This story originally ran in Hometown 9 on May 21, 2008.

By Nick Tavares

Whenever you’re heading out to the park, there are always questions that come up.

“Where are we sitting?”

“How much is a beer in here?”

“Wanna try to sneak down to a box?”

“They want how much for a beer?!?”

But, ultimately, there’s always one question that’s much more important. Someone always asks it, and for good reason.

“Who’s pitching tonight?”

It’s the single most exciting variable before any game. Who’s pitching. And the answer can severely swing your interest in the game. If it’s a long reliever filling in due to injury, the intrigue severely swings down, whereas a veteran, an exciting rookie or a future Hall of Famer will always lead to greater interest and, often, more butts in the seats.

I always like to know who’s pitching, and I’ve made decisions on whether or not to head out to the park based on who will take the hill, on days when I’ve been on the fence about driving out, paying for parking and buying a ticket.

Take last season’s interleague match-up against the Boston Red Sox. Saturday featured a pitching duel of Julian Tavarez against the Diamondbacks’ Micah Owings. Sunday’s game? Randy Johnson vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka. On the surface, which game sounds more interesting to you? Me, I’m a sucker for the marquee match-up.

Which brings us to a discussion of the Big Unit and his place in baseball, its history and this current version of the D-backs.

Living just a few minutes away from Chase Field, I’m able to pick up and head out to a game on seemingly a moment’s notice. It’s very conducive to following a whim wherever it may take me. This past Sunday, after having watched his last two starts — wins against Colorado and Philadelphia — I realized that there was very little excuse for me to not head out to the park and catch another Randy start.

And there was some history here. Four years ago to the day, he had played catch with Robby Hammock on a cool night in Atlanta to the tune of a perfect game. 13 strikeouts, and no chance for Atlanta to even smell a runner on base.

I remember that night pretty well. We had flipped over to the game on TBS, and realized very quickly that this would probably put a dent in our hopes to make deadline. As convenient as it would have been to wish that Johnson not throw a perfect game, preserving our front page as it stood, I was rooting for working late and witnessing history, albeit from my desk in a Massachusetts newsroom.

The seventh, eighth and ninth innings rolled through, and Johnson took care of business. It was awesome to watch. And I distinctly remember thinking how special it could be to watch a guy like that, in person, all the time.

A few years later, I’m out in Arizona, and even though he’s not really close to the same guy, I’m a sucker for history. I’m making it a point to get to as many of his starts as I can.

This past Sunday against Detroit, Johnson looked good, not great, to start the game. He was scatting singles and doubles the first few innings, but most of his outs and hits looked alike — he was keeping the ball down, and they were hitting them low. Sometimes they found a fielder, sometimes they didn’t. Regardless, he was incredibly efficient. And, for a little while, he was overshadowed.

Before they figured him out, Detroit’s Nate Robertson held the D-backs hitless going into the fourth, before Justin Upton and company figured him out.

Meanwhile, Johnson kept at it, working the hitters inside, letting his slider do most of the work, and after 7 innings, six hits and 0 runs, he had set up win no. 288, 12 away from 300 and another notch on the belt for the best team in baseball.

It was easily his best start of the year, and potentially a great harbinger for things to come. If Johnson can continue to be economic in his approach, he’ll help lift an already solid staff into frightening territory. The mere thought of a playoff rotation of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Johnson, with Max Scherzer and Owings working out of the bullpen, could give the rest of the NL fits in October.

But that’s thinking a little too far ahead. In the meantime, Johnson, 44 years young, is still pitching and still winning. He’s not the same man who blew away the Atlanta Braves four years ago, but he’s still an effective part of a very good team, and he’s still fun to watch.

And, hey, he’s a future Hall of Famer. I’ll pay to watch him any day of the week.