Walter Johnson
| Full Name : | Walter Perry Johnson |
| Public : | Walter Johnson |
| Nickname : | The Big Train |
| Country : | United States (USA)  |
| DOB : | November 6, 1887 |
| Place : | Humboldt, Kansas |
| Height : | 6' 1" |
| Weight : | 200 lbs. |
| Sport : | Baseball - MLB |
| Team : | Retired |
| Level : | Professional |
| Status : | Legend |
| Died : | December 10, 1946 (Age 59) |
| Place : | Washington, D.C. |
| Walter Johnson | |
| Pitcher | |
| Batted : Right | Threw : Right |
MLB Team :
Washington Senators (1907 - 1927)
Achievement :
1924 World Series champion
2× AL MVP (1913, 1924)
Post Career Honors :
Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted in 1936
#42 on AP's Top 100 Athletes of the 20th Century
#60 on ESPN's Sportcentury Greatest Athletes
#4 on TSN Baseball's 100 Greatest Players
MLB All-Century Team
Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 - December 10, 1946), nicknamed "The Big Train", was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1907 and 1927. One of the most celebrated players in baseball history, Johnson established several pitching records, some of which remained unbroken for more than a half-century.
Walter Johnson was the second of six children born to Frank and Minnie (Perry) Johnson on a rural farm four miles west of Humboldt, Kansas. Although sometimes said to be of Swedish ancestry and referred to by sportwriters as the "The Big Swede", Johnson's ancestors came from the British Isles.
Soon after he reached his fourteenth birthday, his family moved to California's Orange County in 1902. The Johnsons settled in the town of Olinda, a small oil boomtown located just east of Brea. In his youth, the young Walter Johnson split his time between playing baseball, working in the nearby oil fields, and going horseback riding. Johnson later attended Fullerton High School where he struck out 27 batters during a 15-inning game against Santa Ana High School. He later moved to Idaho where he doubled as a telephone company employee and a pitcher for a local Weiser, Idaho-based baseball team in the Idaho State League. Johnson was spotted by a talent scout and eventually signed a contract with the Washington Senators on July 1907 at the age of nineteen.
As a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals/Senators, Walter Johnson won 417 games, the second most by any pitcher in history (after Cy Young, who won 511). He and Young are the only pitchers to have won 400 games.
In a 21-year career, Johnson had twelve 20-win seasons, including ten in a row. Twice, he topped thirty wins (33 in 1912 and 36 in 1913). Johnson's record includes 110 shutouts, the most in baseball history. Johnson had a 38-26 record in games decided by a 1-0 score; both his win total and his losses in these games are major league records. On September 4, 5 and 7, 1908, he shut out the New York Yankees (then known as the New York Highlanders) in three consecutive games.
Three times, Johnson won the triple crown for pitchers (1913, 1918 and 1924). Johnson twice won the American League Most Valuable Player Award (1913, 1924), a feat accomplished since by only two other pitchers, Carl Hubbell in 1933 and 1936 and Hal Newhouser in 1944 and 1945.
One of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, Walter Johnson retired to Germantown, Maryland. A life-long Republican and friend of President Calvin Coolidge, Johnson was elected as a Montgomery County commissioner in 1938. In 1940 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Maryland's 6th district, but came up short against the incumbent Democrat, William D. Byron, by a total of 60,037 (53%) to 52,258 (47%).
