Not worried

NEW YORK – There are those who believe Randy Johnson would be best served by lowering his expectations and that it is no longer reasonable to expect him to be the dominant pitcher he once was.

Johnson does not agree and offers this promise to those who are ready to say he no longer is among the elite: As soon as he truly believes he has fallen to mediocrity, he will simply retire.

“I would,” he said an animated interview during the weekend. “I’d walk away. Because then I would be a pitcher that I wouldn’t want to be. And then I would be complacent, I wouldn’t work as hard, I wouldn’t be driven …”

He paused and looked up from his chair.

“Look, I may not be the same kind of pitcher that I once was but if I buy into that, and start believing that, then what people think is bad now would only get worse,” he said. “I could be very content by just knowing that I am going to win 15-17 games here and just go through the motions – but that’s not me. I’m not content with being mediocre.”

Johnson does not deny he has been ineffective recently, getting hit hard in three of his last four outings (two against Toronto, one against Tampa Bay). Tonight he faces Josh Beckett and the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

If Johnson shuts down Boston, it likely would quell the nervous shouts from fans. But Johnson chastises such logic, wondering why there is a rush to judgment. His evaluation of a season comes at the end, not in the middle.

Even if he is overwhelming against the Red Sox, he said, there will be another bad start somewhere down the road.

“When I pitched against Toronto everyone thought I was done,” Johnson said, “so why all of a sudden am I done one game and now ‘He’s back?’ If that’s the way I went about my business then I probably wouldn’t have any hair on my head and I’d be a lot grayer.”

Joe Torre said expectations for Johnson are too high. There is a perception he must be amazing each time he takes the mound, Torre said, and anything less – even if the Yankees win – is seen as failure.

Torre would like Johnson – as well as fans and media – to focus more on the fact that he is 5-2. Yes, the Yankee hitters helped him get victories in two of his shoddy showings, but Torre does not want Johnson to feel like he let anyone down.

“It’s unfair what we expect, to think that he’s going to go out and dominate every time,” Torre said. “It’s not always going to be that dominant guy. When he takes the mound, you accept what it is and know that your chances are better with him on the mound than a lot of other people.”

He just doesn’t want to see Johnson get into a mind game with himself, which Torre feels might be a factor now.