Baseball analyst and historian Bill James commented, after seeing archival footage, that he was surprised Johnson could throw hard without his arm falling off. Watching the same or similar footage, I had the same thought. Johnson's motion is low-sidearm, very stressful for a hard-thrower. When you see such a motion today, its normally on a relief specialist. The key is that pitchers of Johnson's era, at least for most of his career didn't have to throw hard every pitch. With the dead ball, they didn't have to worry about giving up a run in every at bat and could save their best stuff for the "pinches." While I don't doubt that Johnson threw damned hard, and would put him as one of the top 5 pitchers all time, he wouldn't have piled up similar records had he pitched in the modern era.

none of the pre 1947 players will EVER get more than 3 stars from me. They didn't play against ALL of the best players! Somo Americans were not allowed to play..3 stars at best for all of them

The greatest pitcher of all time. Pitched in over 100 1-0 affairs and used to hold the modern day record for greatest ERA in a single season until Bob Gibson broke it in 1968. He should be given a lot more credit because of him being only one of two pitchers to record 400 wins. While Cy Young had 100 more wins than Johnson, he wasn't nearly as dominating or intimidating.

Once again great for his time with lots of shut outs and complete games but not a #1 rating deserved on this list.

Threw much harder than anyone else in the dead-ball and early live-ball eras, had great control and discipline, possessed a competitive spirit. Won over 400 games with a perrenially crappy team. A gentleman of the game. Freight Train. Big Six. Barney. Judging by archival film footage, Johnson had to have been in the top three or four hardest throwing starters of all time, which is truly remarkable when you consider that he started his career in 1907.

The greatest after Cy Young. Johnson is second greatest all time.

he is the best.nick-named the freight train,he won more games than any other pitcher in baseball history.over 500 wins and he also played for the washington senators and this team was one of the worst in baseball.walter also started and finished the game because they had no relief pitchers in his day