Meeting Randy Johnson

So, if you haven't followed me and my writing in the past 10 years, I've been somewhat obsessed over the 300-win milestone, specifically the 300th win of one Randall David Johnson. I've done everything from write-ups about the game to collecting stories of other people at the game to transcripts of the broadcast. And then on June 4, 2019 - the 10th anniversary of the milestone game, I rolled out a massive retrospective totaling nearly 500,000 words detailing everything from all of the 300-game winners and their milestone wins, all 303 of Randy Johnson's wins, and all of the other games played on June 4, 2009. So yes, I have spent a lot of my time thinking about and writing about the Big Unit.

Which makes it somewhat strange that over all this time I have yet to actually meet the fellow. I've spent the last decade either going around and meeting the other 300-game winners or going to their graves, but our paths had never crossed, just like it had never crossed with Tom Seaver. I am usually too busy to travel the great distances required to go to his public appearances, which are often out of state. The only time I saw that he was in Texas came ten years ago, on January 25, 2010. He was appearing in the Tristar show in Houston, but this was when I was celebrating a birthday with some med school friends, and there was a quiz coming up on the past week. There was no way I'd be able to drive eight hours to get a chance to meet the latest 300-game winner. I was able to get my ticket sent it for a signature complete with a "Win 300" inscription.

Since then I had been checking the Houston lineup every year. There have been plenty of 300-game winners that made appearances there, including Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Tom Glavine. But Randy Johnson was always missing from the list. That is, until I checked in 2020. There he was, the Big Unit himself, making a scheduled appearance in the Houston Tristar show on February 9, 2020.