A Tribute to Howard Johnson

Not many people know this, but Howard Johnson is the New York Met who came closest to winning a triple crown, when he hit 38 home runs and drove in 117 runs, leading the NL in both categories. He only batted .259, and finished 60 points behind league leader Terry Pendleton, but he also stole 30 bases and committed a league-leading 31 errors-- 18 at 3B, 11 at SS, and 2 in RF. HoJo was also 2nd in the league in runs scored, with 108, 2nd in the league in SLG (1 point behind Will Clark), 7th in OPS, 3rd in total bases (again, one base behind Clark and Pendleton), 7th in doubles (34 of those, which gave him a league leading 76 XBH), 9th in walks, 6th in strikeouts, 1st in sac flies... kind of a remarkable season, no?

Why has this season been forgotten? One, the Mets won 77 games that year, because of the free agent departure of Darryl Strawberry, an injury to Sid Fernandez, and extremely underwhelming performances from Frank Viola, Kevin McReynolds, and Dave Magadan. Two, HoJo's career was overshadowed by Strawberry and by the 1986 team, where he was only a backup infielder. Three, it was HoJo's last good year-- injuries basically finished him at the age of 31-- he would only hit 31 home runs in his last 4 seasons, ending up batting .195 as a pinch hitter for the '95 Cubs.

Here's where it gets interesting. Name me a major league player who resembles Howard Johnson. You can't. There isn't one. The excellent baseball-reference.com lists his closest comparable as Eric Chavez. Let's see-- Both played third base, both had 30-HR power and walked and struck out a lot, both had their career torpedoed by chronic injuries. Chavez was a good third baseman; HoJo was a poor third baseman who played an even lousier shortstop and a pretty bad outfield. HoJo was fast, stealing 231 bases in his career, 30 in a season 4 times, and 41 once. Chavez is not fast at all. Chavez is a big lefty hitter, HoJo was a smallish switch hitter.

Further down on the comparables list, you get Tony Batista and Rico Petrocelli. Batista had the positional versatility, but was a somewhat better fielder, and he wasn't fast, and he never walked. Petrocelli was more of a shortstop, also a better glove, and was extremely slow, being 10-for-32 in steals for his entire career. Jose Cruz Jr. is on the list, and is the only player who has some speed, he's also a switch hitter, but he's strictly an outfielder (bad in center, good in either corner), and isn't anywhere near the hitter HoJo was, and only stole more than 15 bases once.

All the other players on the list are big home run hitting oxes, like Dean Palmer and Doug DeCinces, and the immortal Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones.

HoJo probably lost a bit of his career to managers who didn't know what to make of his strange mix of skills. He was in the majors at age 21, as a power hitting prospect for Sparky Anderson's Detroit teams. In 1984, when the Tigers won the World Series, HoJo started 98 games at third, fielded badly, batted .248 with 12 HR. In the playoffs, Sparky used Marty Castillo (a career .190 hitter) and 37-year old Darrell Evans at third, and in the offseason, Johnson was traded straight up for Walt Terrell, an innings-eater type of guy who did go 47-32 in his first 3 seasons in Detroit.

On to the Mets, where he started 93 games at third in 1985, fielded badly, and hit .242 with 11 HR. This impressed the Mets so much that they gave the 3rd base job back to the 33-year old Ray Knight, who batted .218 the year before. In 1986, HoJo backed up 3B and SS, hit a little better, fielded worse (a horrifying 20 errors in 51 starts). When Knight left as a free agent after the 1986 championship, HoJo finally got some guaranteed playing time. He was 26, and hadn't accomplished very much to date in the majors, but turned in a very surprising .265/36/99 line, with 32 steals, 83 walks, 93 runs, and 26 errors in 153 starts. HoJo was not a very consistent player-- he was also terrific in 1989 (.287/36/101 with 41 steals, 41 doubles, and 104 runs) and 1991, but had down years in 1988 and 1990. He was primarily a third baseman, but played some shortstop as well, because the Met shortstops of this era (Rafael Santana and Kevin Elster) had very feeble bats.

In an extremely disastrous 1992 season, the Mets signed Bobby Bonilla (another power-hitting switch hitter without a definite position), and 36-year old Eddie Murray. Murray played first base, moving Dave Magadan to third, HoJo to center field, and Bobby Bonilla to right. This team also started 37-year old Willie Randolph at second base, and had to be one of the worst defensive teams ever. HoJo struggled, batting .223, and that was the beginning of the end.

Having recently seen "Moneyball", it seems that HoJo's problem was that he came along too early. In the early 2000's, he would have been drooled over like Kevin Youkilis. The Tigers might have kept him, and used him somewhere he couldn't do as much damage, like right field or DH. It is extremely puzzling that despite his high error totals and low range numbers, he was ALWAYS used at premium defensive positions. Also, HoJo didn't really have a definite spot in a lineup, kind of like Bobby Bonds-- he was too powerful and strikeout prone to bat at the top, too fast to waste at #5 or #6, perhaps not quite good enough a hitter to bat #3 or #4. Personally I think he fit best at #5, or as a very non-traditional #3.

HoJo didn't get to play much for either of the championship teams he was on; his only postseason as a starter was the Mets' 1988 NLCS loss. HoJo was 1-for-26 in the postseason, which is worse than even Reggie Sanders (who was also a rather similar player in terms of the power/speed combo and lack of a true position in a batting order).

To sum it up, HoJo wasn't a great player, but he was a very good one, and had an unusual game full of great strengths and glaring weaknesses. He was a lot of fun to watch when he wasn't sailing throws into the stands behind first, and what he did for the post-1986 Mets has been, in my opinion anyway, unjustly forgotten.