This is the thread where Barney's career was analyzed:

1933 Ballot Discussion

1994 Ballot Discussion

If anyone knows of any other threads where Johnson played a prominent part, let me know and I'll add it to this post.

Does the actual ballot discussion count?

Does the actual ballot discussion count?

Do you mean the 1933 Ballot Thread, Juan? I haven't checked it, but if there was significant analysis of Johnson's career, sure.

We've discussed the Big Train a bit this year (1994).

Ooops, I meant the current one, with all the "greatest pitcher ever" discussion ;)

Grandma, I rarely venture over to this part of the site. Is it flashback week for pitchers?

Is it flashback week for pitchers?

:-)

What I'm doing is setting up player threads for all inductess who had never received one. At the Plaque Room, each thread will be hyperlinked to that player's name at the top of the page, so any visitor can get an understanding as to why we enshrined each player. This process has already been done for each player who already had one, plus new ones for Pearce (a non-pitcher :-), Alexander, Brown and now Johnson.

Ooops, I meant the current one, with all the "greatest pitcher ever" discussion ;)

Gotcha. I'll get to it in a moment, Juan.

I thought it may be interesting to look at the all-time ranking of era-neutral strikeouts which I estimate by taking into account the average number of strikeouts per nine innings in the pitcher's career, normalized by the all-time strikeout average. Here is everybody with more than 2,000 career era-neutral strikeouts (listed below are career strikeouts, strikeout per nine innings in pitcher's leagues over his career, and the derived era-neutral strikeout career total):

NOLAN RYAN* 5714 5.44 5173
WALTER JOHNSON* 3509 3.43 5038
CY YOUNG* 2803 2.99 4617
ROGER CLEMENS 4604 6.02 3767
STEVE CARLTON* 4136 5.43 3751
TIM KEEFE* 2564 3.37 3747
AMOS RUSIE* 1950 2.62 3666
RANDY JOHNSON 4544 6.23 3592
DAZZY VANCE* 2045 2.86 3522
LEFTY GROVE* 2266 3.23 3455
KID NICHOLS* 1880 2.69 3442
CHRISTY MATHEWSON* 2502 3.63 3395
BOB FELLER* 2581 3.77 3372
BERT BLYLEVEN 3701 5.41 3369
TOM SEAVER* 3640 5.46 3283
GAYLORD PERRY* 3534 5.44 3200
DON SUTTON* 3574 5.51 3195
PETE ALEXANDER* 2198 3.42 3165
RUBE WADDELL* 2267 3.61 3093
RED RUFFING* 1987 3.25 3011
PHIL NIEKRO* 3342 5.48 3004
EDDIE PLANK* 2246 3.76 2942
FERGUSON JENKINS* 3192 5.44 2890
BOBO NEWSOM 2082 3.56 2880
EARLY WYNN* 2334 4.21 2731
WARREN SPAHN* 2583 4.69 2713
BOB GIBSON* 3117 5.68 2703
JIM BUNNING* 2855 5.46 2575
BURLEIGH GRIMES* 1512 2.91 2559
MICKEY LOLICH 2832 5.54 2518
CARL HUBBELL* 1677 3.29 2511
FRANK TANANA 2761 5.49 2477
GREG MADDUX 3169 6.37 2450
HAL NEWHOUSER* 1796 3.69 2397
TOMMY BRIDGES 1674 3.44 2397
ROBIN ROBERTS* 2357 4.85 2394
PEDRO_J. MARTINEZ 2998 6.36 2322
RED AMES 1702 3.63 2309
RUBE MARQUARD* 1593 3.40 2308
CURT SCHILLING 3015 6.52 2278
JERRY KOOSMAN 2496 5.44 2260
CHARLIE ROOT 1459 3.19 2253
PAUL DERRINGER 1507 3.32 2236
JIM KAAT 2461 5.47 2216
BILLY PIERCE 1999 4.47 2203
DON DRYSDALE* 2486 5.57 2198
RED FABER* 1471 3.32 2182
DAVID CONE 2655 6.00 2180
JACK MORRIS 2478 5.60 2180
LUIS TIANT 2416 5.49 2168
JOHN SMOLTZ 2778 6.35 2155
DENNIS ECKERSLEY 2401 5.51 2146
LEFTY GOMEZ* 1468 3.38 2139
ED WALSH* 1736 4.01 2132
EARL WHITEHILL 1350 3.12 2131
SANDY KOUFAX* 2396 5.57 2119
EPPA RIXEY* 1350 3.14 2118
CHIEF BENDER* 1711 3.98 2117
SAM MCDOWELL 2453 5.75 2101
CHUCK FINLEY 2610 6.13 2097
CHARLIE HOUGH 2363 5.59 2082
MARK LANGSTON 2464 5.83 2082
VIDA BLUE 2175 5.19 2064
MIKE MUSSINA 2572 6.14 2063
JIM PALMER* 2212 5.32 2048
BOB SHAWKEY 1360 3.29 2036
JOE BUSH 1319 3.23 2011

WALTER JOHNSON (by Jonathan Richman)

I'm gonna tell you if you don't know
About a great ballplayer from a long time ago
A hero to me, I ain't puttin' you on, son
I now tell the story of baseball's Walter Johnson.

All through baseball, he was loved and respected
Was there bitterness in Walter Johnson? It was never detected -
When pitchers throw their pitch to scare
They'll almost hit that opposing player, ooh
Walter Johnson wouldn't do that, not even just a little.
He kept that baseball right down the middle ...

When the Washington Nine was a-goin' to win
Walter would ease up a little on the opposition
The other team mates just didn't get it
They'd say, "Hey there, Walter, how come you let them hit it?"
Walter told them with his gentle smile, said,
"Boys, this game's no fun if you don't get a hit once in a while." ...
Well, a record's just a record in a book that's just a book.
Walter Johnson never gave the opposing team so much as a dirty look.
And a season's just a season in a game that's just a game
And Walter Johnson cared about people more than he cared about fame.

I just learned today that Walter played over 130 games with the Senators not as a pitcher. I have nothing else to add but ... weird.

Almost all of those were as a pinch-hitter. BB-ref shows him with 13 games in the OF, and I'll bet that most of those 13 were partial game stints, incidental to PH appearances. Johnson's career batting line is .234/.274/.342, the majority of that under deadball conditions, with a career XBH line of 94-41-24. That's a career OPS+ of 76. He had a career 255 RBI. It's pretty obvious why you'd use him as a PH; many teams in history have used as PH utility infielders or reserve catchers who were considerably worse hitters than that.

We elected Johnson as the #1 pitcher of all time anyway, without anyone particularly trumpeting his offense the way we did for Red Ruffing or Wes Ferrell or Bob Lemon; this is just frosting on the cake.

i've just got a couple things to say here.
1) cool era neutral strikeout list... quite interesting, even at the top with only ryan and johnson over 5k and young the only other one over 4k.
2) wow, i didn't know jonathan richman had such a song... that's really cool! i don't think it tops dodge vege-o-matic or some of his classic modern lovers stuff, but pretty damn awesome!