THE CANADIAN PRESS
Larry Walker doesn’t harbour any ill will toward Bob Strumm. Well, not any longer.
Back in the day, Strumm was coach and general manager of the Regina Pats and a young Walker was a goaltender on the Western Hockey League team’s prospect list. Strumm cut Walker at training camp for the 1983-84 season and told him that he’d make the team as Jamie Reeve’s backup soon enough if he kept working.
Walker did just that, came to training camp for the 1984-85 season and was promptly cut again in favour of Dean Shaw, one of many backups the Pats used that season. Like that, Walker was done with hockey.
"He was kind of like Ron Hextall in terms of his size and style, real aggressive, anyone get in that crease of his he was going to give them a piece of his stick," Strumm, now director of pro scouting for the Columbus Blue Jackets, recalled Thursday hours before Walker was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
"I’ve often thought back about that choice. You know, you’re always trying to win the Memorial Cup and you often wonder if you’ve cut a Memorial Cup goaltender, that guy was such a great athlete.
"The Grant Fuhrs and the Mike Vernons don’t come along very often. He wasn’t very happy the second time, I can tell you that."
While neither knew it at the time, of course, that decision helped change Canadian baseball forever.
Shortly after the Maple Ridge, B.C., native was cut for the second time, he was added to the roster for Canada’s entry to the 1984 world junior baseball championship. Weeks later he found himself playing in adult tournament in B.C., that Montreal Expos scout Bob Rogers happened to be watching.
Within days, Rogers was meeting with Walker and his father with an offer of US$1,500 to sign. The 17-year-old took it, the first step in his growth into the greatest hitter ever produced in this country.
"I owe him for him cutting me and letting my real dream fall through," Walker, clad in a tuxedo, said with his typical dry wit. "I had to go with dream No. 2, I guess.
"I probably wouldn’t be here without Bob. There were a couple of goaltenders that were just a little better than me — at least that’s what he thought — and him letting me go let my career in baseball go where it went."
It’s Canadian baseball’s good fortune that it did.
Walker’s rise with the Expos and eventual stardom with the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals over a 17-year-career in which he established Canadian records in virtually every offensive category is credited with prompting big-league teams to seriously scout the Great White North.
At that time, Canadian kids weren’t part of the draft and were all signed as free agents. Big-league teams quickly realized that if there was one Walker up north, there were surely others. Canadians were soon added to the draft and the road was paved for today’s stars.
Walker hit .313 in his career with 2,160 hits, 471 doubles, 383 homers and 1,311 RBIs in 1,988 games. He had a career on base-percentage of .400 and stole 230 bases. Underlining how complete a player he was, he also boasted a career fielding percentage of .987 with 214 assists.
His best season was with the Rockies in 1997, when he batted .366 with 49 homers and 130 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .720 en route to becoming the first Canadian to win baseball’s MVP award.
"It all starts with Larry Walker," veteran Blue Jays outfielder Matt Stairs of Fredericton said in a recent interview. "It’s funny, when you’re younger you watch baseball and when you see a Canadian on TV you’re pretty excited, it gives you a little hope. Now we can talk about it all day and not make a big deal of it as much as we should." .
Most of today’s Canadians — from 2006 AL MVP Justin Morneau to Rockies ace and Game 1 of the World Series starter Jeff Francis — call Walker their idol. He mentors them all, sending text messages with words of encouragement or advice as needed.
"I’ve heard some good things from players coming up that I was an influence for them and you have no idea how much that means and how good a feeling that is," Walker, 41 now, said proudly. "There are so many names right now — I don’t want to say we’re taking over but we’re making a big impact and it’s fun to watch."
And to think how differently things might have been had the Pats gone in a different direction.
Walker and Strumm haven’t spoken since those days in Regina, although their paths did cross in the summer of 1997 at Dodgers Stadium. Strumm, general manager of the IHL’s Las Vegas Thunder at the time, happened to be in town and the team’s marketing director asked for an introduction to Walker.
"When he was done batting practice, he’s walking to the dugout, I’ve got seats three rows up and I’m yelling at him and he just ignores me," Strumm said laughing. "So I gave my card to one of the ushers, `Can you give this card to Larry Walker, he knows who I am.’ He wouldn’t come out of the dugout. He big-leagued me.
"My friends said, `The guy waited 15 years to big-league you and he got you bad."’
Walker homered in his first at-bat, a line drive to dead centre that left Strumm in awe.
"There was my gift for him," said Walker. "I remember getting the card, I think it was a little late, we had a game to play, I just didn’t have the time to get up to him. I didn’t necessarily big-league him — completely<."
Either way, all is forgiven now as Walker spends his days raising his kids in Florida. He has no plans to get back into baseball for now, content to enjoy his retirement.
"Basically, I’m doing whatever I want," he said. "I take care of the kids, I play with the kids, golf, work out a bit here and there and do yard work.
"I think I’m probably going to wait (to coach) until my kids get a little older. Coaching is a lot of hours a day, more than a player. I’m going to wait until my kids grow up."
