This is part nine of a 10-part series portraying the 10 members of “Brady’s All-Time Team” – a lineup consisting of the best Major League Baseball players ever.

“This boy throws so fast you can’t see ’em and he knows where he is throwing, because if he didn’t there would be dead bodies all over Idaho.” – Joe Cantillion, on his first time seeing Walter Johnson

Credentials (all-time rank): 417 wins (2); 2.17 earned run average (8); 3509 strikeouts (8); 110 shutouts (1); 531 complete games (4); two-time winner of pitching’s triple crown (1913, 1918)

The Argument: Lefty Grove is a guy who is often overlooked since his numbers are adversely affected by the era he played in. In the offensive times of the late ’20s to the mid-’30s, Grove was by far the best pitcher, with his 31-4 season of 1931 being among the best campaigns ever. He had unbelievable stuff for his career with the A’s, which was shortened both by injury and by the Great Depression. After he went to the Red Sox for the 1934 season, he got himself back together and posted five consecutive seasons with an ERA of 3.08 or below despite the fact that he was well past his prime.

Christy Mathewson was more than a pitcher, he was, quite simply, a hero. But aside from the fact that he was one of the best all-around people to play Major League Baseball, he won 373 games in his career and had a career 2.13 ERA. In the 1905 World Series, he put together what might be the greatest postseason feat in the history of the games. Over the span of six days, he pitched three shutouts against the mighty Philadelphia A’s, allowing 14 hits and one walk in his 27 innings of work.

I was ready to put Sandy Koufax in this fourth slot. And then I looked at him in comparison to Pedro Martinez. And Greg Maddux. And Tom Seaver. And Grover Cleveland Alexander. And Warren Spahn. And Bob Gibson. And my head started to hurt. There are so many guys to stick into this fourth slot, but for now, I think I have to stick with Koufax because of his sheer dominance over the last six years of his career including three pitching Triple Crowns. Had modern medicine been available, he might have gone on to be number one. But pencil in the other six guys I mentioned as honorable mention for the team.

What you didn’t know: There’s a lot to be learned about Walter Johnson, despite the fact that he is nearly universally recognized as the greatest pitcher in baseball history. That’s partly because he pitched in the early part of the century, wrapping up his career in 1927. The other reason is that he played for the lowly Washington Senators, who rarely finished above the second division. Despite the lack of a team around him, Johnson still is second all-time in wins and carried the Senators to a World Series in 1924. Additionally, he lost 27 1-0 games, the most in history.

The lore of Johnson is probably the most interesting part of his persona. The finest story is that of a young batter, who having taken two Johnson strikes without moving the bat off his shoulder began to walk to the dugout. When umpire Bill Klem informed him that he had another strike left, the batter replied, “You can have it. It won’t do me any good.”

Twice in his career he performed an amazing feat. With the bases loaded and nobody out, he then proceeded to strike out the next three hitters on a total of nine pitches. That is a testament to the type of era that Johnson and other deadballers played in. Most of the time, they did not bear down fully unless they were in a dire situation. If a great pitcher’s team was up by more than three runs, the pitcher would often take it easy, rather than the current ideology of the game, where numbers mean contracts and contracts are in direct correlation with money.

Johnson was one of the quietest men to ever play the game, and he was humble in every way, likely a direct result of his Midwestern upbringing. But his career was unparalleled in terms of dominance and in terms of the respect he got from his peers. He’ll be the number one starter, and will likely not need to be relieved. Plus, he’s a great guy to hit in the nine hole, with a career .235 average and 24 homers. Not bad at all for a pitcher.

Matt Brady is a Collegian columnist.