Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamee999
I always love your all-sport reports, great to see this.
What happened to Walter Johnson? I noticed he didn't get to 300 wins.
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Thank you, much appreciated.
WALTER 'THE BIG TRAIN' JOHNSON
Walter Johnson had a Hall of Fame career, but not quite as good as in real life. He spent his entire career with the Senators, debuting as a 19 year old in 1907 when he went 18-3, led the AL with a 1.15 era and was named Rookie of the Year. He retired at age 35 in 1923, 5 years earlier than in real life, and finished with a 289-214 career record. He had a few injuries of longer duration in his career, but most occurred in late August or September so did not cost him as much time as they could have. The one exception was an April, 1909 back injury that limited to just 5 starts in his age 21 season.
The big difference in his sim record vs real life is he did not have the huge run from 1910 to 1919 where in real life he averaged 27.5 wins a season for 10 years. In the sim he average 19.7 wins a season over the same time period. Add the lost 80 wins there to the 68 wins he picked up in real life after his retirement in the sim and you have the difference between his sim 289-214 record and real life 417-279 mark.
His strikeout totals also paled in comparison to real life, where Johnson fanned 3,509 batters. In the sim he had 2,720 strikeouts but pitched about 1,400 innings less than he in real life.
Johnson never pitched a postseason game as the Senators did not win an American League pennant until 5 years after his retirement. He did win 3 Cy Young Awards, was a 10 time all-star and in his rookie season he pitched a no-hitter against the New York Highlanders. He was a near unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer, appearing on 99.7% of the ballots.