Goodby Randy....

The Randy Johnson era for the Arizona Diamondbacks is over. Randy was finally traded to the evil empire, the New York Yankees. I hated to see him go, especially to the Yankees. I sure hope we got enough in exchange for the future Hall of Famer. I have enjoyed seeing Johnson pitch for the D'Backs. Without him, we would not have gotten to the World Series in 2001, let alone won it. He is certainly the greatest lefthanded pitcher ever and perhaps the greatest pitcher ever - certainly amongst the top few. I'll be rooting for Johnson when he pitches for the Yankees (as long as they aren't playing the D'Backs or Mets, that is) and hope he goes 30-2 this year with them (and just to be clear, I hope the Yankees finish 30-132 on the season in that case....). I hope Randy can go into the Hall as a D'Back. His stats here were as good as ever with 4 Cy Youngs and more strikeouts than he had with the Mariners. He may just get to 300 wins as well. He should have won another Cy Young in 2004, but his won-loss record was probably his undoing. But it wasn't his fault. The D'Backs scored 2 or fewer runs in something like 8 of his 14 losses and instead of ending up 16-14, he ought to have gone 24-6 or so!

Best of luck Randy & we'll see you in Cooperstown!

Jim.