Walter Johnson
To many, Walter Johnson is the greatest pitcher of all time. He was a star second to none throughout the golden age of sports, which spanned the era of such greats as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Lou Gehrig, and Al Simmons. But it wasn’t Walter Johnson’s blazing fastball alone that placed him on a pedestal. It was Johnson, above all others, who came to personify “gentlemanly conduct in the heat of battle,” as Shirley Povich put it. One of a small number of stars tempering the game’s roughneck reputation in the early years of the century, he was still around to help shepherd it through its darkest hour of the Black Sox scandal. His presence as a role model in the big leagues consoled parents all over the country. Throughout a career as dazzling as any in sports history, Johnson remained unspoiled. This is the grand story of one of the good guys.
