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Way to go Larry Walker! You're off to Cooperstown!! Doesn't matter how many attempts, once you get elected, you're IN!!!
Only the second canuck to make the Hall, behind pitcher Fergie Jenkins, Walker was a gifted, 5 tool player. He could do it all, hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, play D, and throw!!
Walker, from Maple Ridge, B.C., received 76.6 per cent of the vote by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in his 10th and final year on the ballot, narrowly surpassing the 75 per cent required for induction.
Walker, a five-time all-star and the 1997 National League MVP, is joined in this year's induction class by New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who amassed 99.7 per cent of the vote. Jeter fell short of a unanimous ballot by just one vote in his first year of eligibility.
Walker is a career .313 hitter over 17 seasons, including 10 with Colorado. He won the NL MVP award in 1997 with the Rockies, when he hit an eye-popping .366 with a league-best 49 homers, 46 doubles and a career-high 130 runs batted in. His .452 on-base percentage that year, as well as his .720 slugging, also topped the NL.
Walker is also a three-time NL batting champion — hitting .363 in 1998, .379 in 1999 and .350 in 2001.
Walker signed with the Montreal Expos as an amateur free agent as a 17-year-old in 1984, five years before Canadians were first eligible for the MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 1989 and played six seasons with Montreal before signing a free-agent deal with Colorado. He capped his career with 144 games over parts of two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2004-05.
He is the first Rockies player to be inducted into the Hall.
Only the second canuck to make the Hall, behind pitcher Fergie Jenkins, Walker was a gifted, 5 tool player. He could do it all, hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, play D, and throw!!
Walker, from Maple Ridge, B.C., received 76.6 per cent of the vote by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in his 10th and final year on the ballot, narrowly surpassing the 75 per cent required for induction.
Walker, a five-time all-star and the 1997 National League MVP, is joined in this year's induction class by New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who amassed 99.7 per cent of the vote. Jeter fell short of a unanimous ballot by just one vote in his first year of eligibility.
Walker is a career .313 hitter over 17 seasons, including 10 with Colorado. He won the NL MVP award in 1997 with the Rockies, when he hit an eye-popping .366 with a league-best 49 homers, 46 doubles and a career-high 130 runs batted in. His .452 on-base percentage that year, as well as his .720 slugging, also topped the NL.
Walker is also a three-time NL batting champion — hitting .363 in 1998, .379 in 1999 and .350 in 2001.
Walker signed with the Montreal Expos as an amateur free agent as a 17-year-old in 1984, five years before Canadians were first eligible for the MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 1989 and played six seasons with Montreal before signing a free-agent deal with Colorado. He capped his career with 144 games over parts of two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2004-05.
He is the first Rockies player to be inducted into the Hall.