Randy Johnson essays

Randy Johnson essays Randy Johnson is a man of many fine characteristics on and off the field. Since he has come to the Diamondbacks organization he has already won a world championship and lead the team to three division titles. He has won four Cy young awards and three of the past three years. Off the field he supports foundations such as Cystic Fibrosis and ChildHaven. Johnson's main weapons are a fastball that can reach triple digits on the radar gun and an 89 MPH slider that can look like a fastball but break onto a righthanded hitters' shoetops. But on occasion he also will try to throw a backdoor slider on the outside corner. And he has added a couple pitches that he'll use a handful of times per game a split-finger pitch and a two-seam fastball. With a runner on first base, for example, Johnson might try a two-seamer to get a groundball instead of expending more pitches on a strikeout. The subject of a humorous commercial when he first came to Arizona, Johnson's hitting has improved. But he still managed just eight singles in 80 at-bats last season. His bunting ability is average. His fielding is poor; he has a tendency to hurry throws and also subject his defensive mates to the same type of movement he features on his pitches. While Johnson doesn't have a great pickoff move, he'll get some outs that way because of persistence. As much as I admire Randy's playing ability on the field, I admire his personality and generosity off the field even more. He sets a model for all of us. Randy Johnson is very active with his local chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Randy serves as co-chair of the Mariners' annual CF Golf Tournament and auction, which raises over $100,000 annually and is one of the CF Foundation's largest fund raisers in the country. In his tenure as co-chair (along with Jay Buhner), the golf tourney has raised over a half million dollars to help find a cure for this crippling disease. ...