“What was the worst thing that Michael Jordan could do to you? He can go dunk on you. He could embarrass you. What's the worst thing Randy Johnson can do to you? He can kill you.”

—Jeff Huson on the fear of facing Randy Johnson, who retired yesterday with a 303-166 record, 3.29 ERA and 4875 strikeouts against only 1497 walks. First ballot Hall-of-Famer in five years, he‘ll go in, unfortunately, as an Arizona Diamondback. More wins as a Mariner but those Cy Youngs stacked high in Arizona. Some links:

• From the Seattle Mariners site. Includes audio and video of RJ announcing his retirement and talking about his career.
• A nice video retrospective from “Baseball Tonight” when he won no. 300 last summer.
• Here’s RJ by the numbers, courtesy of ESPN.com.
• Bob Finnigan's Seattle Times' piece from Game 5, 1995
• Every Seattlite remembers this one from the “Almost Live” program: How much of a chance do you have of winning the Washngton State Lottery?

I'd include more but MLB.com makes it difficult to find video (no rebroadcast, kids, without express written consent), and then you have to sit through a 30-second commercial for a 12-second clip. But we know the highlights. The no-hitter in 1990. The Kruk at-bat in the ‘93 All-Star game. The one-game playoff with California in ’95. Coming in from the bullpen (“Welcome to the Jungle”) in Game 5 against NY. The Larry Walker All-Star at-bat. Striking out 19. Striking out 20. Coming in from the bullpen in Game 7 against NY. The perfect game. No. 300. 

Good-Bye, Mr. Snappy. We hardly saw ye.