Larry Walker is going into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Rockies cap. Based on the resumé alone, it’s a decision that should have been easy. Walker’s 1997 MVP season took place in Colorado, as did all three batting titles and all but one of his five all-star nods.
The choice seemed obvious enough and yet it wasn’t. The Expos were the team that gave Walker his first opportunity in 1984, and Montreal is where he spent the first six years of his career. He knows what the organization meant to the city, and more important he’s aware of what his accomplishments meant to an entire country.
Walker has never been the kind of guy to turn his back on any of that. He proudly represented Canada as a player, and he remains involved as a coach with the national team program. Perhaps that’s one reason why, even as Walker stated the obvious that he would become the first Rockies player to enter the hall, the native of Maple Ridge, B.C. seemed slightly conflicted.
“It’s a hard decision, being a Canadian, but I feel with all the at-bats, games played in Colorado, the years spent there, it really seems like the right decision and we all agreed on that,” said Walker, who finished his career with the Cardinals. “All three teams will be on that plaque represented and I’m honoured that I got to put all three of those uniforms on.”
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Walker always represented the best of what Canada had to offer on the world stage. He was an elite talent without a hint of ego. Funny, self-deprecating, humble and grateful for his opportunities. A laid-back personality without any noticeable signs of insecurity. The type of guy we all aspired to be if fame suddenly struck.
His first passion, like so many people in this country, was hockey. Walker dreamt of becoming an NHL goaltender, but the desire began to wane in his teens. He turned to baseball almost on a whim, first through Baseball Canada and later a deal with the Expos. When Walker’s minor-league career began in 1985, he still didn’t even have a firm grasp of all the sport’s rules.
In a sign of just how gifted an athlete Walker was, it didn’t take him long to figure things out. By age 23, Walker was the Expos’ starting right fielder. At 25, Walker was an all-star. He would go on to play 17 seasons while batting .313 with 383 home runs and 1,311 RBIs. He’s one of only 19 hitters in history with a plus-.300 average, .400 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage across 5,000 or more plate appearances.
“You’re born in Canada, you come into the world with a hockey stick and skates on and that’s what you do,” Walker told reporters in New York on Wednesday afternoon. “Baseball was something I never really did. I played more softball than I did baseball growing up, until I was 16 and got an opportunity with Team Canada and got scouted by (Montreal’s) Jim Fanning and Bob Rodgers. The minor leagues are what I used to figure out how to do the game and how to play it.”
Walker did these things at a time when Canada was known for hockey and little else. There were moments of Olympic glory, but within the professional sporting community the country’s impact was almost inconsequential. Steve Nash had yet to emerge. Two high-profile athletes — boxer Lennox Lewis and tennis player Greg Rusedski — abandoned the country in favour of the British flag. Tennis stars Denis Shapovalov and Bianca Andreescu weren’t even born.
Prior to Walker’s stardom, Canada’s non-hockey athletes had been relegated to bit roles. In basketball, it was Bill Wennington, Mike Smrek, Leo Rautins and Rick Fox. Baseball had a Hall of Famer in Ferguson Jenkins, but for kids growing up in the late 1980s and early 1990s he was more folklore than a source of real pride. Instead, part-timers such as Rob Ducey and Doug Frobel were the ones left carrying the flag.
For those who weren’t interested in becoming the next Wayne Gretzky, Walker offered an alternative. Someone they could look up to. Talk to any Canadian who broke into the majors during the early 2000s and they typically credit two things for their passion of the sport: Walker and the Blue Jays’ back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-93. His impact was that big.
The best part about Walker was how eager he was to embrace the leadership role and pay it forward to the next generation. Former Twins star Justin Morneau drove that point home this week in a video essay for TSN. Morneau grew up a short drive from Walker’s hometown and he was eight years old when the future Hall of Famer made his debut for the Expos in 1989. Morneau spent the bulk of his childhood idolizing the local star, trying to emulate that smooth and effortless swing.
One day in double-A, Morneau walked into his clubhouse and found a box of major-league quality bats waiting at his locker. A gift from Walker, a man he knew everything about but had yet to meet. When Morneau made his big-league debut a couple years later against the Rockies, he found another bat waiting in the clubhouse. This time it was signed by Walker with a note that said: “Make Canada proud.” What might seem like a small gesture to some was life-altering to Morneau, a big star taking care of the rookie. Something Morneau would later embrace on his own.
That’s the thing about Walker: He set an example all Canadians can be proud of. Throughout the glory, Walker never let the fame get to his head and he never forgot where he came from. That was apparent throughout the course of his career and it was obvious again with the respect he showed Montreal, and the rest of the country, during Wednesday’s news conference in New York.
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