"Randy Johnson's retirement got me wondering just when it was that he stopped caring if anyone liked him, and how one of the greatest left-hander pitchers in history could have played for six teams without making a friend.

Don't misunderstand - every fifth day, the Big Unit was a man teammates loved to see on the mound. In between starts, he grated at managers, pitching coaches, players, trainers or anyone he happened to encounter.

When he arrived in Seattle from Montreal in '89, he was a long, lanky young pitcher with a great arm, little confidence and no idea how to pitch effectively.

But he was funny, and fun. A merry prankster who wore a conehead in the Kingdome dugout, Johnson was talkative, inquisitive and, if anything, a little too sensitive.

Say something negative about his last start on talk radio and, if the Mariners were at home that day, he'd call the station.

When he retired Tuesday, he went into the next stage of his life with 303 career victories and few players who were sorry to see him go. What happened between '89 and '09?

From Mariners to players with the Astros, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Giants, the men who worked with Johnson over a 22-year career tried to befriend the Unit and were rebuffed.

Some of the nicest men in the game - Jamie Moyer, Harold Reynolds Bryan Price, Jay Buhner, Derek Jeter and Mike Blowers among them - wound up walking away from Johnson and shaking their heads.

"When he pitched for me I gave him the ball every fifth day and left it up to him if we were going to talk the other four days," Lou Piniella said. "If he said hello, I'd say hello. If he didn't, fine. Life's too short ...""