Johnson's return brings back memories in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) " On a late July night nearly 11 years ago in the middle of a game with the New York Yankees, Lou Piniella hung up the phone in the dugout of the old Kingdome and walked over to Randy Johnson.

With a tap on the shoulder and a whisper in his ear, Piniella informed the Big Unit his days with the Seattle Mariners were over.

"Awkward," Ken Griffey Jr. said Friday of the in-game trade that ended Johnson's nine-year run as the most dominant pitcher in Mariners' history. "I think anyone that gets traded during a middle of a game, it's a little awkward."

When Johnson left Seattle for Houston at the trade deadline in 1998, he was the most dominant left-hander in the game, but nowhere near joining one of the most hallowed fraternities in baseball " the 300-win club. He garnered 130 victories and one Cy Young Award in his nine seasons helping transform Seattle from doormat into baseball power.

Fast forward more than a decade to Friday night, when an aging, 45-year-old Big Unit returned to Seattle. He was seeking win No. 299, but it wouldn't come in Seattle as Johnson left with one out in the sixth inning of a 1-1 game that Seattle won 2-1 in 12 innings.

As Johnson walked off in likely his final appearance in the city where he developed into a frightening menace for batters to face, he was given a standing ovation from the 38,520 in attendance. Sensing the finality of the moment, Johnson tipped his cap to every corner of Safeco Field as he left the field.

"It was nice to come back here and pitch well," Johnson said afterward. "I needed that personally. And to take care of the fans because if this was my last start (here) then I got the opportunity to walk off the mound here and pay my respects to the fans that have been very good to me through my career."

The theatrical scripting of Johnson's return would only be more sensational if Johnson were going for his 300th win and if Griffey were in the lineup. Instead, this was Johnson's second attempt at 299, and Griffey watched from the Mariners' dugout.

"He's been good on the club, with the younger pitchers. He's pitched some good games and he's had some that weren't so good," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "But overall ... he's done all we've asked."

This wasn't Johnson's first trip back to the mound in Seattle. He returned during the 1999 season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He also made two starts with the New York Yankees in Seattle during his two seasons pitching for them.

But in a season already made nostalgic for Mariners' fans thanks to Griffey's return, a chance to see Johnson one last time was an added treat. Johnson was responsible for the first no-hitter in franchise history and rang up 2,162 of his 4,838 career strikeouts, after Friday's game, with the Mariners. His long, blond hair, snarling facial expressions and 99 mph fastball became almost as associated with Seattle baseball as Griffey's majestic home run swings.

"It was like a semi day off, just a few sprints to hit and to your position," Griffey said. "He was fun to watch. A guy throwing that hard, 120, 130 pitches some days."

And no one will forget Johnson's complete-game victory over the California Angels in a one-game playoff in 1995 to determine the AL West champion. The image of Johnson being mobbed after striking out Tim Salmon to clinch Seattle's first division title was trumped only a few days later when Johnson came jogging out of the bullpen to throw three innings of relief in Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees that Seattle won in 11 innings on Edgar Martinez's now-famous double to score Griffey.

Those memories were why fans likely said farewell to Johnson with the standing ovation as he walked off after 115 pitches.

"You can see it. Even after 22, 23 years in baseball he still got it in him. He's still got the stuff, he's still got the winning mentality," said reigning NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, who was 4 years old when Johnson made his major league debut in September 1988 and watched Johnson up close growing up in the Seattle area.

Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu knew Johnson well before he became a five-time Cy Young winner. Wakamatsu was the catcher for a select all-star team in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980s. He often found himself "retrieving" more of Johnson's wild pitches than catching strikes as the big lefty had the velocity but lacked the control even back then.

"Just to be able to catch him back then and reflect is pretty special," Wakamatsu said.