Neil WALKER
With OpenOpening Day just a day away, Mets second baseman Neil Walker steps into the Q&A batter’s box with The Post’s Steve Serby:
Q: Terry Collins says that he expects a huge year from you. A: No. 1 it means I’m healthy. I think the confidence that I have is hopefully going to translate on the field every day. I feel like I’m in a good place mentally and physically in my career. We have a great group of guys, and the camaraderie we have makes it easy to go to the ballpark and just prepare and to play and to focus on winning.
Q: He also said that you’re a leader. What makes a leader? A: There’s definitely different kinds of leaders. There are leaders that lead by example, there’s leaders that lead more vocally. I feel like I have a little bit of those attributes as a player and as a person. I don’t go to the ballpark every day saying to myself, “I need to be a leader.” I try to do what I can to be a good teammate, to be supportive, to do things the right way, to prepare myself the right way.
Q: It must be a nice mental freedom for you knowing your back problems are finally behind you. A: Absolutely. I could tell within three days of having the surgery that my back already felt 100 times better. That was a big relief off my back. Obviously, the timing of it couldn’t have been worse with [us] being in a playoff run and so on and so forth, so that was really the hard part of it. I feel like I’m able to do the things that I need to do, and I’m able to do ‘em more comfortably, with more confidence. There’s not much that can take the place of being able to go out and not worry about your back locking up on you or something along those lines.
Q: You were in the dugout during the wild-card loss. A: It was a very frustrating thing, but I tried to do everything I could to be as supportive as I could for my teammates.
Q: Why is your father (Tom) your hero? A: I’ve been able to lean on him in so many different facets of life. As a former baseball player himself, he’s been through really everything that I’ve been through in my professional career. He’s battled some health things over the course of the last 10 years, and to watch him go through it is really tough on me, my brothers and sister and mom. But he doesn’t complain and he sets a very good example for me, my siblings and my father’s grandchildren, my mother’s. ... I have one daughter and we’re very fortunate to have him as somebody that is such a pillar of our family.
Q: He’s had 12 surgeries? A: Yeah. He’s had hip replacement on both sides, and he had complications in one of his hip surgeries that almost took his life back in 2007. He’s had two knee replacements, he could have two shoulder replacements if he wanted to.
Q: What happened in 2007? A: He had an infection from the replacement that they ended up having to go in three or four different times to clean, and he ended up spending almost two months in the hospital.
Q: How frightening was that? A: It was very frightening. I was playing baseball in Double-A Altoona, which actually was about an hour-and-a-half away from home, but my family really kept me in the dark because they didn’t want to affect the way I was playing. When I saw him during the season, he was in much worse shape than I anticipatedanticipated, in a wheelchair and had lost a ton of weight. It was really alarming to see him like that.
Q: Your daughter Nora Vail was born last August. How has fatherhood changed your life? A: It’s given me just a greater perspective on life and on baseball and the daily grind of things. You really stop worrying about some of the things that seem important. ... It’s just so fun to kind of see her grow and watch her smile and things like that. It really touches your heart. I never expected that. I expected to really enjoy being a father but I’m probably doing it way more than I could have imagined.
Q; Your experience living on the Upper East side. A: Everything’s at your fingertips. We really got used to having groceries delivered, walking to great restaurants, and entertainment things and walking over to Central Park to take the dog for a walk and the baby in the stroller and so on and so forth.
Q: When Matt Harvey had his All-Star season, what was it like facing him? A: You knew that you were going to get just a nasty slider at some point at bat, you didn’t want to miss the fastball when you got it. The fastball is midto upper-90s, and then you get a putaway slider, it was a very uncomfortable at-bat needless to say.
Q: Does he look like he’s on his way back? A: Seeing him and watching him, I think the health issues are behind him, and that’s exciting to see because his stuff is so good.
Q: Noah Syndergaard on the mound. A: He’s a bull. To watch him pitch and to watch the power stuff that he’s had, the power fastball, the power slider, it makes you happy that you’re not on that other end. I’ve been on that other end against himhim, and that’s no joke (chuckle).
Q: How intimidating is he on the mound? A: He’s very intimidating. Anytime you’re looking at a 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6 guy with muscles bulging and he’s throwing in the upper 90s with [a] 92 mile-an-hour slider, as soon as you step in the box, you know you’re in for a dogfight. There’s not many guys that are like that as pitchers. We got a couple of those guys on our team and you’re happy to be on that side as opposed to the other side.
Q: Yoenis Cespedes in the batter’s box. A: He’s just such a dynamic hitter. He can hit a home run at any time, in any ballpark, pull the ball, dead center field, opposite field — I mean, there’s not much the guy can’t do as a hitter, and that’s pretty scary.
Q: Favorite New York City restaurants? A: Marea and Del Posto.
Q: Is this a World Series championship team? A: I think so. You look around, and there’s not many holes on this team, we have some of the best talent that I’ve ever been around. We have the ability to do it, and obviously staying healthy as a group is really important, and more than that, it’s about coming together as a group and going out there and not worrying about the expectations, but just focusing on how do we win on a nightly basis as a team, and after 162 games see where you’re at.
Q: Who’s the team to beat? A: I think it’s easy to say that the Cubs are the team to beat in the National League. They’re the defending champs so they’re riding high and everybody’s going to be gunning for them, but we feel like if we take care of our business and not worry about any of the other teams, just kind of control what we can control, what we can control as a group, that we have just as good a chance as anybody else to win a World Series.