Johnson sheds new height on Hall of Fame

Class of 2015

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Standing 6-foot-10, Johnson is 5 inches taller than Fergie Jenkins, who along with the late Don Drysdale and Eppa Rixey stood as the tallest pitchers inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Jenkins will be looking up to Johnson next July when the Big Unit steps onto the stage on induction Sunday in Cooperstown.

"Obviously my height was to my advantage but only [after] I was able to harness my ability," said Johnson, who was 26 before spending his first full season in the Major Leagues. "Being 6-foot-10 and all arms and legs, obviously not too many [similar] pitchers, power pitchers, came before me. I didn't have a blueprint to work with."

Working diligently from his teenage years, Johnson learned to use his body's system of hinges and levers to throw a baseball with both velocity and torque. Because of his height and his wingspan, the ball had less distance than normal to travel on its way to home plate once he released it.

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Physicists estimate that it made his pitches appear to hitters as much as 4 mph faster than they were, and they were already plenty fast. At the peak of his 22-season career, one that he extended until after his 46th birthday, baseball's best hitters didn't think they had a chance against him.

When Johnson threw his perfect game against the Braves, the lineup he faced included Chipper Jones and Julio Franco, who would combine for 5,312 hits and both win batting titles. They were 0-for-6 with four strikeouts, and Jones says he doesn't think he even had a foul tip.

Jones described his mound opponent on that night as "electrically unhittable," and MLB Network's Kevin Millar can relate. He has called Johnson the most dominating pitcher he faced, because of velocity, a devastating slider and the unique angles in his delivery.

"The slider would come out of his hand -- it was a strike -- then it would end up over your back shoelace," Millar said. "Slider, back shoelace. Slider, back shoelace. Slider, back shoelace. And his size was so different than anyone else. You're not used to it. Take any pitcher's release point, then add a foot and a half, and that's his."

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Johnson sheds new height on Hall of Fame