"Big Unit" Nickname
During batting practice in 1988, the 6'10" Johnson, then with the Montreal Expos, collided head-first with outfielder Tim Raines, prompting his teammate to exclaim, "You're a big unit!" The nickname stuck.
Throughout much of his career, Johnson held the title of tallest player in MLB history. Former pitcher Eric Hillman and current pitchers Andrew Sisco, Andrew Brackman, and Chris Young have also been measured at 6'10". The title of tallest player, as of 2012, is held by Johnson's former Diamondback teammate Jon Rauch, a relief pitcher who is 6'11".
Read more about this topic: Randy Johnson
Famous quotes containing the words big, unit and/or nickname:
“Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“During the Suffragette revolt of 1913 I ... [urged] that what was needed was not the vote, but a constitutional amendment enacting that all representative bodies shall consist of women and men in equal numbers, whether elected or nominated or coopted or registered or picked up in the street like a coroner’s jury. In the case of elected bodies the only way of effecting this is by the Coupled Vote. The representative unit must not be a man or a woman but a man and a woman.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)