COOPERSTOWN, New York – Larry Walker is well known for his exploits at bat with the Colorado Rockies, where he hit 258 of his 383 home runs in a 17-year Major League Baseball career that earned him a Hall of Fame induction. in his 10th and final year on the ballot in 2019-20, when he was favored by 304 of 397 voters (76.6%).
However, many remember how the Canadian slugger was a key piece in one of the most special times in baseball in his country, when not only the Toronto Blue Jays won their only two World Series titles (1992-93), but also the Expos. Montreal – with a lot of Latin American leadership – were one of the best teams in the majors.
We are talking about the period from 1992 to 1994. And specifically, we refer to what the Expos did from May 22, 1992 until the work stoppage of August 11, 1994 ended the Major League season. In that stretch, beginning with the appointment of Felipe Rojas Alou as the first Dominican manager in the majors, the Expos went 238-163, including 74-40 in 1994, the best record in MLB.
In that edition of Montreal in 1994, another member of the Hall of Fame, Pedro Martínez, from Santiago de Cuba, had under Rojas Alou his first opportunity to open games every five days, after his change from the Dodgers. That definitely put him on his way to Cooperstown, where he was exalted in 2015. In addition to Martinez, Rojas Alou’s son, outfielder Moisés Alou, and the foreman’s nephew, reliever Melquíades Rojas, played key roles, in addition to the Puerto Rican shortstop Wilfredo Cordero.
“We were pretty good until the strike came,” Walker said in January 2020, when he learned that he had been elected to the Hall. “And Felipe Alou was a tremendous leader. He had great communication skills and it was easy to get close to him. “
Walker, like Derek Jeter and Ted Simmons, in addition to the family of the late Marvin Miller, had to wait more than a year to be exalted and have their plaque in Cooperstown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That will happen this Wednesday in the small town of the state of New York.
The Expos, as everyone will remember, never recovered from the stalled 1994 campaign.
The following year, via free agency or changes needed to reduce payroll, Montreal Walker, Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill and John Wetteland left.
Rojas Alou’s Expos would never make the playoffs and in 2005, the franchise moved to Washington to become the Nationals.
“The years with the Expos are where I basically learned everything,” said Walker, who after the 1994 season signed as a free agent with the Rockies. “They gave me the opportunity to learn the game. Without the Montreal Expos, we may not have been having this conversation, because baseball is something I might not have done. “
FROM CANADA TO BIG LEAGUES – VIA HERMOSILLO?
Growing up in the province of British Columbia, in the far west of Canada, Walker played ice hockey and that was the focus of his sports concerns. However, as a goalkeeper, his usual position did not measure up.
Although his baseball talent was discovered by the Expos’ scouting department in the mid-1980s, Walker had not had the youthful experience as a baseball player like prospects from other countries. His skills looked pretty raw, but little by little, his skills at bat and in the outfield began to show.
For the winter of 1987-88, the Expos sent him to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico to play for the Naranjeros. There, Walker seriously injured one knee while scoring a run, ending his season in the Pacific League and even his 1988 minor league season. But, as we all know, he recovered in the end, to the point of making his major league debut with Montreal in 1989.
“I knew he wasn’t very adept at hitting off pitches instead,” Walker said of his goals during his time in Mexico, where he hit .237 in 53 games. “So that was quite beneficial.”
CANADIAN CONCURRENCE WAITING
As in 2015 with the Expos fans at the Martinez exaltation, a strong turnout of Canadian fans is expected in Cooperstown on Wednesday to not only support a former Montreal player, but also to celebrate the museum’s inclusion. of the second Canadian, after ex-pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.
“Obviously, Canada is a source of great happiness,” said Walker, who will be his country’s first position player with a plaque in Cooperstown. “It is more than a thrill to have the maple leaf tattoo on my arm and enter the Hall of Fame.”
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