Hall-bound Walker ‘grateful as can be’
Larry Walker’s uphill climb to Cooperstown culminated in dramatic fashion last week, when the versatile outfielder was narrowly elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year of eligibility.
Walker, 53, narrowly cleared the 75% mark required for induction, getting named on 304 of 397 ballots (76.6%) by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The results complete an up-and-down ride for the Canadian slugger, who debuted by receiving 20.3% of the vote in 2011, only to bottom out at 10.2% in 2014 before his candidacy picked up momentum.
His candidacy was burdened by the fact he played 10 of his seasons in hitter-friendly Coors Field. Ultimately, he would not be denied.
“I get the arguments, trust me, and I’m OK with them,” Walker said on MLB Network moments after his election. “There’s negativity to everything, and I can handle it. I’m a big boy. But 76% of the writers didn’t agree with that, and I’m as grateful as can be.”
As a backlog of highly qualified candidates earned induction, Walker’s fortunes rose, too; his most significant leaps came on the past two ballots, rising from 21.9% in 2017 to 34.1% in 2018, and then a jump to 54.6% in his penultimate year of eligibility.
It’s not hard to imagine why his candidacy might gradually grow on so many voters. Walker appeals to many baseball sensibilities, quantifiable or otherwise. A legitimate five-tool player early in his career, he had the making of potential stardom in Montreal, where he won two Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger award before the 1994 strike pulled the plug on arguably his greatest team – a 74-40 Expos squad running away with the NL East.
Colorado brought
Walker 1995 RVR PHOTOS-USA TODAY SPORTS
gaudy statistics and individual glories – the 1997 NL MVP award, two more top-10 finishes, four All-Star appearances – but also an overstated perception that his offensive prowess was largely tied to the rarefied air of Denver’s Coors Field. He won four batting titles with the Rockies, posting averages of .366, .363 and .379 between 1997-99.
He was far from a Coors creation, though. In his ’97 NL MVP season, Walker’s batting average and on-base percentage were better at Coors (.384, .460) than on the road (.346, .443). But he smacked 29 of his 49 home runs on the road, and his OPS was better on the road (1.176) than at home (1.169).
Thanks to that diverse skill set – a rocket arm, steady glove, across-the-board offensive greatness – he ranks 55th all time among modern players in Wins Above Replacement.
“I had the numbers in my head and was prepared for no call,” says Walker, who tweeted his worries earlier in the day his election was announced. “And then the opposite happens, and that call comes, and suddenly you can’t breathe.”
Walker will be inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, New York, with Derek Jeter, Ted Simmons and late pioneering union chief Marvin Miller.