Most regular TAH readers know I\u2019m a baseball fan.\u00a0 Indeed, one of many things that p!ssed me off at the now-4-years-deceased Usama bin Laden is that my post-9\/11 mobilization required me to travel on 4 November 2001 \u2013 the night of game 7 of the 2001 World Series.<\/p>\n
At the time, I was an Arizona resident. And yes: if you lived in Arizona and were a baseball fan, that was indeed a magical year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d have given much to have been in Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) that night. I\u2019ve talked to someone who was there; when a certain very tall guy walked out of the bullpen to pitch in relief with 2 outs in the top of the 8th, it was truly an electric moment \u2013 followed by an equally electric moment about 15 minutes or so later when Luis Gonzalez choked up and hit a soft single off a guy named Mariano Rivera into center field in the bottom of the 9th to end the game.<\/p>\n
That very tall guy was, of course, Randy Johnson. This Sunday he\u2019ll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not what this article\u2019s about.<\/p>\n
. . . <\/strong><\/p>\n Most regular readers know I\u2019m a fan of Johnson the pitcher.\u00a0 I personally think he’s got a great case for being the best lefty ever<\/span>, bar none.\u00a0 IMO his career is what Koufax’s career might have been absent arthritis and injury.<\/p>\n But I\u2019m an even bigger fan now. Because Johnson has quietly done something that you may not have heard much about if you live outside Arizona \u2013 and he appears to have done it simply because it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n Johnson today remains hugely popular in Arizona; he\u2019s still employed by the Diamondbacks today as a special assistant. In honor of Johnson\u2019s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, at the request of the Diamondbacks the state of Arizona was planning to temporarily rename State Highway 51 in his honor.<\/p>\n There\u2019s just one issue. The highway \u2013 a freeway in the Phoenix metro area \u2013 already has a name. It\u2019s the \u201cPiestewa Freeway.\u201d<\/p>\n As in SPC Lori Piestewa, US Army \u2013 a Native American resident of Arizona who was KIA in Iraq on 23 March 2003.<\/p>\n It turns out no one had asked the Piestewa family their opinion on the temporary renaming. And to put it mildly, they weren\u2019t exactly thrilled with the idea.<\/p>\n After hearing of the family\u2019s objection, neither was Johnson. You see, Johnson is also a rather large (no pun intended) backer of the US military. He\u2019s made 3 different USO tours to Afghanistan in support of US troops. He\u2019s trying to arrange bringing two Wounded Warriors to his Hall of Fame Induction.<\/p>\n