Paschal: Once upon a time: when Hall of Famers go one and done
From John Paschal at The Hardball Times on January 29, 2019:
On September 19, 2003, at Miller Park, a man without a mullet departed the right-hand batter’s box and embarked upon his first full circuit of the big league bases. When he touched home plate, 39-year-old Randy Johnson–whose trademark ’do, it must be noted, was at last a thing of the past–had hit his premier home run in The Show. In so doing, Johnson had joined the biblical Samson as a guy who, just this once, displayed remarkable strength after bidding farewell to his signature locks.
It wasn’t just his first home run, you see.
It would be his only home run.
Johnson is hardly alone, however, in being a Hall of Famer who notched a solitary feat in a career otherwise defined by a plurality of counting numbers. Indeed, the majority of inner-circle Cooperstown guys are, in one way or another, One-Timers.
Read the full article here: https://tht.fangraphs.com/once-upon-a-time-when-hall-of-famers-go-one-and-done/
Related links:
- Read SABR biographies of Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2019 class
- Read our SABR biography of Randy Johnson at the SABR BioProject
Originally published: February 1, 2019. Last Updated: February 1, 2019.