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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

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Randy Johnson receives replica Neil Peart R30 kit at Diamondbacks jersey retirement ceremony

Sat, Aug 8, 2015@10:31PM | comments

UPDATE - 8/9@10:21AM: Here's the official MLB video of the event, including Johnson receiving the kit at about the 5-minute mark:

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The Arizona Diamondbacks retired Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson's No. 51 jersey during a ceremony at Chase Field in Phoenix earlier today. As part of the ceremony Johnson - a huge Rush fan - was given an exact replica of Neil Peart's R30 drum kit as seen in this tweet. From arizonasports.com:

... "Welcome to an evening of karaoke at the ballpark," Johnson began, after walking onto the field from the bullpen. "When a lot of Hall of Famers came up to me and said this day is all about you," he added, "I said, it's about all the people who ... looked out for me along the way. And that list is really long." ...

Johnson even played a couple of fills on it for the crowd as seen in this video. Thanks to Bruce M and Denis N for the heads up.

Johnson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last month, and in the lead up to the ceremony MLB Network aired a special documentary on Johnson's career as part of its MLB Network Presents series. Johnson's good friend Geddy Lee along with several former teammates, players and coaches were interviewed for the program. The Geddy Lee interview segments where taken from an earlier MLB interview from back in May where Johnson and Lee discussed their friendship and mutual admiration. Johnson has been photographing several of Rush's tour stops and the interview was conducted before the band's show in Austin.

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