The National Baseball Hall of Fame will be clearing space in July for the Big Unit, but the wait continues for Edgar Martinez, the man who so defined the role of designated hitter that baseball’s annual DH award bears his name.
Left-handed pitcher Randy Johnson, who spent 10 of his 22 major-league seasons with the Mariners, was elected Tuesday along with Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio in voting announced by the Hall of Fame.
The four will be formally inducted in a July 26 ceremony at the Clark Sports Center near the Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. The Hall, which opened in 1936, now consists of 310 elected members.
Johnson, tagged the “Big Unit” because of his intimidating 6-foot-10 presence, becomes the first Hall of Fame member who spent a substantial portion of his career with the Mariners.
“I enjoyed (playing) despite what a lot of people (thought),” said Johnson, 51. “I wasn’t out there smiling and laughing a lot, but I enjoyed the competition. I tried to make it last as long as I could. Playing 22 years on the major-league level is something I never would have imagined.”
Johnson received 97.3 percent of the 549 returned ballots, which is the eighth-highest percentage in history. Election required a candidate be named on 75 percent (412) of the returned ballots.
For Edgar Martinez, the balloting results extended his disappointment to a sixth year, but he will be eligible again next year after being cited on 27 percent of the returned ballots.
“I’m a little encouraged that (the percentage) went up a little bit,” he said in an interview on Sirius XM Radio, “but I knew it was going to be very difficult.”
Edgar Martinez received 25.2 percent in 2014.
Candidates who get at least 5 percent remain on the ballot for the following year. Candidates can remain eligible for up to 10 years, which means Martinez could have four more chances.
“Hands down,” Johnson said, “he is the best pure hitter that I ever got to see. I hope that his time comes soon, that he gets a phone call stating that he’s a Hall of Fame player. Because he is.”
Mike Piazza heads a list of 16 other candidates on the 34-player ballot who met the 5-percent threshold to remain on the 2016 ballot. Piazza fell 28 votes shy of election.
Former Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. will be eligible next season for the first time.
But Tuesday belonged to Johnson, who was 303-166 with a 3.29 ERA in 618 career games with Montreal, the Mariners, Houston, Arizona, the New York Yankees and San Francisco from 1988-2009.
Johnson won the Cy Young Award on five occasions, including 1995 with the Mariners. His other four awards came consecutively from 1999-2002 with Arizona. He also won a World Series with the Diamondbacks in 2001.
For all that, Johnson wasn’t an instant success.
“The word ‘potential’ used to hang over me like a cloud,” he once said.
Johnson was 0-4 at Montreal in 1989 when the Mariners acquired him in a trade, and he led the American League in walks in each of his first three full seasons in Seattle.
“If anybody tells you they saw greatness in Randy Johnson (as a teen-ager),” said Jethro McIntyre, a scout who tracked Johnson in high school, “you better check his medication bottle.”
It wasn’t until 1993, when Johnson was 19-8 with a 3.24 ERA, that he emerged as a consistently dominant pitcher. That season, he lowered his walks from 144 to 99 and led the AL with 308 strikeouts.
“My time in Seattle was really my apprenticeship,” he said. “That’s where I learned how to pitch. I got the opportunity to go out there every fifth day — good, bad or indifferent — and learn how to pitch.”
Johnson often credits his turnaround to a 1992 tip from Nolan Ryan, then pitching for the Texas Rangers. Ryan and Texas pitching coach Tom House noticed Johnson landed on the heel of his front foot in his delivery.
Ryan and House suggested Johnson adjust his delivery to land on the ball of his foot. Almost immediately, Johnson’s command steadied because his release point became consistent.
“I guarantee you,” House said, “he’d been told everything Nolan and I told him a thousand times before. You have a tendency to listen when Nolan’s talking.”
Johnson finished his career with 4,875 strikeouts, which ranks second in major-league history to Ryan’s 5,714 over a 27-year career from 1966-93. But Johnson ranks first all-time in strikeouts per nine innings at 10.610.
Johnson deflected a question Tuesday regarding what club’s cap would appear on his plaque. The Hall of Fame makes that decision after consulting with the player.
“I’m just kind of celebrating the 22 years that I played,” he said, “and being inducted into the Hall of Fame. That question is out of my control. That’s more of a Hall of Fame decision at this point. We’ll cross that bridge in the next couple of days, from what I understand.”
Johnson’s greatest career success came in Arizona but, for many in the Northwest, he is forever identified as a Mariner.
“Seattle was just a wonderful time in my career,” Johnson said. “I had the ability to play with Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner and Omar Vizquel and Ken Griffey Jr. To finally do something as a team in 1995 was pretty special.”
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