Sandy Johnson

[Edgy MD]

My wife is going through some health ****, and that got her a prescription for physical rehab therapy. She is not a fan, but she mostly does it to indulge me. She isn't always happy with the attention she gets from the staff, but yesterday, she was far more peeved with the interactions between the guy at the next station and his therapist. He seemed to be in his late seventies, but despite seemingly having all his faculties and wits about him and being in good shape, the therapist was condescending to him and raising her voice like he was mentally addled and adrift in space.

So she struck up a conversation with the guy. He actually was being rehabbed for a fall he had take in the gym — while running the track — and apparently the doctor suggested he be screened for a concussion, and the therapist's idea of concussion screening was screaming into the guy's face.

So they laughed about that, they talked about injuries, she encouraged him for his abilities, and he mentioned some of his injuries came from his minor league baseball career. She said that her husband was a baseball nut and asked his name, and he said that I never would have heard of him, because he was in the Pittsburgh system, peaked at A-ball, and that was back in 1966. When the therapist returned to him, Ms. Edgy told her that the guy was a ballplayer and the therapist flatteringly said that maybe she should get his autograph, but she was still being condescending.

She came home and told me about it and said the guy's name was "Sandy Johnson" and asked if the name rang any bells. I told her that the baseball had a lot of Sandys and a LOT of Johnsons, but strangely, the name wasn't un-familiar.

It stuck with me, so I grabbed my stack of media guides, and there he was. Sandy Johnson, special assistant to the GM, assistant GM, and vice president of scouting for the Mets, circa 2006-2009. This was actually at the end of his career, having previously earned a ring with the Diamondbacks, and had long successful stints at the top of the chain for the Rangers and Padres.

With the Rangers, according to the media guide, he was instrumental in signing Ivan Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Kevin Brown, and Rob Nen. (Check out the story here of him scouting Pudge.). One of the first scouts he hired as assistant GM there was Omar Minaya, and Omar returned the favor, bringing him aboard with the Mets. His last season, the Mets were losing faith in Omar, and reportedly gave Sandy a "blank check" to delay his retirement, stay on board, and help Omar dig out of his mess.

With the Pads, he helped sign Benito Santiago, Sandy Alomar, Jr., and Mitch Williams. Media guide editors tend to give you credit that isn't yours to take if you were in the right place at the right time, but hey, they aren't saying he signed Roberto Alomar, or Andy Benes.

It turns out the guy is 85. He played minor league ball with Willie Stargell and probably a bunch of other Lumber Company Pirates; he has a World Series ring and Mets pedigree; clearly knows David Wright, Carlos Beltrán, a few Hall of Famers, and at least one US president — and there he was getting yelled at in the face at the medical center's physical therapy ward.

It's a cruel world.

[Centerfield]

Thanks for sharing. Trying to think of the talent the minors signed during that window. Maybe Mike Pelfrey?

I used to tell SC. That old guy in the gym is probably more badass than we can even imagine.

[stevejrogers]

Fun fact, real name is Sanfrid

http:// https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=johnso001san

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, you get a Caucasian ballplayer from the mid-century named Sandy, and you might figure he was nicknamed by a forgetful manager or teammate because of his sandy hair. But nope, that was a diminutive of his actual name.

Other players entering the organization in this era would have been Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner on the American side, and Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia on the foreign side. But I get the idea that at this point in his career as VP of scouting, he was more about structure and process — hiring the scouts, assigning them to territories, establishing a hierarchy and a system of cross checking, rather than directly scouting and reviewing reports from underlings and making choices, which I presume would have fallen more to scouting director Rudy Terrassas.

He almost certainly was in the war room on draft day, though.

[whippoorwill]

Maybe she’ll see him again and tell him we’re all proud to know him

[Edgy MD]

Here is Sandir Johnson in the media guide, sharing a page with John Ricco (unshown) and a fully clothed Tony Bernazard.

[FIMG=600]https://metsrostercentral.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/sandy.jpg[/FIMG]

Among the future stars he played with were Stargell, Steve Blass, Gold Glover Gene Alley, Dock Ellis, Al Oliver, Manny Sanguillen, Bob Moose, and Gene Garber.

1962 Met Larry Foss was a teammate as well. He also played with future Washington Senator Dick Lines, who was nobody's idea of a star, but he inspired millions by going through life with the name Dick Lines.

[Edgy MD]

By chance, Sandy is the brother of Tim Johnson, the Blue Jays manager who gained a sad sort of ignominy, getting exposed for stolen valor, attempting to inspire his players with fabricated tales of battlefield service during The Vietnam War, when he in fact done his wartime service stateside in The Marine Corps Reserve.

Tim described his exposure and his apology as a weight lifted off of him, and the team went into Spring Training the next season with him still at the helm, hoping to put the events behind them, but the story would not go away and he was let go before Opening Day.

He would go on to a long career managing in The Mexican League, as well the US-based independent minors.