Sherwood Johnston

Admirals legend Sherwood Johnston will be inducted as the first Four Star Admiral during our home opener on Wednesday, 4/3, against the Portland Fog Devils.  In addition to throwing out the first pitch, Johnston will participate in a short ceremony in his honor prior to the game.  Here is some of Johnston's bio.

1. As is well known, Johnston won 7 MVPs: 1972, 1974-1975, and 1978-1981.  This is the most of any player in the history of EWB, though Don Kelly is quickly gaining on him with 6 *consecutive* MVPs, from 1985-1990.  Not incidentally, Johnston has been an outspoken critic of Kelly, accusing him of not doing enough on issues of social justice, particularly those concerning African Americans.  Also, Johnston portrays himself as more of a winner than Kelly, noting that he carried the Admirals to 4 World Championships whereas Kelly has won just one with El Paso.  Some EWB fans accuse Johnston of being petty -- he's trying too hard to defend his status as the greatest EWB player ever -- while others think he has a point.

2. As is also well known, Johnston was the first player in EWB history to capture the triple crown, which he did in 1981.  The only other player to win a triple crown is new Hall of Fame inductee Chris Henry, who did it in 1983.

3. Johnston was a 6th round draft pick in the 1970 EWB inaugural draft by the Austin Marshals.  The Marshals released him just 10 days after the draft, before Johnston ever played a single game with them.  Washington signed him to a free agent contract 5 days later, and the rest is history.  Remember, the inaugural draft was conducted at a time when *no* player was on any EWB team yet.  Thus, a 6th round draft pick should, ideally, be the 6th most highly valued player in your entire organization.  The point is, Austin was crazy to release Johnston: releasing your 6th round pick in the inaugural draft is much more foolish than releasing a 6th round pick for an amateur draft (which, I know, a number of teams have done).  And I say this regardless of the sort of career Johnston went on to have.

4. Johnston led the AL in HR 5 times, in RBI 6 times, and in BA once.  His career HR numbers suffered because he was in his prime during the late 1970s "power outage": in 1977 he led the league with just 23 HR; in 1979 he led the league with just 26.  If not for the power outage, it's reasonable to think Johnston might have made a run at 500 HR, though I doubt he would have quite gotten there.  As it is, his career total was 369.

5. The most money Johnston ever made was a little less than $5M a year, after he signed a 3 year contract worth $14.5M following the 1982 season.  Ironically, Johnston fell apart after signing this contract: after going for .295/31/94 in 1982, Johston fell to .249/4/41 in 1983 (in 409 at bats) and .265/5/46 in 1984 (in 420).  Embarrassed by his performance, Johnston walked away from the final year of his mammoth contract, retiring after 1984 at the age of 37.  That Johston walked away from a guaranteed $5M tells you the kind of proud competitor that he was.

6. Johnston was a solid postseason player, with lifetime stats of .287/14/72.  Still, it should be noted that his postseason production was a bit below his regular season production.

7. Johnston was a 10 time All Star, which to my knowledge is the second highest total among position players, after Catcher Marcos Rodriguez, who went to 13 All Star games.

8. Today, Johnston is a senior advisor to the Admirals (which basiccally means he collects a paycheck from us and attends various charity functions) and owns multiple Ford Dealerships in the Seattle area.  He continues to be a significant Pacific Northwest celebrity, and you'll see him here and there on television, talking on radio sports shows, attending baseball card signings, etc.  You would regularly see television shots of him attending the 1989 World Series, won by the Admirals.  And in fact, during game 2 of the series Johnston participated in a notorious interview with NBC color commentator Joe Garagiola, during which he appeared to be drunk and slurring his words.  (Johnston denies that he had been drinking.)