. Second baseman Eddie Moore was walked, but Peckinpaugh couldn't make the play at second for the force, and was charged with Series error number eight. (There was only one non-Peckinpaugh Series error by the Senators.) The bases were loaded for Kiki Cuyler, who shot a line drive down the right-field foul line. He and all three of his teammates crossed the plate, but the umpires ruled a ground-rule double. Two runs were plenty for. the Bucs. No Senator reached against Red Oldham in the ninth, and the Bucs had attained the championship by coming back from a three-game-to-one deficit and beating Walter Johnson in the rain.

-- from page 465 of Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Team Histories: The National League, edited by Peter C. Bjarkman, Mecklermedia, 1991.