Walker thankful for increase in support in Hall voting
Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, B.C.) was named on 54.6% of baseball writers ballots in this year’s National Baseball Hall of Fame voting.
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
The good news for Maple Ridge, B.C., native Larry Walker is that his support in the National Baseball Hall of Fame voting rose 20.5 per cent from last year to 54.6%.
The bad news is that he will need an additional 20.4% support to be elected next year, in his 10th and final year on the ballot.
In a conference call arranged by the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday, the Canadian slugger admitted that he followed the ballots made public by baseball writers more closely this year than other years because it was the first year that he felt he had even a remote chance of being elected. He doesn’t think he will do that again next year because he got a little excited when he saw he was trending at 66% on the public ballots before the final votes were released today.
“So it’s like the first 55% of the ballots come out [the public ballots] and they build you up and then the last 45% come out and they shoot you down, so it’s kind of like, ‘Oh my God.’ I don’t want to get too involved with that again next year because my heart rate was going up and down,” said Walker on the conference call.
With that said, the B.C. native is thankful for the increase in support which can be attributed largely to a Twitter campaign spearheaded by Connor Looker (who goes by the Twitter handle @HotStoveStats). Walker gained 88 votes from last year, which was the most by any candidate. But the question is, does Walker have enough momentum to get elected in 2020?
“The 20.5% jump was very gratifying. I was quite pleased with that. I don’t know if it’s enough to make that final leap next year,” said Walker. “Probably not, in all honesty. But to see the way the needle moved this year was pretty incredible and I’m obviously thankful for that.”
If Walker doesn’t garner enough support from the baseball writers next year, his Hall fate will fall to the Today’s Game Era Committee, one of the three Veterans Committees that has been formed. The Today’s Game Era Committee looks at candidates whose best seasons occurred from 1988 to present. The committee elected Lee Smith and Harold Baines this past December and will vote again in 2022.
Walker, who is the greatest Canadian major league position player, was more focused on hockey when he signed his first professional baseball contract with the Montreal Expos in 1984. His high school did not have a baseball team, so he learned many of the nuances of the game in the Expos minor league system.
The Canuck slugger toiled for parts of four seasons in the minors, before making his big league debut on August 16, 1989. A five-tool threat, Walker blossomed into an all-star outfielder in his six seasons with the Expos. After the strike-shortened, 1994 campaign, Walker inked a multi-year deal with the Colorado Rockies, where he would enjoy his greatest big league success.
His MVP award-winning 1997 campaign was one of the best single seasons in history. In that storied year, Walker belted 49 home runs, drove in 130 runs and hit .366, to earn his first of three batting titles. He would hit .379 with 37 home runs and 115 RBI for an encore in 1999.
But after more than nine seasons with the Rockies, the five-time all-star was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in August 2004. He played his final season with the Cardinals the following year.
In all, Walker suited up for 17 big league seasons and leads Canadians in virtually every career offensive category, amassing 2,160 hits, 383 home runs, 471 doubles and 230 stolen bases. The seven-time Gold Glove winner also compiled a .313 career batting average, .565 slugging percentage and won the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Tip O’Neill Award nine times. For his efforts, he was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
In recent years, advanced statistics and analytics have been used to support Walker’s Cooperstown case. For example, Walker is one of just two major league players (Barry Bonds is the other) to have clubbed 300 homers, swiped 200 bases and registered an OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) of .950 or better for their career. And his 72.7 career WAR is also better than close to four dozen players already elected to the Hall of Fame.
“I’m not really up to par on what all of those numbers are,” said Walker. “I remember telling somebody a couple of weeks ago that there was a bWAR or something like that. I don’t even know if that refers to a pitcher or a hitter or what it is. I’m kind of clueless on all of those things. A lot of the stuff I was reading and seeing I had no idea about.”
The biggest knock on Walker is that he played 597 of his 1,988 career games in the thin air of hitter-friendly Coors Field in Colorado. His OPS was 1.172 there, but his career road OPS was a very healthy .865, which is better than the career road OPS of Hall of Fame outfielders Ken Griffey Jr., Dave Winfield, Roberto Clemente and Andre Dawson.
Walker, for his part, understands the Coors Field argument, but he points out that batters and pitchers have been capitalizing on their home parks throughout baseball history.
“I took advantage of Coors Field as much as I could,” said Walker. “And I’m glad I did it. If I couldn’t take advantage of Coors Field then I probably wouldn’t be talking to you and the Rockies would’ve probably released me.”
The modest Canadian, however, is unwilling to say that he deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.
“I think I have some things that are Hall of Fame worthy and I have some things that aren’t,” said Walker. “And I’ve heard them all. I’ve seen them all. I’ve read them all and I’m good with both sides of the fence on it. “
He says he just feels grateful that he’s still being considered for induction.
“I’ve said all along I grew up playing hockey. Baseball was never on my radar, until I was offered $1,500 U.S, which was $2,000 Canadian at the time and I couldn’t wait to sign that contract to get that $2,000 Canadian and off I went and I really learned to play the game in the minor leagues,” said Walker.
“So to sit here and talk to you about the votes that I got on my ninth year of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot, it’s kind of surreal. It’s something that was never in my mind as a kid growing up. My dream was playing in the Stanley Cup finals, not talking about a Hall of Fame ballot, so, believe me when I say it, this is all great for me, to be talking and to be saying that next year I made it all 10 years on the ballot.”