Jim Johnson, relief pitcher

Like Koji Uehara and Mike Gonzalez, Jim Johnson is an established major league pitcher who made a brief appearance with the 2010 Tides while rehabbing an injury. I don’t have anything to say about his future.

I do have an interesting note about his past, however. I’m sure all of you know that a pitcher gets credit for a complete game no matter how many innings he pitches, provided he is the only pitcher used. It’s not earth-shatteringly unusual for a pitcher to earn a five-inning complete game, for instance. In 2007, however, Jim Johnson earned one of the more fortuitous nine-inning complete games in history. On July 27, Johnson started the game against the Durham Bulls; that was the last game of the homestand (and, in fact, the last 2007 game the Tides were scheduled to play in Durham.) After three innings, the game was suspended by rain. On August 25, in Norfolk, the game was continued from where it left off. Coincidentally, Jim Johnson was fully rested on August 25 and re-took the mound. He pitched the remaining six innings, thus getting credit for a complete game — a complete game spread over two days nearly a month apart and two ballparks.