Baseball’s ‘Big Train’ Was Gone Too Soon

Baseball lost its “Big Train” 53 years ago today.

Walter Johnson, the lanky, raw-boned kid who went from Fullerton High to the Baseball Hall of Fame and who was considered by most the best pitcher of the first half of the 20th century, died of a brain tumor at 59.

Johnson was a noted Southland pitcher before anyone in Washington, D.C., ever heard of him. He would play 21 seasons (1907-1927) for the Senators and win 417 games, more than anyone who pitched entirely in the 20th century, a statistic made more significant because the Senators finished in the second division in 10 of his 21 seasons.

He had two 30-plus win seasons, won at least 20 in 10 other years and pitched 110 shutouts, 20 more than anyone else. He won and lost more 1-0 games than anyone else. His greatest season was in 1913, when he was 36-7 with a 1.14 earned-run average and had a streak of 55 2/3 scoreless innings, a record that lasted until Don Drysdale broke it in 1968.

Walter Perry Johnson is buried in Rockville Union Cemetery, Rockville, Md., under a plain gravestone that yields not a hint that millions considered him the greatest of all pitchers.

Also on this date: In 1972, the American League approved of the designated hitter rule. . . . In 1977, famed Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp died at 76.