Actions Louder Than Words Johnson Reluctant To Stop Gesturing

Randy Johnson has a message to all his sensitive strikeout victims: Tough luck.

Especially when he bangs on his chest with a flourish and, sometimes, dismisses them with seeming contempt with a wave of his hand.

“I have heard that people in the past have felt that’s a form of showing them up,” the Seattle Mariners’ left-hander said. “So I guess I don’t do it as much as I’ve done in the past.”

Oakland manager Tony La Russa and Mike Greenwell of Boston have protested publicly about Johnson’s mound manners. They voiced their displeasure to the press, not Johnson.

“No one ever says anything to me,” he said.

Small wonder. It’s probably wise not get too much on the bad side of baseball’s hardest thrower (a consistent 98 mph fastball), who is leading the major leagues in strikeouts for the fourth year in a row.

At 6-foot-10, Johnson is the tallest player in his sport’s history. If his height and his fastball aren’t intimidating enough, his icy glare is.

Although he’s given in somewhat by limiting his gestures of glee after strikeouts, he doesn’t want to give into the hitters on this matter too much, either.

“It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks,” he said. “There are a lot of bruised egos when I go out there. They don’t want to be shown up. But it’s nothing personal.”

What it is, Johnson says, is his way of pumping himself up, getting motivated, getting an adrenaline rush. Besides, he says, what’s wrong with it?

In professional football and basketball, talking goes on all the time as players try to intimidate each other, Johnson said. “I wouldn’t even consider what I’m doing taunting,” he said.

Johnson, who turns 32 on Sept. 10, has matured in his seven seasons in Seattle. He’s married and became a father for the first time last Dec. 28.

But he’s still the Big Unit, a little different from the rest of the players, still one of a kind.

Sitting on the couch in the Mariners’ clubhouse watching television before a game, he wants to make a point as only he can. He puts his thumbs in his ears and moves his hands the way children do when they’re teasing other children.

“I’m not going like this, am I? Na, na, na, naa!!!” he said.

Hitters have their own way of showing up pitchers by standing at home plate after they’ve hit a home run, he noted. “It doesn’t matter to me as long as you don’t sit there for longer than a minute,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who will start for Seattle tonight against the Yankees in the Kingdome, is 12-2 with a 2.84 ERA and 222 strikeouts in 23 starts and 158-2/3 innings.

For the most part, he’s done away with his hand gestures. He’s trying to limit himself to thumping his chest after he strikes out a hitter with one of his fastballs or wicked sliders.

“So now I just put welts on my chest,” he said.