Bart Johnson??

[Garland_IS_God]

Anybody ever hear of him? I guess he was a pitcher for the Sox in the early 70's. I frequent a bar called The Homestead on 87th Central and I guess hes there all the time. My fiances parents are up there a lot, and always tell me about him. I never heard of the guy before, just curious if anybody on the board remembers the name?

[voodoochile]

Never heard of him, but I did a search for you...

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/stat...layerID=116571

[KenBerryGrab]

Heck, yeah. Tall, lanky, good fastball. #2 pick in the '69 draft. Sox couldn't decide if he was a reliever or starter. He was in the pen until Forster and Gossage arrived. Never lived up to his draft position. '71 was probably his best year, IIRC.

[Nellie_Fox]

Wow, it makes me feel really, really old that people don't remember "Blazin' Bart."

[DumpJerry]

Originally Posted by Nellie_Fox

Wow, it makes me feel really, really old that people don't remember "Blazin' Bart."

Make that two of us.

www.baseball-reference.com can tell you plenty about him.

I remember him well. When I saw the thread title I was thinking someone wanted us to bring him back despite being in the Satchel Paige age group.....

[Garland_IS_God]

I wish I woulda done a search beofre I posted. Theres an article on this site about him. Im gonna print it up and give it to my in-laws to give to him next time they see him.

http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/r...ory=11&id=3294

[wilburaga]

I don't think the Sox have ever had a trio of young flamethrowers the caliber of Gossage, Forster, and 'Mr. Smoke'.

W

[Lip Man 1]

Garland:

Bart already has his copy of the story.



Lip

[roylestillman]

Toward the end of Bart's stint with the Sox he started griping and said he wanted to be traded. Harry's comment from the booth was "Trade him? How'd want him?"

[BeefyD]

I believe he resides in Westmont. I've had friends bump into him at the grocery store and such.

[salty99]

He also attended Soxfest this year!!!!

[Noneck]

He was the fictional character Gonzales Vorbeck (The Sox savior) that John Justin Smith (Chicago Daily News)wrote articles about while he was in the minors.

He was an amusing character tho, I remember him saying if things didn't work out in baseball he would just become a pro basketball player. I think he was a good high school player. (california boy I believe)

He had a real effortless delivery but could throw smoke.

He was one of my favs.

[salty99]

Originally Posted by Noneck

He was the fictional character Gonzales Vorbeck (The Sox savior) that John Justin Smith (Chicago Daily News)wrote articles about while he was in the minors.

He was an amusing character tho, I remember him saying if things didn't work out in baseball he would just become a pro basketball player. I think he was a good high school player. (california boy I believe)

He had a real effortless delivery but could throw smoke.

He was one of my favs.

As Ed Farmer pointed out at Soxfest John Wooden recruited Bart to play basketball at UCLA.

[Garland_IS_God]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

Garland:

Bart already has his copy of the story.



Lip

Kind of figured that out. lol

[LITTLE NELL]

With the stuff he had there was no doubt he was an under-achiever for his career. Seem to remember Harry Caray getting on his case back in 72 0r 73 and some heated words were exchanged on the team bus.