Dave Johnson, 1991 Topps #163

August 8, 1989. That's the day that 29-year-old Dave Johnson, summoned from AAA Rochester as a fill-in starter a week earlier, realized several firsts in his career: First start in Memorial Stadium, in his hometown of Baltimore. First major league complete game. First major league win. The righthander scattered eight hits and four walks and came out on top in a 6-1 Orioles win over Rick Aguilera and the Twins. Johnson struck out only three batters, but he did induce double-play grounders against Kirby Puckett and Brian Harper, as those two formidable Minnesota batters took a combined 0-for-8 collar. The Twins were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, whereas the opportunistic Birds went 3-for-7. The crucial win improved the O's to 58-53 and helped them maintain a two-game lead over second-place Toronto in the tightly packed American League East.

In a delicious bit of cosmic alignment, Dave's son Steve is being called upon as the Orioles' emergency starter tonight at Camden Yards. Though he debuted in Baltimore with a two-inning relief outing on July 15, the 24-year-old rookie will be making his first big league start in Charm City against Kevin Millwood and the Mariners. His promotion was necessitated by last night's marathon 14-inning win, the 12th straight in extra frames for the absurdly resilient and fortunate O's. Tonight's scheduled starter Tommy Hunter was not used, but did warm up in the 14th in the likely event that he'd be needed. That's how we've arrived at a landmark moment for Steve Johnson, whose hometown team looks to keep pace in the tightly-packed American League wild card race after pulling into a three-way tie with the Athletics and Angels early this morning.

I've given up worrying about the return to Earth. It may still come. But with every weird bounce of the ball, every heroic play by a replacement-level guy, every nail-biting and run-differential-confounding win, this season gets funnier and more delightful. I'm trying not to lose sight of that. All that I can do is laugh.

Dave Johnson, 1990 Leaf #434

One of my favorite things about baseball is all of that gooey human-interest junk. So I was happy to see that the Orioles called up Steve Johnson, son of Dave. Papa J. pitched for the O's from 1989 through 1991, and memorably tossed 4 complete games in his first 10 starts as a 29-year-old rookie for the "Why Not?" team. There are some parallels between the two generations. Both were born and raised in Baltimore rooting for the Birds, and both paid their dues in the minor leagues. Dave had a cup of coffee with the Pirates in 1987 (the year of his son's birth) but didn't get an extended look in the majors until his eighth pro season. Steve, who was drafted by the Dodgers out of St. Paul's High School in the 13th round of the 2005 draft, is poised to make his big league debut in his eighth season of pro ball. After scuffling in his first taste of AAA competition last year, the younger Johnson seemed to figure some things out in early 2012. He's put up a 2.73 ERA this season at Norfolk, with a 1.07 WHIP and 63 strikeouts in 62.2 innings. He's been even better since a shift to the bullpen for long relief, allowing a single earned run in 17 innings while striking out 24.

When Steve toes the rubber for the first time in an Orioles uniform, he and Dave will go down in the books as the sixth father and son combo in team history. The others are the Kennedys (Bob and Terry), the Bufords (Don and Damon), the O'Donoghues (John and John), the Mays (Dave and Derrick), and the Raineses (Tim, Sr. and Tim, Jr.). If you're keeping an eye out for the next family connection in Charm City, you could be waiting for a bit. 24-year-old Steven Bumbry is currently hitting .170 through his first 29 games at AA Bowie, and Ryan Ripken is expected to attend the University of South Carolina in the fall on an athletic scholarship. If brother duos are your thing, Zach Britton's 26-year-old brother Buck is hitting .283/.349/.428 with 28 RBI in 48 games with Bowie. There's also the Bundy brothers, although older sibling Bobby is taking his lumps with the Baysox (2-9, 4.79 ERA, 1.5 WHIP).

Dave Johnson, 1991 Score #506

You want a really random, obscure statistic? Of course you do; you're a baseball fan. In 1990, when he went 13-9 with a 4.10 ERA for the Orioles, Dave Johnson did not allow a stolen base in 24 straight starts to begin the year. Neither were any runners caught stealing while he was on the mound in those games. In other words, no one so much as attempted to run on Dave Johnson, a 30-year-old journeyman. It's the longest such streak to begin a season since 1973, which is as far back as complete baserunning data goes. That is truly bizarre.

Let's look at the circumstances. Dave was a 30-year-old journeyman who tended to pitch righty. Generally, lefties have the better pickoff moves (see: Flanagan, Mike), since they face first base when standing astride the mound. I can't imagine him being that quick to the plate, since he struck out 68 batters in 180 innings in 1990. As for his batterymates, there were no Ivan Rodriguez types at catcher for the O's that year: Mickey Tettleton gunned down 28% of would-be base thieves that year; backup Bob Melvin was only slightly better at 30%. Chris Hoiles checked in at 50%, but in a very small sample size (4-for-8 in 7 games).

Now I'll admit that I have no personal memories of having seen Dave Johnson pitch. Does anyone remember him being tough on baserunners, or was this just one of those freak things?

Dave Johnson, 1991 Upper Deck #299

Alright, time's running short tonight and I wore myself out throwing together the Jimmy Piersall post for my 1965 Topps blog, so we're doing a little show and tell here. This is the third of four autographs that I got at Oriole Park at Camden Yards two weeks ago. You should recognize Dave Johnson (even if the signature seems to read "J Jegs"), who got a lot of mileage out of his 21 career wins for his hometown team and has found a second career as a radio and TV analyst for the O's who wears his heart on his sleeve. He is also hoping to be part of the second-ever father-son duo to pitch for the Orioles (the John O'Donoghues came first), if his son Steven can continue to climb the organizational ladder. Thanks for the ink, Dave!

Dave Johnson, 1991 Fleer Ultra #18

Two days ago I briefly mentioned that the Orioles had acquired Steven Johnson as one of the players in the George Sherrill trade. I wanted to touch back on that, because it really is a heartwarming story. Steven's father is Dave Johnson, the man pictured above. Dave was a hometown boy made good, an Overlea High and Baltimore City Community College grad who survived eight years in the minor leagues to eventually become one of the best starters on the Oriole staff in 1989-1990 (1991 was a different story, but oh well). Of course he stayed in the Baltimore area and raised his kids here, so Steven grew up rooting for the O's just like his father.

Just a few months ago, the Birds drafted Al Bumbry's son (also named Steven), and Dave mentioned on his radio show with Tom Davis that his own son was disappointed when the team didn't draft him in 2005. At the time, Dave encouraged him by telling him something along the lines of, "at least you know the Dodgers drafted you because they want you and think you're talented, instead of just doing me a favor". (I may have paraphrased that very awkwardly.) The younger Johnson has had a somewhat slow climb through the minors, but he's still very young (21) and has showed improvement in the last two years. In fact, Fangraphs just ranked him 14th out of the 35 prospects that were traded in July. He projects as a back-end starter or a reliever in the major leagues.

I wasn't around to hear it, but supposedly Dave was on the radio when he heard that his boy was joining the Baltimore organization. At that moment, he was overcome with emotion and choked up on air. It's the kind of human touch that makes me proud to be an Orioles fan.

Dave Johnson, 1990 Score Rising Stars #43

I may not be a talk radio star/baseball analyst like former O's pitcher Dave Johnson, but I think I did alright for my first try at it. Last Thursday, I was Dave Gilmore's guest on the brand-new Baltimore Sports Report podcast. Our 49-minute discussion was posted today, and if you're so inclined, you can give it a listen here. Just to give you an idea of how dangerous it is to give me a platform to talk baseball, Dave had originally given me an estimated duration of 20 minutes for the podcast! We covered a lot of ground and worked in a lot of plugs for my NumerOlogy website as well as this humble little blog, and topics included Opening Day, retired numbers, the Orioles Hall of Fame, "cursed" uniform numbers, and my wild guesses for the numbers that'll be worn by the next generation of Orioles. I tend to be critical of my own performance when listening to recordings of myself, but I didn't really cringe on the playback until I started talking about Baltimore's long baseball history near the end of the podcast; I must have said "you know" about a half-dozen times in 30 seconds. But hey, I was probably mentally fatigued by that point. Enjoy, and feel free to offer feedback!

Dave Johnson, 1990 Upper Deck #425

I wish I had been a baseball fan when Dave Johnson was still pitching. There have been a lot of major league baseball players from Baltimore, some of them among the all-time greats of the game (Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth, and Al Kaline, most notably). But Dave Johnson was truly one of our own. He hailed from Middle River, mere miles from my own childhood home. He attended Overlea High School and Baltimore City Community College, and was not drafted by any team. The Pirates signed him as an amateur free agent in 1982. He pitched in their organization for seven years, getting a brief taste of the bright lights in 1987 at age 27. He was a mop-up guy, and not an impressive one at that; his thirteen hits allowed in six and one-third innings probably shortened his already-brief stay in Pittsburgh. Johnson was finally granted his freedom after a 1988 season spent entirely in the minors, signing with Houston in December. Three months later he was traded to his hometown Orioles just before the start of the new season; the rebuilding Birds had picked him up as insurance. That's where his legend begins.

I've talked about the wonders of the "Why Not?" O's of 1989, but I haven't gone into detail about Dave Johnson's role. He was recalled from AAA Rochester at the beginning of August to provide a fresh arm in a double header against Boston. He lasted into the seventh inning, but gave up five runs to wind up on the wrong end of a 6-2 decision. But a week later, he was given another shot, this time in front of his friends and family in Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The result was right out of Damn Yankees, as the 29-year-old righthander with 13 major league innings under his belt scattered eight hits, going the distance for a 6-1 victory over the Twins. The win allowed the ragtag Birds to hold on to their slim two-game lead over AL East rival Toronto. His next start was another 6-1 complete-game victory at home; this time he held the Red Sox to six hits. After a rough outing in his fourth start, a 9-2 loss vs. Toronto, he rebounded for his third complete game in four starts at Memorial Stadium, a 4-2 win over the Brewers, who were also nipping at Baltimore's heels. The rest of Johnson's season was up-and-down, but before the year was out he would notch a fourth complete game, tough 3-0 loss to the White Sox. Despite starting just fourteen games, Dave's 4 complete games tied for the team lead with eighteen-game-winner Jeff Ballard.

The following season would prove to be Dave Johnson's only full major league campaign. It was a good one, as he led the O's in wins (13) and again tied for the lead in complete games (3). Once again, all of his CGs were in Baltimore; being so close to home just seemed to give him that extra push. Nearly two decades later, Dave's still a part of the action in Charm City. He helped instruct the team's pitchers during the most recent Spring Training, and he serves as a baseball analyst for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and 105.7 WHFS.

During my childhood, I remember sitting in the waiting room at my dentist's office and seeing a glossy photo that hung on the bulletin board. It was a head shot of Dave Johnson in an Orioles uniform; he was a fellow patient. While I recall being somewhat impressed by this fact, it would have resonated with me much more if my love of baseball weren't still a few years away. It's the kind of thing that you don't spend much time thinking about, but I guess baseball players have to get their teeth cleaned too. As you can see above, Dave had a great smile to show for it.