By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. _ The map shows it is 33 miles from Murnane Field in Utica, N.Y. to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Driving you can make in under an hour.

The trip for Larry Walker was much longer. Let’s see it took 447 games and 1,816 plate appearances with the Utica Blue Sox, Burlington Expos, West Palm Beach Expos, Jacksonville Expos and Indianapolis Indians.

Then, 1,988 games and 8,030 plate appearances over 17 seasons with the Colorado Rockies, Montreal Expos and St, Louis Cardinals.

Walker made his debut at Utica on Aug. 16, 1989 and on July 26 this summer he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That’s 11,297 days between Utica and Cooperstown. He probably could have walked it at a faster pace.

Or that would be 30 years, 11 months and five days or 371 months and five days.

Whatever, whether it be from a co-op team in Utica to making it by six votes on his 10th and final year on the ballot “In is in,” as Bill Mazeroski said once when someone asked him whether it bothered him to be selected by the Veterans Committee.

Derek Jeter and Walker were elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Jan. 21. Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons were elected by the Modern Baseball Era committee on Dec. 8.

On Tuesday afternoon, Walker signed the blank space where his plaque will go after he toured four floors of the Hall. And on July 26 when the bronze plaques -- with Walker wearing a Colorado Rockies hat -- the top row from left to right will read Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, Lee Arthur Smith, union boss Miller and Walker.

That’s Canada’s own Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, BC) the first Canadian position player and the second Canadian -- joining RHP Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.). Walker, who was signed for $1,500 US by Montreal Expos scout Bob Rogers, is the first non-drafted player inducted since Ron Santo in 2012.

“I have to thank my mother and father for letting me sign and go,” Walker said. “Otherwise I still might have been working at the bowling alley.”

Walker told the story about his mother phoning him recently and asking him, “Am I losing my mind or did we visit the Hall of Fame when you played at Utica?”

The hockey player turned baseball player, Walker said he was unsure. When asked to bring some memorabilia like a Gold Glove, a uniform, etc. to Cooperstown he went searching.

“First thing I found was a picture of mom, dad and I standing with a bunch of plaques in the background,” Walker said with a laugh. “I had on a cut off shirt and was probably saying ‘Can we go now?’ Mom looked 30 years younger.”

And the next failed goalie from Canada can come in 50 years and read about Walker and his exploits cast in bronze.

At Utica there were San Diego Padres farmhands, plus players who belonged to the Expos and two other clubs shared the facility. The Expos did not have a position for him as development people argued whether he was a corner infielder or an outfielder. He had played shortstop at the Canada Cup.

“It was where they sent all the rejects,” Walker joked. “I hit .223 with two homers.”

In his 10 years on the ballot, Walker received 1,340 votes from writers. It was a strange pattern as he was basically the same for the first three years (20.31% in 2011, 22.86% and 21.62%), then dipped for three straight years (10.16%, 11.84%, 15.45%) and then climbed four elections in a row (21.95%, 34.12%, 54.59% and 76.57%).

* * *

Walker listened intently, paying a lot more attention than he did as an 18-year-old as Erik Strohl took him on a tour of the hall. How the Cincinnati Red Stockings travelled more than 12,000 miles the first year of the continental railroad was constructed, going 57-0. Pros playing against amateurs. The Red Stockings lost only a handful of games the next year.

Yet after a few years the Red Stockings had a profit of $2, so their best players signed with the Boston Braves, who became the Milwaukee Braves, who became the Atlanta Braves.

Next up was Babe Ruth’s bat from 1927 when he hit 60 home runs. And if you looked closely the bat had 28 notches in it. Ruth was to have said, “Every notch represents an apple knocked out of the orchard.”

Walker shook his head saying, “You know you are talking to a hockey player, this is stuff I don’t know a thing about.”

The first Hall induction was in 1936, but there was not a formal induction until 1939. There is a grand picture of two rows of players in suits from 1939, save for Ty Cobb. Walker was asked to sit on the bench in front of the picture.

“Let me sit here in front of Babe’s head,” joked Walker.

Walker’s sense of humour shone through: looking at a Phil Rizzuto helmet Walker said it looked like one from Hogan’s Heroes. At the Latin exhibit, Walker told of his winter playing in Hermosillo, Mex.

“We had a two-foot tree, we played on Christmas Day with about 25 guys in the seats dressed up as Santas.”

Looking at the uniform of Dennis Martinez’s from Nicaragua, Walker told how he played first base as Martinez was “El Presidente, El Perfecto.” Walker said he had a partially torn labrum and played almost 40 games at first. He remembers knocking down a sharp one hopper from Eddie Murray.

At a display for Gary Carter, Walker recalled “The Kid’s” double over the head of right fielder Andre Dawson to score Walker with the only run of the game in a Jeter-like exit from the game in 1992.

Heading towards a display of Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and PEDs Walker said, “This is an exhibit you don’t want to see you picture in.”

Also on display was the bat from The Natural, Wonder Boy, which came from Walker’s business, the Hard Prop Room, located in Los Angeles.

Strohl showed Walker how New York Giants fans presented ace Christy Mathewson with a Columbia Roadster in 1912.

* * *

A newspaper headline read how Joe Adcock, J.D. Martinez and Lou Gehrig each hit four homers in the same game.

Walker recalled hitting three home runs one night for the Rockies at Olympic Stadium and it went like this.

Walker to manager Don Baylor: “Why not pinch hit John Vander Wal and give him a couple of innings in the field?”

Baylor: “But you’ve already got three homers.”

Walker: That’s neat, give the at-bat to John please.”

Walker said he met Ted Simmons at the recent St. Louis Cardinals fantasy camp and was “looking forward to his speech -- the man has a sense of humor ... and some stories.”

* * *

In the basement Strohl had some bats, memorabilia and balls on display for Walker:

_ Bats used by Mike Trout and Ken Griffey. Walker used a C235 bat, at 34 ounces and 31 1/2 inches, which is similar, according to Strohl.

Next was a Honus Wagner 42-ounce bat. “It looks like he might have trouble lifting it,” Walker said.

_ Los Angeles Dodgers Duke Snider’s hat from the 1959 World Series.

_ The ball Steve Carlton used for his 3,000th strike out (Eric Davis).

_ The ball Dave Kingman hit into the roof of the Metrodome and it stayed there. There was a ground rule for a ball that hit the roof and came back to earth, but not one that never came down. The umpires ruled a ground-rule double.

_ A ball Pittsburgh Pirates Harvey Haddix used during his 12 2/3 hitless innings outing facing the Milwaukee Braves.

_ A golf trophy Babe Ruth won in 1929 in St. Petersburg since baseball could not be played on Sundays.

_ Cleats Stan Musial wore in 1953 when he scored 127 run for the St. Louis Cardinals.

_ A team jacket catcher Moe Berg wore on a trip to Japan in 1934. Berg was also a spy and spent time away from his park taking pictures of the Tokyo harbour.

_ Gary Carter’s No. 8 jersey, which prompted a Walker story on his former teammate. Everyone was complaining about drivers speeding down Walker’s street to the golf course. Speed bumps were put in. Still there were speeders. Walker went so far as buying a radar-tracker and chased a car, which stopped at the golf course. The man got out of the car. “Kid, what are you doing?” Walker said when he saw Carter.

_ Randy Johnson’s cap from the triple-A Indianapolis Indians. Walker said he and Johnson were in a cab riding to the park in 1989 when the call came that Johnson had been moved to the Seattle Mariners along with Brian Holman and Gene Harris for lefty Mark Langston.

_ Gary Carter’s all-star bat from 1979 when he hit a pair of homers.

_ And Babe Ruth’s bat, which Walker posed with.

* * *

Walker will be a busy man this summer. Besides Cooperstown, he will be in St. Marys when his friend Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC) will be inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame.

“Today, this whole experience is like the day I got the phone call ... I’m in awe,” Walker said. “This doesn’t seem real legit. I feel like I won a lottery ticket. Inside I’m trembling . Nothing seems real about. I’m still trying to absorb it all. It hasn’t happened yet.

“I don’t know when it’s going to happen. Maybe it’s going to be in July. Maybe it’s going to be later today.”

Walker said he hoped that there would be plenty of Canadian flags on the hillside in July.

“To be from north of the border, to be the first position player, to be the second Canadian, I can’t find the proper words,” he said. “I’m feel like I am stuttering.”

He was not the first to tell of how musicians want to grow up to be ballplayers and ballplayers want to be musicians. Through his baseball success he has become friends in low places with Garth Brooks, plus Geddy Lee and REO Speedwagon.

Growing up Walker wanted to be in the Hall of Fame ... “The Hockey Hall of Fame. It wasn’t the Baseball Hall of Fame.” Two failed attempts with the Regina Pats in the Western League and an assignment to Junior B made sure he tossed his goalie pads in the corner of the garage -- never to be picked up again.

“My learning was done in spring training, instructional leagues and in the minors,” Walker said.

Walker is one of only four players with a career batting average of at least .300, with 300 home runs, and 200 steals. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and George Brett. Now, all four are in the Hall of Fame.

“I’ve worked on my speech, I did two pages and hit a wall,” said Walker, who ran into so many as a player. “I wake up from dream and I am giving my speech, it is 140 degrees and I am wearing a suit.”

The worst part is over for Walker.

He was elected in January and signed in on Tuesday.