Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson Dishes on Seattle Mariners Career, Steaks and More

"The Big Unit" sat down with the Fastball on FanNation team to talk about his career in Seattle, his acting career and his partnership with the Sizzler Steakhouse.

Seattle Mariners pitcher Randy Johnson in action on the mound in 1997. / Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY Sports

When Hall of Famer Randy Johnson was on the mound, his fastball brought the sizzle.

Now that he's in retirement, the "Big Unit" is still dealing with sizzle, only this time its with steak.

Johnson, who starred for 22 years in the big leagues with the Montreal Expos, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, has come out of retirement (at least for the moment) for a new commercial campaign in which he coaches a youth baseball team akin to the "Bad News Bears."

You've heard of "We're going to DisneyWorld!,' Well, in Johnson's case, it's "We goin' Sizzler!"

Johnson undertook the task of helping the winless Simi Valley (CA) River Dogs improve their baseball skills. Though the River Dogs didn't win a game under his tutelage, they still did earn a trip to the famed Steakhouse, which has been serving up steaks since 1958.

"The premise of the commercial is I'm going to come in and help this team win. And then they're going to go to Sizzler and celebrate. And so shortly thereafter my coaching debut, they played another team and they unfortunately ended up losing, but they still got to go to Sizzler because they ended up scoring a run," Johnson said with a chuckle.

Johnson spent some time recently with Fastball on FanNation to talk about his baseball career - and his acting career - with a special emphasis on his time with the Seattle Mariners (some answers have been edited for length purposes).

Brady Farkas: Randy, I remember you growing up playing a small part in "Little Big League," and you recently did a commercial for DirectTV, is acting a secret passion of yours?

Randy Johnson: Well, I have very limited acting skills, if you will, but it's just fun, you know... I've done a few and when I'm asked, I enjoy doing them. I work as hard as I have to work to give them what they want and it kind of breaks up my daily, monthly, yearly routine....This year was a great year. You know, I got asked to do something by Sizzler, and then the one that you're talking about from DirecTV. So, I really got lucky in being able to do two of them. It was a lot of fun. 

BF: A lot of people think of you as an Arizona Diamondback, but I think of you as a Seattle Mariners star. Talk to me about the 1995 Mariners. It wasn't the World Series, but where did that season rank for you?

RJ: It was my World Series and it was the Mariners' World Series. That was their World Series. That kept the team in Seattle. That was their bargaining chip, based on what we did in '95. That was their leverage in getting a new ballpark because the organization was wanting a new ballpark at that time and the city wasn't wasn't in line for giving them a new ballpark. You know, the product wasn't good enough to validate putting something out there to the public asking for public funding because the team had been a .500 team, but '95, everybody on the team turned things around, and it was a inspirational and inspiring year, and it just so happened that it was the most pivotal year in Mariners history.

And had we not done that, they may not have a new stadium across the street from where it used to be. They may be in Florida....So it was a it was a huge and pivotal year... It was exciting. I didn't have anything to base it off of, so for me, that was my first World Series, even though it wasn't. That's where I rank it. It was pretty special...

Johnson also talked about this famous game from 1997, in which he threw a complete-game with 142 pitches AND gave up a 538-foot home run to Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics. We asked him about throwing that many pitches and how the dynamic of going deep into games worked with manager Lou Piniella.

RJ: I think me and Lou worked well together, but I had to earn his trust that I had to show him that what I was doing between the lines would validate what inevitably he was going to allow me to do...I earned his respect on the mound. And so he just said, 'Hey, I don't need to always be coming up and asking you how you're doing... I entrust in you, Randy, and you let me know when you want to come out and when you're good and you keep going.'

"And I think I had to earn that from him... I think that's kind of the relationship that me and Lou had, but it was all based on earning his trust and being the ace of the staff there while I was there for the eight years. There was a lot of people that counted on me there and rightfully so. With all that, much was expected. The Lou Piniella era there was a lot of fun. I enjoyed pitching for him and I think wanting to win for a manager because you know how much passion he has for winning because he played the game himself..."

Johnson spent parts of eight seasons with the Mariners, going 130-74 in that time. He won the Cy Young Award in 1995 when he went 18-2. All in all, Johnson was a five-time Cy Young winner. He was a 10-time All-Star and a 2001 World Series champion. He went into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. He is also a member of the Mariners Hall of Fame.

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