Second Canadian gets ‘call from the Hall’
Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to postpone the 2020 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies—originally slated for this summer—until July 25, 2021. Sports Collectors Digest will honor the 2020 Hall of Fame class this summer with a series of articles about these baseball legends who sat down earlier this year and talked about their careers. In this issue, Larry Walker. Coming next: Derek Jeter.
How does a kid who was born in the westernmost province of Canada, grew up collecting hockey trading cards and set his sights on being a goalie in the National Hockey League end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown? It’s a long story, one you might recount by the fireplace on a cold, wintry night in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.
That’s the proud birthplace of Larry Walker, the aforementioned hockey-obsessed youngster who took that surreal journey from the ice rink to the baseball diamond. Walker is only the second Canadian-born Major League Baseball player to get “the call from The Hall,” and, in his homeland north of the border, that makes him a national hero. The first player was longtime pitching standout Ferguson Jenkins, who hails from Chatham, Ontario. Jenkins contacted his fellow countryman right after the news broke in January about Walker’s selection.
“I have to tell you, it was pretty cool hearing from Fergie,” Walker said. “When something like this happens, you hear from a lot of people. You look at the names coming up on your phone and say, ‘Wow! Look, it’s Fergie or Alan Trammell or someone else who played.’” Jenkins waited quite a while to welcome a fellow Canadian to Cooperstown. Jenkins was named to the Hall of Fame in 1991.
Walker, 53, had his doubts about whether he would end the long drought and whether “The Hall” would ever come calling. It was a bit nerve-racking for Walker as 2020 approached. He knew this was his 10th and final year of his eligibility on the Baseball Writers’Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame ballot.
In January, as the announcement neared, Walker thought he might fall short of the 75 percent of BBWAA votes
