Canadians In the Majors: Larry Walker

I've been debating for a while if I want to cover more recent players and I came to the conclusion that there are certain players that no discussion of Canadians in the Majors would be complete without.. I'm covering one of those tonight: Larry Walker. 

Larry Walker was born in Maple Ridge BC and spent his youth playing hockey and baseball. 

Here is Maple Ridge 

And Maple Ridge based on where it is to Vancouver. 

He played hockey as a goalie, playing on the same team as Cam Neely. He played baseball on the Canadian National Junior Team when he was discovered by the Montreal Expos and signed in 1984. 

 

1990 was Walker's first full season. He finished 7th in Rookie of the Year voting that year, tied with teammate Marquis Grissom, and behind teammate Delino DeShields, all behind winner David Justice of the Atlanta Braves.

He improved over his rookie year in 1991 and in 1992, he played in his first All Star game and won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.



The Upper Deck card has Walker, Grissom, and DeShields in the old road blue uniforms.

1993 Upper Deck had teammates cards. Here we have the Rookie Threats from 1990 Upper Deck plus Dennis Martinez. These guys were the nucleus of the team that finished second in 1993. 

1994 everyone but Dennis were members of the team, and we all know how that went. They were in first place until the strike that ended the season. 

 

I had to include this card simply because of the pinstripe uniform. Well, that and I love these Home Field Advantage cards. This was from Walker's final season as an Expo. 

He played first base most of the 1994 season due to a shoulder injury, but played well enough to have consideration for the MVP vote, though he ended up 11th. 

1995 Walker signed with the Colorado Rockies, continuing to amass numbers heading toward stardom. 

In 1997, he won the MVP award, hitting .366, a league leading 49 homers, and 130 RBIs. He also was an All Star, Gold Glover, and Silver Slugger.

In 1998, he did something that hasn't been done by a Canadian in over 100 years: He won the batting title with a .363 average. Previously to Walker, the last Canadian to win was Tip O'Neill in 1887.

In 1999 he won his second consecutive batting title. 

In 2000 he had elbow problems that cost him most of the season. In 2001 he rebounded, winning his third batting title and getting selected to his final All Star Game. 

In 2004, Walker was traded to the Cardinals for Luis Martinez, Chris Narveson, and Jason Burch. 

2005 was his final season, After retirement, he continued to be involved, becoming a coach for Canada in the World Baseball Classic.. 

All told for his career, he was 

1-time MVP

5-time All Star

7-time Gold Glove winner

3-time Silver Slugger

9-time Tip O'Neill award winner 

1 Lou Marsh Trophy

1 ESPY for Best Baseball Player

Walker is also the leader for players born in Canada for Hits 2160, Doubles 471, Home Runs 383, RBIs 1311, and Stolen Bases 230. 

He was elected to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and Canada's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.  

  

Little Bit of Everything

Well, this has been a great time for mail. Another group of cards to highlight tonight

 

Some 1988 Topps All Star cards. Ozzie Smith and Tony Gwynn. Two I needed. 

 

Some 1989 Topps.. Both of Ozzie Smith. 

 

Two Studio 1991. Joe Carter and Tom Candiotti. The funny thing is Candiotti is shown in his Indians uniform. Of course, Candiotti was traded by the Indians to the Jays for the playoff push.. Obviously, The Twins won the 1991 series. 

 

Two Canadians. Kevin Reimer and Kirk McCaskill. I love these Fleer Ultra. It may be one I collect sometime. 

An Upper Deck Homefield Advantage card. I just find these interesting. As I mentioned, one thing I love is stadium cards. I also have a couple books on MLB stadiums. 

Tavo Alvarez. He ended up playing in two seasons for Montreal. He played in organized ball till 1998 before playing in Mexico. 

2008 Heritage Gary Carter. Great card, great player. 

Expos logo from 1991. I love the way this scanned.. Looks almost like it was in space or a snowstorm.. 

Now I have a few packages to send out to people, but I will not be able to until the 29th when I have money again. I apologize for the delay everyone. 

Incidentally, Defgav over at Baseball Card Breakdown is holding a contest.. Check it out! 

Mail Days Are Fun Days

I received a fair bit of cards through the mail last week from a couple sources. Today I'm looking at some cards sent by Crazie Joe, a regular trader of mine. 

In this batch, I got a couple 1989 Topps I needed for the set.

Some Expos. I know at one time I had that Alou, but a lot of my collection seemed to have gone away. I like that Ruskin card as well. 

Now we have some minor league Jays! Chris Carpenter had a nice MLB career, Pett didn't. 

Some more minor leaguer cards. I like the Gose, Guzman and Hentgen ones best. The Green is nice as well. I never saw minor league cards until I moved to where I am now, aside from the Independent Northern League Whiskey Jacks, 

Greg O'Halloran fits into two categories: Jay and Canadian. He's also the only player who hit the Majors. 

Finally we have a coach card. Honestly never heard of them, but I got a card of them!

Upper Deck Hockey Card Day

National Hockey Card Day was close to a week ago, but I'm just getting around to talking about it now.

I went into my card shop, Jeff's Cards and Comics, on Tuesday since I was out doing errands. There were a few packs of the Hockey Day cards behind the counter, so I was able to get two packs and card 16 from the person behind the counter.

Above is the checklist and the #16 Connor McDavid. Of the cards I got in the packs, I had one duplicate: Taylor Hall. 

Here's the rest of them. So of this set, I'm missing 

CAN-1: John Tavares

CAN-2: Carey Price

CAN-8: Robby Fabbri

CAN-10: Nicolas Petan

CAN-12: Bobby Orr

CAN-15: Doug Gilmour

I don't normally collect hockey, but small sets like this I enjoy. I have some of the older McDonalds sets but I like these ones. 

2016

Well, as most people know by now, the 2016 Series 1 has been released.

I decided to buy a two packs today.

Here are the highlights from what I pulled

 

 

So here are the Jays I pulled, plus the 100 Years of Wrigley. Aaron Sanchez, Roberto Osuna, and Chris Colabello. The Colabello one I find has a little too much of the "smoke" effect, but it's not horrible. 

I'm really liking the Wrigley subset. I think I want to finish collecting that one.

Now, we have this one.. I think I'll just get the Jays one. I don't like this too much..

Overall, I really don't have strong feelings either way.

Mail. Always Fun

Today I got some cards in the mail from a couple people.

As always with mail days, let's go over it shall we??

First we have some Bowman Platinum. These were the first I've seen of the set. They're interesting but they've gone into the trade list.

Also in this group is two Upper Deck Pro Motions cards. Not a fan..

Here's a closer look at them. 

1990 Fleer has been one of those sets that I'm just not sure about. I think I'll revisit once I have some of the sets I want to complete finished. As for now: Into the trade pile.

Some Canadian goodness now.. Kirk McCaskill Score! I've talked about him before in my blog and while he identifies as American, his birth in Kapuskasing is Canadian enough for me.

Some Jays and Expos now. Nelson Liriano, Tim Wallach, and Greg Myers have a new home in my binders.

Sportflics always seemed rather gimmicky to me, but Jays and Expos will be enjoyed. The two smaller Jays logos have different backings. The Larger card is Tim Raines.

Three 90 Topps for that set. 

Some 1988 Topps I needed. I always enjoyed using Gary Thurman when I played Tony LaRussa baseball on the Genesis. I don't know why. 

Finally, a pile of 1987 Topps. Getting ever closer to finishing that set. 

Thanks to those who have traded with me! 

Canadians in the Majors: Denis Boucher

Today I want to mention a guy who had a rather forgettable career, but is still in the record books for being part of something that happened only 7 times before.

I speak of Denis Boucher. Denis was signed as an amateur free agent by the Blue Jays. He went through the Jays' minor league system from 1988-1991, when he had his first taste of MLB action.

In seven starts for the Jays, he was 0-3 4.58 ERA in 35.1 Innings. He both walked and struck out 16. He then found himself as part of the trade that brought Tom Candiotti to the Jays as Boucher, Mark Whiten, and Glenallen Hill were shipped to Cleveland for Candiotti and Turner Ward.

After his stint in Cleveland, he was taken by the expansion Colorado Rockies in the expansion draft, who then traded him to San Diego for Jay Gainer. In July 1993, Boucher got to go home, as he was traded to the Montreal Expos for a minor leaguer and cash.

Now, Montreal has always had a thing for their hometown players. Even in the bad years, a Montreal born player would bring out more fans. Boucher was no exception. 40000 people came to watch Boucher pitch and for the most part in 1993, he sent the fans home happy.

Now.. Here's the history making part. It has been a rarity for a Canadian-born pitcher to throw to a Canadian-born catcher. In fact, prior to September 6, 1993, it happened seven times, the last one being 1955, but most coming in the 1880s.

Now September 6, 1993 would be like every other day normally. However, in Montreal we had Denis Boucher, the hometown hurler, throwing to Joe Siddall from Windsor, Ontario. At the time, people knew it was rare, but nobody really knew the significance of it.

 “Before the game, Expos manager Felipe Alou was advised that the ball used for Denis Boucher’s first pitch would be immediately taken from the game. The ball was to be autographed by the Canadian battery of Boucher and Joe Siddall and sent to Canada’s Baseball Hall of Fame. ‘What happens,’ Alou asked, ‘if the ball is hit out of the park?’ Then Alou, in jest, offered a suggestion. ‘Maybe I should call for a pitchout.’ ” (An unattributed article in The Montreal Gazette, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1993 page F3)

I took this quote from here

Now here's the significance: The were the first Canadian Battery since 1955. The first to start a game since 1885. They were the first to play a game in which their team won and the only one to originate in Canada. 

Boucher was the pitching coach for Team Canada for both the 2006 World Baseball Classic and the 2008 Olympics. He now develops youth baseball and scouts for the Yankees.