SEATTLE -- The Big Unit was recognized in a big way on Monday by the Mariners, as the club announced that it will retire Randy Johnson's No. 51 jersey number in a ceremony next season.
It’s obviously the same number that was donned by Ichiro Suzuki, as both players will be represented in the jersey retirement.
The Mariners announced on Jan. 21, the same day Suzuki was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, that they would be retiring Suzuki's jersey number in a pregame ceremony on Aug. 9, held in conjunction with celebrating his enshrinement in Cooperstown in late July.
Johnson and Suzuki join Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. (No. 24) and Edgar Martinez (No. 24) as the only players to have their numbers retired in franchise history, along with Jackie Robinson (No. 42), which is retired by all MLB teams.
Monday’s announcement came on the 35th anniversary of Johnson throwing the first no-hitter in Mariners history, sparking one of the best careers that the franchise has ever seen. Five years later, he also won the club’s first American League Cy Young Award in that epic 1995 season that saved baseball in Seattle.
“Randy is both one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history and one of the most important figures in our organization’s history,” Mariners chairman and managing partner John Stanton said in a statement.
Monday’s announcement for Johnson further bridges his relationship back to the organization that, as he put it, let “me grow as a person and a pitcher,” but also one where his tenure ended somewhat sourly, after he was dealt to the Astros ahead of the 1998 Trade Deadline.
“I'm just glad with the new ownership that they're doing this,” Johnson said.
Johnson went on to reach even greater heights later in his career, primarily with the D-backs, with whom he won four consecutive Cy Young Awards and won the 2001 World Series title. When he was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2015 as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, he did so donning Arizona’s cap.
“It was a difficult choice, but it was the right choice -- because statistically, I did more [in Arizona],” Johnson said. “Now, if we could split the hat on my plaque and put a little bit of an M and a little bit of an A, well, I don't know if we could have done that. But I didn't ever try to disrespect the Seattle Mariners, and I think that's the one thing that's always kind of bothered me.”
Johnson also played for the Yankees, Expos, Giants and Astros -- but his 10 seasons with Seattle were his most with any over his 22-year career.
“Seattle ranks right up there,” Johnson said. “It's the one city that I played for the longest. It's where I had growing pains, but I finally grew into the pitcher that I was hoping to be someday.”
Johnson and Suzuki never played together, but they still share a bond as only 11 members of the Mariners Hall of Fame, and the Big Unit mentioned on Monday that he’ll be at T-Mobile Park for Suzuki’s ceremony this August.
The No. 51 didn’t carry any notable significance for Johnson, he said Monday -- but it did to Suzuki, who reached out to Johnson shortly after he signed with the Mariners in 2001 and requested permission to wear it.
“I knew it was a special number to the organization, and I knew that it was a special number to the fans here in Seattle,” Suzuki said in January. “Obviously, I wanted to make sure No. 51 was [done] justice, make sure that 51 wasn’t going to be embarrassed. And I felt like if No. 51 was just an average player, I wouldn’t do Randy Johnson justice. I knew [what it meant] for that number to keep going, and for that, I took it very seriously. I needed to do well to make sure I performed well in that number. I remember feeling that pressure when I got that number.”
Johnson arrived in Seattle in 1989 in arguably the biggest trade in franchise history, with the Montreal Expos, and blossomed into arguably the best left-handed pitcher of all time.
Overall, he posted a 130-74 record with 2 saves, a 3.42 ERA and 51 complete games with Seattle, striking out 2,162 in 274 games (266 starts). He remains among the all-time franchise leaders in strikeouts (second) and wins, starts and innings pitched (third), among other categories.