Randy Johnson: On His Infamous Bird Pitch And Passion For Photography

I've been on a tear lately with the podcast. I just bagged my 10th episode. Even rented a studio here on the west side of Los Angeles to record the episode in. I'm stoked about it. I'm going to put it on YouTube when the edit‘s ready, which will be a first for me.

I'm also starting to percolate on more ideas for the shows: Approachable concepts for episodes on subjects that I find interesting. I'll leave it with an air of intrigue for now. Listenership numbers aren't anything to brag about, but hopefully I can settle into a stride. We'll see.

At the moment, The Mostly Occasionally Show feels like an exercise in pushing myself—doing something raw, authentic, and admittedly a little uncomfortable. It’s a creative lane outside the day-to-day grind at BroBible, one that forces me to rethink my own boundaries. Plus, it feels good to yap and get some stuff off my chest in a focused yet low stakes way. My hope is to build an audience around it, not just for the show itself, but because I see it as a hub—a central spoke in a wheel of other creative projects I want to undertake in the coming years. I've really sucked at doing that for myself at BroBible over the years. I regret that.

Back in 2018, I dabbled in podcasting for a hot second, but my professional life felt like it was spinning off its axis at the time. UPROXX was cutting BroBible loose in our new partnership group, and as the site’s newly minted publisher juggling advertising responsibilities, I worried the podcast would seem like a distraction—to the team, to my business partners, and to the people signing my checks. Sometimes you gotta know when to put your head down and do the things that you need to do, not the things you want to do.

Six years later, I'm happy to settle on a format and give it the honest college try.

Which brings us to this episode! Randy Johnson, baseball legend. I got a chance to talk to the 6'10" baseball Hall of Famer about how his infamous bird pitch is getting honored in Coopterstown.

Here, go read what I wrote about it over on BroBible.

One of the highlights of my conversation with the Big Unit was talking about his passion for photography, a love that began during his college days at the University of Southern California. Back then, he was a photojournalism major, and one of his assignments was photographing The Clash opening for The Who at the LA Memorial Coliseum—a pretty legendary gig for a college student. Of course, baseball offered a bigger stage, and he ran with it, dominating SportsCenter highlights throughout my childhood. After a 22-year career in the majors, five Cy Young Awards, and a World Series MVP, he eventually returned to the other thing he loved: life behind the lens.

Over the years, Johnson has captured some incredible live music moments, particularly with his favorite band, Rush. During our chat, he shared a funny twist: bands often hire him to shoot their shows after seeing his excellent work, but what they really want is to talk baseball. Meanwhile, all he wants to talk about is rock ’n roll. He's taken six trips to Africa with his camera gear and continues to travel all over the world, with his photos shown in art galleries.

I really cherish this conversation. I sifted through Randy’s quotes on creativity and pulled them together into a piece for BroBible. If you’re curious and prefer to read instead of listen, you can check it out here.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening. Tune in on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or on the Buzzsprout player.