Wilson won't forget Randy Johnson's debut

Montreal manager Buck Rodgers was going to take his first look at a gangly, left-handed prospect who had been a second round draft pick out of USC four years earlier.

This kid named Randy Johnson was something different, standing 6 feet, 10 inches tall, throwing left-handed at somewhere between 95 and 100 miles an hour.

You might know the name. Johnson went into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

But back then, no one knew him, least of a veteran outfielder named Glenn Wilson, who was playing for the Pirates and batting fifth that day, a day he remembers well and spoke about from his home outside Houston moments after Johnson’s induction speech.

“I’m sitting there thinking ‘Who is this freaky looking 6-10 left-hander?’ Wilson recalled.

Wilson got to watch him throw in a scoreless first inning, one in which he walked his first major league batter, and gave up his first major league hit, a double to Bobby Bonilla on which Gary Redus was thrown out at home plate trying to score from first.

So now Wilson is leading off the second inning and he’s behind in the count 1-2 when Johnson throws him a fastball that’s right there.

Wilson was all over it. Bing-bang-boom, welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Hall of Famer, you just got jumped.

Two innings later, Johnson has Wilson down 0-2 in the count. This time, Johnson tries a slider.

When last seen, it was leaving the park heading towards the tennis courts beyond the fence.

“Funny thing,” Wilson said, “a while back there was an article in the paper, back when he got elected and he was saying, ‘I went through a lineup with Bonds, Van Slyke and Bonilla (well, actually Bonds and Van Slyke did not play that game) but there was some guy named Wilson who went deep on a fastball and next at bat went deep on a slider. It was like a whole different league.’”

Indeed it was.

That guy named Wilson was pretty good player, a strong-armed right-fielder picked in the first round by the Detroit Tigers in the 1980 amateur draft who batted .265 in a 10-year major league career, while hitting 98 home runs.

Oddly, Wilson had three hits off Johnson in seven at bats and all three were home runs.

“Then he had not developed enough, being a right-handed hitter, to get me out,” Wilson said. “He threw over the top — I had no trouble with that. After that first at bat, I told myself I’m not going to have any trouble with this guy.”

Well, fortunately, Wilson stayed mostly in the NL while Johnson was dealt to the American League.

“I watched him after I was out of the game and he’d developed that slider from down low and I’m thinking there’s no way I would have touched that,” Wilson admitted.

Johnson went on to win five Cy Young Awards, pitch a perfect game and strike out more hitters than any left-handed pitcher in history.

As for Wilson, he spends most of his time these days on the golf course.

“I’m the kind of guy who can go out and shoot 67 one day and 80 the next,” the 56-year-old Wilson said.

You might say he’s just like the average golfer, except his three home runs off Johnson.