Elliott, No. 2 on our top 100, Larry Walker: Canuck position player arrives in Cooperstown
In 2021, Maple Ridge, B.C., native Larry Walker became the second Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
As rough as the 2021 season was, as bad as the year was, as often as you wanted to rip off your mask and scream “I HATE COVID!” we always had baseball.
And as usual under difficult circumstances Canadians excelled. As we mentioned earlier we could have had a three-way tie for the No. 1 Most Influential Canadian in baseball in 2021 in our 15th annual gathering of the best from the previous year. Now, only one spot on our big board had a vacancy on it …. No. 1.
Edward Rogers, who won a court case — intra-squad clash — and spent on players and the Rogers Centre was No. 3 and now sitting in the No. 2 spot was Sir Larry Walker … inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in September of 2021.
One more to do … and then the always popular Honourable Mentions list, which we are still working on at the current moment .
2. Larry Walker, Hall of Famer (1)
Veteran Larry Walker observers Greg Hamilton and Jason Dickson of Baseball Canada were in Cooperstown that September day to hear the reluctant public speaker step to the microphone. Near the end of his 14-minute speech Walker hit the meat and potatoes every young Canuck ball playing teenager from Victoria, BC to Mount Pearl, Newfoundland would eat up:
“Thank you Canada ... for all your support I’ve received throughout the years from my home country,” Walker told the crowd of 20,000. “I share this honour with every Canadian. I hope all you Canadian kids out there with dreams of playing in the big leagues that seeing me here today gives you another reason to go after those dreams.”
It took a while -- 10 years on the ballot or 3,304 days from Jan. 5, 2011 (when he had 20.3% of the vote) until Jan. 21, 2020 (76.6%) and then a 597 day wait due to COVID -- Walker was ready and his humble self. Walker came to the annual Baseball Canada fundraiser in January of 2008. The next year he joined Canada’s coaching staff and has participated in World Baseball Classics, Pan American Games, Premier 12s and World Cup competitions.
He has travelled from Sweden, to Italy, to Mexico and Peru with Team Canada. And he was in Ajax, where Canada scored twice in extras to beat Team USA and win Gold. Walker is a down to earth human being who plays cards with fellow staff members and genuinely cares about players and all those connected with the program.
“All the times I have been with him I can’t remember Larry Walker ever talking about Larry Walker,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said Walker’s speech allowed people a glimpse of the essence of the real Larry Walker.
Dickson said the parts of the speech that showed “how Canadian he was came when he was humble and so self-deprecating.”
- “It was always hard coming home after a tough loss or when I didn’t play well. Starting with the arrival of our son Broxton in 1993 until my last year in 2015 those feelings always disappeared when I saw all you guys (Broxton, plus daughters Canaan and Shayna),” he said looking at his family.
- “School was a struggle for me, yet my parents supported me, even when I didn’t come with a report card full of A’s and B’s ... or C’s ... it was D’s and F’s.”
- “I didn’t play as much as the Hall of Famers behind me, but I played a lot of fast pitch softball, with my mom Mary in the stands cheering, my dad Larry and my brothers Barry, Carey and Gary ... yep the rhyming family.”
- “I never considered myself a Hall of Famer ... at anything ... not one thing. I’m average and I’m good with being average. But to stand here and say I’m feeling average would be a complete lie ... I’m truly honoured and humbled.”
Walker (Maple Ridge, BC) and Dickson (Chatham, NB) aren’t from the largest cities in the country.
“His speech was awesome and I am biased,” Dickson said. “Coming from a small town working hard and being respectful and not being afraid. It’s scary for Canadians venturing into Minor-League ball. There’s different food and different characters in a different country.”
Dickson said his own stick-the-chest-out moment came watching Walker look to the section where Walker’s brother Carey (brothers Barry and Gary could not make it due to COVID), Chris Pollack, a former Expo minor leaguer and long time friend and Brent Underdahl, formerly of Maple Ridge, sat in white blazers adorned with red maple leafs in Don Cherry fashion as fans waved miniature Canadian flags. Former Expo Tim Wallach was there along with Gene Glynn, who coached Walker at Class-A Utica and with the Colorado Rockies.
“I’m proud when he’s proud,” Dickson said. “I was proud seeing him looking where his family sat. He did some amazing stuff on the field, almost super human, yet he’s a regular guy. I know Larry a little bit and he shared a little about himself in the speech.”
Walker touched them all naming his coaches from when he started until he retired: on the sandlots (Lorne Upstell, Paul Hamelin and his father with the Pitts Meadows Lions, Don Archer, Bill Green and Wayne Martin with the Coquitlam Reds); his professional coaches (Junior Miner with fielding, Ralph Rowe hitting, Tommy Harper base running and Mike Quade with “a little bit of everything”) and managers (Buck Rodgers, Felipe Alou, Tom Runnells, Don Baylor, Buddy Bell, Jim Leyland and Tony La Russa.)
To paraphrase another great man, who was as calm in 1993 after Joe Carter’s World Series-winning home run as Walker appeared to be on stage, “he touched them all.”