Climbing Mount Olympus

Larry "Booger" Walker

 I think that he has a lot to climb over.

Limited playing time.
Coors Field effect.


As the countdown continues to the announcement from Cooperstown to officially share the names of the players who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, there is perhaps no more captivated audience than the Canadian Baseball community.

 1997 was his zenith year, hitting .366, smashing 49 homers,slugging to a .720 ave. and 409 total bases. 

In Larry Walker’s 10th year on the ballot, this is the final opportunity for the best position player the country has ever seen to be voted into the Hall. Should he be elected, the 53-year-old would become just Canada’s second member and first in almost 30 years, after Ferguson Jenkins was inducted in 1991.
“It would be a big moment for all of us,” four-time All-Star and 2006 American League Most Valuable Player Award winner Justin Morneau said on Saturday at Baseball Canada’s annual banquet and fundraiser. “Fergie Jenkins is in there -- but to have a position player in there who represents Canada so well, I would obviously not be as proud as him, but I would be as close as you can get because he means that much to everybody who’s come into contact with him.”

Beyond a 17-year Major League playing career with the Expos, Rockies and Cardinals that saw the right fielder from Maple Ridge, British Columbia win three National League batting titles, take home one home run crown, amass seven Gold Glove Awards, three Silver Slugger Awards and the 1997 NL MVP honour, Walker has represented his home country on and off the field with Team Canada.
It is because of all that he has done for the hockey-loving nation and his dedication to future generations of Canadian baseball players that everyone who is part of the family that Baseball Canada has created would love nothing more than to see its hero recognized by the game’s wider audience.

“It’d be important because you know Larry Walker the person, and obviously the fact that he is a real person and a genuine person, and somebody who we all connect with and call a friend,” Baseball Canada’s director of national teams Greg Hamilton said. “He cares so much and so deeply about the next generation of the game in this country, and it really would resonate because the guys know him.
“Sometimes you have star personalities who you don’t really see and aren’t involved, and he’s connected with us and touched us all. He’s genuinely involved with us, and every one of us will champion this and hope he gets this deserved honour.”

Captain Canada

Walker’s on-field resume is highlighted by more than a decade of dominance in which he was one of baseball’s best all-around players. He amassed a career WAR of 72.7 over a big league career that spanned from 1989 to 2005.

 During that time, only four players produced higher WAR -- Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell. Derek Jeter -- who is likely to be elected into the Hall of Fame this year, his first on the ballot -- totaled a career WAR of 72.4, and took 759 more games to reach that number.

“Larry was a guy who went about his business at everything he did. But when you saw him in a game environment, that’s when you really noticed how special he was,” said Joe Siddall, Walker’s former Expos teammate and fellow countryman. “It wasn’t the obvious things. It was the game within the game … all the little intricacies of the game that I appreciated so much as a catcher.

 “Those are the things that I think of more than anything about Larry Walker that other people overlook a little bit because of the great things that he did. The guy was a pretty darn good player all-around, and the numbers back it up. It’s not a subjective thing. It’s frustrating to see a guy like that and the numbers he’s put up get overlooked this long.”

Added Morneau, “He could do everything. He could take the game over in any aspect. If you need him to steal a base, throw a runner out, he had as good an arm as anybody, he had a quick release, Gold Gloves, he was so impressive. And then he could hit with anybody in the league. He really was a five-tool player who could impact the game in so many different ways.”

The  will be announced on Jan. 21. In order for Walker to be included, he would need to make the 2020 Hall of Fame class biggest three-year surge in voting since Herb Pennock went from 18.2 percent to 77.7 percent in 1948. The slugging Canuck received 54.6 percent of the votes last year, a jump from the 34.1 percent he received the previous year, but he needs to reach the elusive 75 percent mark in order to make it.

“It would be amazing to have a player of his calibre representing Canada in the Hall,” former Rockies hurler and fellow BC native Jeff Francis said. “I grew up playing on Larry Walker Field, so it was just a fact of life that he was a star. But you look at the wave of Canadian players coming into the big leagues, and they’re all young now. So to be able to start that wave with one of our older generation players going into the Hall of Fame would be huge.”

Better words were never spoken,  Larry Walker represents all of Canada , a BC native who played in the Belle Provance.

Larry  Walker, Mr. Colorado