This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.
The most obvious choices for No. 51:
= Randy Cross: UCLA offensive lineman
= Chip Banks: USC football
= Lauren Betts: UCLA women’s basketball
The not-so obvious choices for No. 51:
= Randy Johnson: USC baseball
= Jonathan Broxton: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Terry Forster: Los Angeles Dodgers
The most interesting story for No. 51:
Randy Johnson: USC baseball pitcher (1983 to 1985)
Southern California map pinpoints:
= Downtown L.A. (USC, Dodger Stadium)
The background
Randy Johnson’s 2015 first-ballot National Baseball Hall of Fame induction had everything to do with everything he did in a 22-year MLB career.
Five Cy Young Awards (including four in a row at the turn of the century), nine-time strike-out leader, retiring second all-time in Ks with 4,875 (behind Nolan Ryan’s 5,714); four ERA titles; 100 complete games; a no-hitter (1990) and a perfect game (2004); 10 All-Star teams, and the fifth left-hander in MLB history to exceed 300 wins.
Conversely, it had nothing to do with three years spent throwing a baseball in the general vicinity of opposing hitters while at USC trying to figure his life out and try to grow into his 6-foot-10 framework.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction in Springfield, Mass., pulls together a player’s contribution collegiality, professionally and internationally. The National Baseball Hall of Fame is really just about an Major League Baseball performance, with no real regard to high school or the minor leagues or international influence. Whatever can dazzle a bunch of sports writers who have a vote, or, if not, about 12 guys on a veterans’ committee.
“The Big Unit” may have been docked a few star points if he had to account for his big-man-on-campus time at USC. One might say he was a wild and crazy guy in college. Statistically and anecdotally.
Atlanta was brave enough to make Johnson, then just 6-foot-9 and one half, a fourth-round pick in the MLB Draft of 1982 as he was exiting Livermore High near Sacramento in 1982. It offered him $48,000.
Johnson attracted scouts even then for his ability to strike out 121 batters in less than 66 innings as well as throwing a perfect game in his last contest as a senior. But Johnson figured a USC education — and its tuition — was more valuable, and accepted a scholarship to play both baseball and basketball for the Trojans.
Maybe this was something he could grow into.
In winter-league play before his freshman year, Johnson struck out 19 batters in 19 innings and had a 2.37 ERA. He would post a 5-0 record as a freshman, pitching mostly in relief.
During an overlap in careers with eventual college player of the year Mark McGwire, who once pitched as a sophomore, Johnson went 5-3 as a sophomore.
Prior to the 1984 schedule — in December of 1983 — Dedeaux got Johnson as far as a group of players to consider to have on the U.S. roster for the 1984 Summer Olympics. McGwire was also picked. Johnson made it to the round of 44 potential players but didn’t make the first cut.
By his junior year, Johnson just focused on baseball. The 1982-83 Trojans’ basketball team under Stan Morrison was decent — 17-11 with its own 6-foot-10 sophomore center Clayton Olivier – and the 1983-84 team recruited another 6-foot-10 freshman center, Charlie Simpson.
That ’84 USC baseball season for Johnson included 26 games (12 starts, two saves) and 73 strike outs (with 52 walks) in 78 innings. He posted a decent 3.35 ERA and 1.59 WHIP.
In 1985, Johnson racked up 94 strike outs in 112 innings — with 98 walks and 97 hits. That was always the issue. His fastball was in the 90 mph range and he was rated the 12th best college draft prospect and No. 4 on the pitching list according to scouting directors and scouts by Baseball American, despite a 6-8 record and 5.30 ERA in 18 starts for coach Rod Dedeaux’s 22-44 squad. It was the poorest performance in school history to that point, swept by UCLA in the final three games of the season.
“People read about me and say, ‘Who is this 6-10 guy?’ Then they come out to games to see for themselves,” Johnson told the Los Angeles Times.
Johnson said he thoughts his mechanics were good, but he lacked consistency. He was also noted for yelling at himself on the mound, talking to the ball, and running over to his infielders to shout encouragement.
Dedeaux told the story once about going to the mound to talk to the freshman Johnson as they were playing a game at Stanford.
“The leadoff hitter tripled, so I went out to tell him to pitch from a windup, not a stretch,” said Dedeaux. “He told me he had to pitch from a stretch because of the runner at first. I told him there wasn’t anyone on first. He turned and pointed … at the Stanford first-base coach. Wouldn’t it have been something if he threw over there, trying to pick him off?”
The goofy left-handed Johnson, who some compared personality-wise to another former USC left-hander, Bill Lee, explained: “ When I go out there and don’t do my antics, the team is laid back. But when I go through my routine, they’re more alert and they play better for me. When I’m not doing it, (third baseman) Dan Henley will usually come and tell me to get pumped up.”
USC assistant baseball coach Keith Brown defended Johnson.
“Randy’s enthusiasm is genuine. He means it when he congratulates players after good fielding plays. He’s glad the play was made. What he does is beneficial, too. We play better defense behind him.”
Johnson thought the Angels, Giants, Astros, Phillies, Blue Jays, or Cubs would draft him. They showed the most interest. Blame Canada. He was a second-round pick (No. 36 overall) by Montreal instead, coming after Will Clark (No. 2), Barry Larkin (No. 4), Barry Bonds (No. 6), Rafael Palmeiro (No. 2), and even future Angels and Dodgers broadcaster Jose Mota (No. 33).
But Johnson was still higher than Deion Sanders (No. 149 by Kansas City), Bo Jackson (No. 511, by the Angels) and John Smoltz (No. 574 by Detroit).
He met up with Smoltz sometime later in their careers.
The other part of that story
We interrupt this bio for an excerpt from a column I wrote about Johnson in the Los Angeles Daily News in 2015, upon his Baseball Hall of Fame induction. It was based on a team photo taken of the Daily Trojan flag football squad prior to its annual “Blood Bowl” game against the Daily Bruin in 1982.
Johnson was the tall guy in the back row trying to look unassuming. I was in the front row wearing a plastic Trojan helmet, trying to look necessary.
What I pounded out on the keyboard with glee:
The rest of the journalists-wannabes from the USC Daily Trojan newspaper staff filling out that frame … were only certain after this particular autumn day that we would never see Johnson’s bust in the Pro Football Hall in Canton, Ohio.
Johnson’s interest in photography would occasionally bring him to the student newspaper office, as well as the school’s Sports Information Department, to see if there were any assignments he could shoot. The advantage he had was obvious — no need for an extended tripod.
So now it can be told, hopefully without fear of the retribution of a fastball thrown at our dome: Someone had the inspired idea to recruit Johnson as something of a ringer to play for the Daily Trojan flag football team in the annual “Blood Bowl” game against UCLA’s Daily Bruin.
If we used him as a towering tight end, it would be such an easy target for the quarterback Casey Wian (now reporting news at CNN) and Jon SooHoo (who would become the Dodgers’ longtime official team photographer) to hit over the middle.
If only Johnson could catch an actual pass. That wasn’t obvious until the game started.
Those who try to piece together the facts of what happened that day start with the ridiculousness of a wet, sloppy, muddy mess of the Bruins’ practice field next to Pauley Pavilion. Getting any kind of traction was tough for anyone. Johnson looked like a newborn giraffe.
In a fierce-hitting game (even though it was just flags) recorded as a controversial 12-0 UCLA victory aided and abetted by the Westwood referees, Johnson’s most memorable contribution involved the lone USC touchdown that wasn’t a touchdown. The 80-yard play converted by Paul Vercammen (now at CNN) was called back because of an illegal downfield block. It was called on Johnson, the human broomstick who was probably just looking for someone to grab so he wouldn’t fall over. He couldn’t have blocked anyone if he tried.
But the Legend of Randy Johnson merely started that day. Who could forget all that he meant to the team after that?
So what’s the moral of whatever this story has become? Pay attention to those kids you hang out with in college who may not always be the gangling, useless knuckleheads you think they’ll turn out to be. Because years later, when you try to reconnect with them, they’re likely to easily forget you ever existed.
The legacy
In March of 1999, Johnson, who just signed a deal to join the Arizona Diamondbacks, struck out four of the six University of Arizona batters he faced in an exhibition game in Tuscon, Ariz.
“I’m getting back at U of A for all those beatings I used to take at USC,” said Johnson, who last faced the Wildcats in 1985 and walked six, gave up six runs and 13 hits and absorbed a 7-3 loss.
In 2016, Johnson was part of the Pac-12’s All-Century team — picked mostly for what the players did not just in college, of course. But kind of. Other USC players on that roster included first baseman McGwire (1982 to ’84), second baseman Bret Boone (1988 to ’90), outfielder Fred Lynn (1971 to ’73), pitcher Mark Prior (2000 to ’01) and pitcher Tom Seaver (1965). UCLA was represented by Jackie Robinson, a shortstop for a brief time in 1940 for the Bruins, as well as third baseman Troy Glaus (1995 to ’97), catcher Todd Zeile (1984 to ’86), pitcher Trevor Bauer (2009 to ’11), pitcher David Berg (2012 to ’15) and second baseman Chase Utley (1998 to ’00).
Johnson’s No. 51 has been retired by the Arizona Diamondbacks, whose cap he wears on the bronze Hall plaque. Johnson was most famously part of the 2001 team that won 9/11-delayed and impacted World Series over the favored New York Yankees.
Even the plaque shows him with the impressionistic mustache/goatee and the tailor-made mullet. And is he actually smiling?
He was the D-Backs’ winning pitcher as a starter in Game 2 (a three-hit complete game shutout) and Game 6 (leaving with a 15-2 lead after seven innings) and coming back a day later as the reliever in Game 7 (setting down all four batters he faced in the eighth and ninth inning as his team won in the bottom of the ninth), sharing the Series MVP Award with Curt Schilling.
He’s also in the Seattle Mariners’ Hall of Fame and, while Ichiro Suzuki had No. 51 retired in his honor as a Hall of Fame inductee in 2025, the team said Johnson would be honored as well for wearing No. 51 in 2026.
In 2020, five years after Cooperstown called, a fan vote taken by the Trojans athletic program announced Johnson as “Favorite Baseball Player in USC History.”
That’s pretty selective memory for a program that includes McGwire (voted second), Fred Lynn (voted third), Tom Seaver (fourth, despite just one year) and Jeff Clement (a catcher who won the Johnny Bench Award in ’05).
Tip your cap to that. Those who didn’t make the cut include Mark Prior, Rich Dauer, Dave Kingman (who also wore No. 51), Steve Kemp, Don Buford, Geoff Jenkins, Morgan Ensberg, Ron Fairly, Roy Smalley, Bill Bordley, Jeff Cirillo, Tom House, Steve Busby, Bret Boone, Aaron Boone, Seth Davidson, Eric Munson, Bill Lee and Barry Zito.
And Dedeaux, the shortstop on the 1935 team. And, of course, Lars Nootbar, who wasn’t part of that vote. But should have been.
Johnson’s induction into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame came in 2012.
After his Cooperstown announcement, Johnson appeared on “Late Night With David Letterman” and read aloud part of the Top 10 list of “Things I Said When I Heard I Was Going Into the Baseball Hall of Fame”: “One step closer to becoming People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’“
He is currently one of 22 USC athletes in baseball, basketball and football who have made the respective sport’s Hall of Fame.
As noted in G. Scott Thomas’ book, “Cooperstown at the Crossroads,” Johnson, in his first year of eligibility, received 97.27 percent of the votes to top the ballot, ahead of Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio, and Johnson’s “quality score of 89 points established him as the top-rated inductee since Mike Schmidt two decades earlier.”
In the end, Johnson towers over them all. After all, Johnson recorded more than 250 strikeouts in nine different seasons, an accomplishment unmatched in big-league history. Not even by Nolan Ryan or Walter Johnson.
Now, watch the birdie.
More of No. 51 by the numbers:
Because they are so dazzling, we note the back side of Johnson’s lifetime baseball card includes digits that show:
= 303 wins are 22nd all time, and not likely to be passed up by modern-day pitchers.
= 603 games started is also 21st all time.
= 66,932 total pitches thrown is third most behind Roger Clemens and Tom Glavine, which sounds impressive. Until you realize the 17,067 batters faced is just 32nd all time (meaning, what, lots of foul balls?) His total walks of 1,497 is only 13th worst.
= 411 homers given up, for 12th all time. We’re told that’s supposed to show he was around the plate. But also threw way too hard when he was in the zone. Balls flew off the bats. They just kept adding up.
= 109 wild pitches — far down the all-time list at No. 84.
= 190 hit batters, fifth all-time in hit batters and almost 40 more than Nolan Ryan or Don Drysdale. Effectively wild, you might say. And less crazy.
But not crazy enough for at least a one-time Cy Young Award winner, Chris Sale, to explain a switch his jersey number 51 at a point in the 2024 season was to honor Johnson — even thought he’d never met him, spoke to him, or made much eye contact.
Who else wore No. 51 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Randy Cross, UCLA football offensive lineman (1973 to 1975):
Out of Crespi High in Encino (where he was a state champ in the shot put), Cross almost was swayed to go to USC. “Marv Goux recruited me, as did the University of Texas, Alabama and Nebraska, who was the number one team in the country at the time,” said Cross. “My dad was a big Bruins fan so it was not a hard decision for me to go to UCLA. Terry Donahue was my position coach and he really helped me to understand the game on the college level.” Cross made it work crossing over from right guard to center, rotating between the two positions on two units his senior season, protecting quarterbacks Mark Harmon and John Sciarra. In the offseason he kept in shape playing on the Bruins’ rugby team. The notoriety earned the 6-foot-3 and 265-pounder first-team All-American his senior season and an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011, three years after he included in the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame. The second-round pick of San Francisco in 1976, after playing for a Rose Bowl title-team, Cross stuck with the 49ers his entire 13 year career, starting 180 of 185 games and making three Pro Bowls and playing on three Super Bowl championships blocking for Joe Montana. For our ears, he became one of the most listenable NFL game analysts when working for CBS and NBC. He, of course, also has a podcast to offer these days.
Lauren Betts, UCLA women’s basketball center (2023-24 to present ):
The 6-foot-7 center started her college career at Stanford as a freshman before transferring to UCLA and helped the Bruins become the No. 1 ranked team for much of the 2024-25 season. Betts was the program’s first national defensive player of the year by setting a single-season blocks record of 100, including a single-game record of nine against Baylor. Betts was the first to reach 600+ points, 300+ rebounds, 100+ blocks in a season. The team’s leading scorer (20.2 points a game had a career-high 33 points at No. 8 Maryland, one of four games in which she scored 30+ points by averaging 19.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2 blocks.
Chip Banks, USC football linebacker (1978 to 1981):
The Parade High School All-American from Georgia came across country at the behest of USC head coach John Robinson with a chance to start as a freshman. Banks had 45 tackles and an interception as USC finished 12-1 and won the national title. Banks had 12 tackles for a loss in 1979. He led the Trojans in tackles and tackles for loss and added two picks for 49 return yards as a junior. After that season, Robinson called him “one of the greatest players in college football … If he were draftable now and not just as a junior, he’d be taken as one of the top four or five picks.” Banks, voted team captain and part of the pre-season Playboy Magazine All-American team, had 137 total tackles and four interceptions as a senior. For his USC career, Banks totaled 365 tackles (33 for losses), 22 deflected passes, 8 interceptions, 5 fumble recoveries and 1 touchdown.Banks was the No. 3 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns and became the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in the strike-shortened 1982 season.
Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (2005 to 2011):
A two-time NL All Star in 2009 and ’10, where, in those two seasons, he combined for a 12-8 record and 58 saves. His seven seasons in L.A. resulted in a 25-20 record with 84 saves (118 in his 13-year MLB career) and 503 strike outs in 392 innings.
Terry Forster, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1978 to 1982):
David Letterman made Forster, a grad of Santee High near San Diego, the recipient of an on-going joke by calling him a “fat tub of goo” even though his MLB official bio listed him at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds. It was perhaps when Forster left the Dodgers and joined the Atlanta Braves, reportedly elevating his delivery platform to 270 pounds. We shall weigh in that, on the last day of the 1982 season, Forster gave up a seventh-inning home run to Joe Morgan, then with San Francisco, and never wore a Dodgers uniform again. For what it’s worth: His .397 lifetime batting average (31 hits in 78 at bats) is the greatest for any MLB player in history with either 50 at bats or with at least 15 years of major league experience
We also have:
Larry Sherry, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1958 to 1963)
Anyone else worth nominating?
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