Walker Calls It A Career

[missionhockey21]

Walker bids adieu to baseball
By Derrick Goold
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/20/2005

When perhaps the best baseball player Canada has produced stepped into the batters' box to lead off the final inning of his final game, home plate umpire Gerry Davis told him to step out.

Davis told Larry Walker to enjoy the moment.

"I couldn't even breathe," Walker said. "All these emotions were going every direction. I knew it was it. I'm not coming back."

Walker, a Cardinal for this past season and the final two months of the 2004 season, made official what he had been hinting at for most of the season: He's taking his league MVP honor, seven Gold Gloves and three batting titles and calling it a career. He made the announcement after the Cardinals' Game 6 loss to Houston in the National League Championship Series.

As he told a few reporters of his decision, the crowd that remained long after the final out, an hour after he struck out in his final at-bat, started to chant, "One more year. One more year."

Walker began to tear up.

A five-time All-Star, Walker, 38, went to Colorado before the 1995 season and that summer helped drive the Rockies to the franchise's only postseason berth. In 1997, Walker hit .366, drove in 130 runs and clubbed 49 home runs to win league MVP. That was the first of three consecutive seasons he hit better than .360.

Of the 18 players in baseball history to win three batting titles, 13 are in the Hall of Fame. Through 17 seasons, Walker had 2,160 hits and 1,311 RBIs, and is widely considered the best Canadian to play the game.

The glow of such a career brought glistening thoughts of how it would end.

The season was a challenge, he said throughout. Bothered by a herniated disc since spring training, Walker received four cortisone shots just to battle the pain and be able to play. He also swung through back stiffness and was hit on the knee during the division series, causing it to swell and limit his movement. He plowed through the problems; he had his eyes set on finishing as a world champion - the reason he took so readily to the trade to the Cardinals in August 2004.

He finished with just three hits in 28 postseason at-bats.

Walker was part of a trio at the heart of the Cardinals lineup Wednesday that struggled to sustain any offense through the postseason. Walker's double in the sixth inning was the lone hit for the Cardinals' Nos. 4-6 hitters through seven innings of Game 6. Combined, the threesome of Walker, Reggie Sanders and Mark Grudzielanek - all of whom may have played their final game as Cardinals - had 11 hits in the series.

They entered Game 6 a combined .184 in the NLCS and a combined .181 overall. Walker was slowed by his neck. Sanders sustained whiplash in Game 2 of the NLCS and never could muster the same bat speed that helped power his record run of 10 RBIs in the division series. Sanders went one for 12 with seven strikeouts after returning from his crash into the warning track in Game 2.

Grudzielanek was flummoxed by a month-long funk that had him reaching after pitches. He was frustrated with his ability not to pick up a big-moment hit until his two-RBI single was essential to the Game 5 victory.

Yet, manager Tony La Russa continued to swap Walker and Sanders in the middle of the order. Loyal to the veterans, he kept them in place in case they broke loose of their offensive restraints. He was aware that each late-inning at-bat could have been Walker's last.

Wednesday, it happened.

After the game, as Houston celebrated, he watched, overlooking Busch, next to pitcher Matt Morris, and said, "That was us last year."

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[Witlon]

Good move, the Cards wouldn't have reupped him for his 15 mill option, and he's not going to get a contract that he deserves these days, so end it here.

His years in Colorado pretty much made his career, so there's little to no chance for a hall of fame, despite the MVP and batting titles.

[love_that_reefer]

Larry Walker was one of the best players in the 90's and one of the best pure hitter we have seen in a while. The man could do it all. He could steal a base, hit to all fields and for power and make great, accurate throws. he was a five tool player and he was a good hitter before Coors field was ever opened. He will get in the Hall but it will be the Canadian HOF.

[rockin500]

not really too surprising as he was getting too banged up to be a regular.

[love_that_reefer]

Pack your bags Brian Giles. You are moving to St. Louis