The last time the Diamondbacks were in the World Series, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham was in sixth grade. He was all-in as an Arizona sports fan, and remembers those times fondly.
“I got pulled out of school to go to the parade,” Dillingham said. “Those were pretty special moments.”
According to Dillingham, he also has a special connection to World Series hero and five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson.
The now-ASU head coach told Sports360AZ that about 15 years ago, he and Johnson bumped into each other (literally).
Dillingham says that – as a 19-year-old – he was entering a gated community with a car behind him. Dillingham “must have stopped too abruptly” and…crash. OK, it sounds like it was more of a nudge, resulting in the most minor of traffic collisions.
Dillingham said he got out of the car and saw the Big Unit was standing behind him. The teenager was excited and intimidated, and he said Johnson could not have been nicer in the process.
When the Sports360AZ team went to confirm this event with Johnson ahead of his first pitch in the Game 3 of the World Series, the Big Unit could not recall the collision. It was over a decade ago after all.
Much like the batters facing Johnson at the time, it sounds like it was another example of soft contact. It may have been so minor that it faded from Johnson’s memory.
But it still remained for the current Sun Devil coach all these years later, resulting in a tale that now sounds like an Arizona sports Mad Lib.
Jordan Hamm
