They called Walter Johnson the Big Train.
He just got passed on the tracks of MLB history, though.
Justin Verlander now has struck out more batters than Johnson, who was considered maybe the first great strikeout pitcher in baseball's history.
Verlander has struck out 3,516 batters and counting, which moves him into ninth place on the all-time list.
Johnson now resides in 10th at 3,515.
Verlander is MLB's active leader in strikeouts. Max Scherzer and then Clayton Kershaw are the other active pitchers to have reached the 3,000-srikeout barrier, which is a number it'll be hard for any current pitcher to get to based on how modern pitching is being handled.
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Interestingly, Johnson's strikeout total isn't the same in every record book.
Elias Sports Bureau, which provided the leaderboard for MLB Network's Sarah Langs, has Johnson with those 3,515 career strikeouts that Verlander just passed.
Baseball Reference only credits Johnson with 3,509.
Either way, Verlander is ninth on the all-time list. It just impacts where he moved up the list on Tuesday night or if it had already been done.
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The next pitcher on the list is Gaylord Perry, with 3,534 strikeouts. Don Sutton is seventh with 3,574.
Tom Seaver is sixth (3,640) and Bert Blyleven (3,701) is fifth.
The top-four of Steve Carlton (4,136), Roger Clemens (4,672), Randy Johnson (4,875) and Nolan Ryan (5,714) seem untouchable in the modern game.
But Verlander, who just keeps chugging along, got his name one more special place in baseball history.
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