RALEIGH, North Carolina, 18 February 2005 — New York Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson, who signed a two-year contract extension worth a reported $32 million in January, has told fans that he was not too old to give the Yankees another World Series title.
New York blew a 3-0 lead in the American League Championship Series last season to their most hated-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, who then won their first World Series title since 1918.
“I can do everything a 25-year-old can do — and a lot more,” the 41-year-old Johnson said on the opening day of the Yankees spring practice in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday. “I don’t know how much more I have to prove.”
Johnson proved doubters wrong last year, leading the major leagues with 290 strikeouts with a 2.60 earned run average with the Arizona Diamondbacks and he is ready to do the same with the Yankees. “I understand the responsibility here, and I’m not going to shy away from that,” Johnson told The New York Times.
“When I would go to spring training with any other team, it was (with) extreme optimism that we’re going to do well.
“When you come here, anything less than getting to the World Series and winning would be considered failing.”
Johnson’s side will get the chance for early revenge on the Red Sox when they meet in their opening game of the season on April 3.
The big left-hander is likely to face his former Arizona teammate Curt Schilling, who helped pitch Boston to the World Series despite a ruptured tendon in his right ankle that later required surgery.
