Larry Walker retires

[Cowperson]

One of my favourite players of all time, Canadian Larry Walker retires.

Victim of a called strike in his last at bat but arguably the best all-around player to ever come out of Canada.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...BNStory/Sports/

Cowperson

[habernac]

I was sad for poor Larry last night, but that certainly was a nice double he hit last night. Too bad his injuries have caught up to him, his last few seasons have been a little disappointing. We'll miss ya, Larry!

[Cheese]

yep agreed Cow...he was one of my faves too...I hope he plays for Canada in the upcoming World event this spring.

[Resolute 14]

Shame. I was hoping he could get his ring before going out, but it seems that was not to be.

Obviously a lock for the Canadian baseball hall of fame, I wonder aboubt MLB's HOF?

1300 R, 1300 RBI, carreer .313/.400/.565 hitter? one NL MVP, eight gold gloves, three silver sluggers, three time batting champion, one HR title.

A little light on the two magic numbers: Hits (2160) and HR (383). Still, one of the better all around hitters of his generation.

[looooob]

per Baseball-reference.com. the 10 players who had the most statistically similar careers to Larry Walker

Similar Batters View in Pop-up
Compare Stats
Duke Snider (892) *
Ellis Burks (878)
Joe DiMaggio (870) *
Johnny Mize (861) *
Frank Thomas (849)
Chuck Klein (842) *
Manny Ramirez (841)
Edgar Martinez (837)
Bob Johnson (837)
Luis Gonzalez (834)


The guys with astericks are HOFers. It's an impressive list, 4 HOFers and 2 others (Thomas, Ramirez) who could well be also

a score of 1000 would be essentially a perfect match, no-one is over 900 meaning no-one of these guys is that similar to Walker..and the 2nd most similar player, Ellis Burks was nothing special (but like Walker hung on in the jacked up era)

just rambling now. is Walker a HOFer? as much as I like him, I say no. he has borderline HOF numbers, but he played in a offensive era , in a offensive ballpark

[JiriHrdina]

MLB has the toughest Hall of Fame by far and Walker likely doesn't get in. But the one thing that does favor him is that he was a great fielder. However, he also likely gets hurt by the fact he played at Coors Field for a few seasons and the perception (right or wrong) is that anyone who plays there has inflated numbers.

[Shawnski]

Feel pretty privileged to have played against him in the Western Canadian Colt Championships when I was 17.

There was no question, even at that time, that he was one hell of a ball player, and would make a living at it. He took that to an even higher level.

Good job, Larry. You will be missed.