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[edit] Trivia

Before he was signed 1907, a scout said Johnson had to know where he was throwing, or there'd be dead bodies all over Idaho. Ump Billy Evans claimed not to get second-guessed calling his strikes, because batters had their eyes shut, too. (Others couldn't see them anyhow.) And Ty Cobb got hits off him by crowding the plate, one of the few batters willing to risk it, because he knew Johnson didn't really want to kill him. (Or so Ken Burns' "Baseball" said.) Trekphiler 05:07, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hitting

Perhaps there should be something on his prowess as a hitter? 547 hits is probably a record for career pitcher. Mglovesfun

I've shortened the following section a bit:

"That 1.14 ERA in 1913 should have been lower if not for one of manager Clark Griffith's traditions. For the last game of the season, Griffith often treated the fans to a farce game. The farce game in 1913 saw the 43 year old Griffith playing a ball off his head while playing right field. He also misplayed a liner that resulted in an inside-the-park homer, and he also was one of eight pitchers to appear in the game. Griffith played Walter Johnson in Center Field until bringing him in to pitch in the 8th inning. In that appearance, Johnson lobbed pitches to two hitters that resulted in hits before he was sent back to playing Center Field. The subsequent pitcher (actually a catcher making his only Major League pitching appearance) then allowed the two runners to score. Some record books still indicate that Johnson had a 1.09 ERA for 1913. The official scorekeeper ignored the game, but later, Johnson was charged with those two runs, raising his ERA."

I felt like this section was too long for one single game for a pitcher who pitched over 800 games. I've decided to add to the article by adding some hitting stats. Mglovesfun 14:53, 23 August 2006 (UTC)