Walker sees baseball as part of his future

Possibly broadcasts, player development

It wasn’t hard to detect the emotion in Neil Walker’s voice — and can you blame him?

Growing up, all Walker ever wanted to do was play for the Pirates. He accomplished that dream and much more, taking his childhood team from 20 consecutive losing seasons to three consecutive playoff appearances and 98 wins in his final season, 2015.

During his time here and also when he left, Walker always represented Pittsburgh with class, an example of the best we have to offer in terms of well-spoken and respectful people, forget the fact that he also played baseball well.

“I got to live out my dream,” Walker said Wednesday, pausing for a moment to regroup. “I just think about how much goes into a career, what that looks like and how fun it was … more than anything, I’m proud to sit here [and] say that I have no regrets.”

Where Walker goes from here is obviously of interest. Nothing for now, Walker said. He wants to enjoy retirement, attend a few more family functions, catch some Pirates games and basically do stuff the grind of baseball prohibits.

Beyond that, there are two routes that interest Walker: player development and

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On his Zoom call Wednesday, Walker talked about being an 18-year-old without a clue — especially when it came to doing his own laundry — when he arrived at Pirate City after Pittsburgh drafted him No. 11 overall in 2004.

So many people influenced him along the way. Longtime mentors such as Tom Prince and Woody Huyke and franchise legend Bill Mazeroski aided with Walker’s transition to second base. The leadership and atmosphere created by Clint Hurdle. Teammates such as Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco and how the Pirates were able to finally break through.

“We weren’t going to be in for the $100 million player. That was just reality,” Walker said. “But we knew that if we played together, and we collectively as an offensive group carried out our approach and grinded out teams, we knew if we got to the sixth or seventh inning with a two- or threerun lead, the chances of us closing the door were really good

“That was our recipe for success during that stretch where we won a lot of baseball games. Personally, I take great pride in just being part of that whole process, seeing it go from 100-plus losses to nearly 100 wins in 4-5 years.”

As for the broadcasting stuff, Walker is a natural. His answers Wednesday were thoughtful and thorough. He’s always been a terrific quote and loves to talk baseball. There’s little doubt he’d shine in that role — if he’s ultimately interested.

“[Broadcasting] is something that could be a natural next step for me,” Walker said, adding that he might try it out later this season.

Leaving Pittsburgh also was an interesting discussion point. Walker laughed when talking about how few people recognized him in New York compared to Pittsburgh. The clubhouserole was drastically different, too.

Walker said he wished he could have kept playing for his hometown team, but the economic realities of baseball made that impossible.

“As somebody who was drafted by this organization and came up through this organization, it would have been amazing to play my entire career in Pittsburgh,” Walker said. “But just kind of where baseball is and the business end of it, it’s naive to think that. For 99.9% of players, that’s just not the reality.”

The past 24 hours, since he announced his retirement, have included a rush of texts and phone calls for Walker. Old friends, former teammates, they’ve all reached out to say congratulations.

Walker kept training and held out hope he might be able to play one more year, but when there wasn’t a ton of interest this late in the baseball calendar, he figured this was probably a good time to hang ’em up.

Initially, Walker worried whether he might not want to watch baseball, but he said he’s had zero problems there. He attended the home opener at PNC Park, pacifying his daughter, Nora, with a hot dog and plenty of cotton candy.

“I remember sitting there thinking, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’ I flashed back to when I was a senior in high school going to baseball games in 2003 and 2004,” Walker said. “I thought when it did end that I would have a hard time watching baseball. But, no, I love it.”

Enough to keep doing it, too.

Walker has partnered with a couple of people to help develop a baseball complex in Russellton called “No Offseason Exposure.” The hope is for it to look a little like Pirate City, with four fields and various other amenities, the entire thing helping Western Pennsylvania natives get noticed a little easier.

Walker has also had discussions with the Pirates about a player development role, where he can share some of his experiences and potentially impact the next generation. He actually already got a taste of that while working out with some area minor league guys in the offseason.