WASHINGTON -- Convention never suited Randy Johnson anyway.
So it figures that he would wait 22 1/2 hours and then 36 more minutes after that before embarking on the final 2 1/2-hour leg of his journey into one of baseball's select groups. It figures he'd do it on the grayest of days in front of a crowd that might make a minor league team blush with embarrassment instead of before 45,000 adoring fans, too.
No, the poetic path never was for the Big Unit.
But he found his way into the 300-win club anyway Thursday night in the nation's capital. Two rain delays over two days were unable to prevent him from becoming its 24th member with six innings of one-run ball in a 5-1 victory over the hapless Washington Nationals.
It was only after hitting the milestone Johnson seemed able to wax philosophical.
As Fletch reported yesterday, Noah Lowry's agent contends that the Giants misdiagnosed Lowry's arm issues, put him under the knife for the wrong surgery, assigned him the wrong rehab program, and jeopardized his career. The Giants are denying this. From Calvin and Hobbes, November 18, 1990:
CALVIN. Your foot hurts? What kind of stupid problem is that? SUSIE. You're the doctor! You're supposed to find out what's wrong with it. CALVIN. It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wonderful coincidence as it would have been -- Randy Johnson winning No. 300 in Seattle -- it's not going to happen.
Johnson was pounded for seven runs in four innings on Saturday afternoon, taking the 9-6 loss against the the Mets and Johan Santana, so he'll still be on 298 victories when he makes his next start in an interleague game on Friday at Safeco Field.
Neither pitcher was sharp in this matchup of seven Cy Young Awards (five for Johnson), but Johnson definitely took the worst of it.
Buster Posey thought California's spring weather would be warmer.
The chilly nights are the lone complaint -- make that a polite observation -- from Posey, who has only further strengthened his reputation as the San Francisco Giants' prized catching prospect during the opening month of the minor-league baseball season.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
It's been a while since a week of baseball was this sad -- we saw the tragic passings of Nick Adenhart, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych. And without waxing too sentimentally, it's the loss of these men that remind us exactly just how little sports matter in the grand scheme of things. RIP, gentlemen. Power rankings (that feel just a tad inconsequential, to be honest) after the jump.
LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez came bouncing down the stairs, baggy uniform and dreads flapping, and Dodger Stadium erupted.
They had been waiting all winter, through months of contract negotiations that ended precisely where they began, to see this sight. The love affair between Ramirez and Los Angeles has picked up right where it left off.
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than Omar Vizquel. There's a reason the man has won 11 Gold Gloves in his career, after all. So how does he do it?
Well, a lot of baseball players spend their offseasons relaxing and recovering, while working out just to stay in shape. Some don't do anything and wait until the last minute before Spring Training to get ready for the long season. Then there's Omar Vizquel, who spends his offseason utilizing his ability to catch things, things like anacondas.
Omar Vizquel played for Bruce Bochy for two seasons in San Francisco before Vizquel signed a deal to play for Texas this season. His final assessment of Bochy as a manager is not so great.
"I don't think Bochy was my type of manager," Vizquel said when asked about his former field boss during a discussion of managerial styles. "I always went along with his decisions. I never said anything in the paper about him, but sometimes I wished he could be more aggressive with the moves that he made. But everybody has his style, and you can't change that."
And what better time to start talking about your manager in the paper than when he's not your manager anymore?
Okay, so I don't know if Bruce Bochy would actually kill him, but it looks as though he may be willing to possibly kill the kid's career. On Saturday night, Tim Lincecum threw his first complete game shutout of the season as the San Francisco Giants beat the Padres 7-0. He also threw 138 pitches in the process.
Now, on the surface, there doesn't seem to be any reason for a manager to leave his ace in a blowout and allow him to throw so many pitches, especially when you consider that both teams are well out of the playoff hunt. So why did Bochy do it? Well, he wanted to help the kid in the NL Cy Young race.
"It was big for him to pitch a shutout," Bochy said. "I don't want him to talk about, 'I haven't finished a game.' I don't want that on his resume when they're talking about the Cy Young voting, and I don't want him to think, 'If I finished a game or two, that would have made a difference.' "
On one hand, I can appreciate Bochy doing everything in his power to help one of his players win an award. It's the kind of thing that earns a lot of love and respect in the clubhouse. On the other hand, I think Bochy must be out of his mind.
Why risk injuring the kid just to help him get a few votes for an award that really doesn't mean anything? And does Bruce really think some voter will think to himself, "Man, I wasn't going to vote for Lincecum before, but now that he's shutout the Padres I have no choice!" Imagine what would have happened if on pitch #138 Tim had felt a pop in his elbow.
WASHINGTON -- Convention never suited Randy Johnson anyway.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wonderful coincidence as it would have been -- 
PHOENIX – Brewers manager 
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than 
Okay, so I don't know if 
