During pre-induction interviews Saturday, Larry Walker had a little advice for youngsters when playing the game of baseball.
“There is more than swinging the bat,” Walker told the Journal Argus. “If you get out at the plate, don’t pout, go and play defence and help your team win that way. There’s more than one way you can help your team win.”
And those words of wisdom come from the Canadian with the best batting statistics in Major League Baseball history! He’s also been called the greatest Canadian position player to ever play in the Majors.
Walker was enshrined in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum along with Blue Jays’ great Ernie Whitt, “grass roots guy” and long-time builder Bernie Soulliere, and turn-of-the-century Major Leaguer Roy ‘Doc’ Miller.
Even Saturday morning’s rain couldn’t stop an estimated crowd of 1,500 from attending. CBHFM president and CEO Tom Valcke described it as a “fantastic turnout” for the 15th induction ceremony held in St. Marys.
Larry Walker
When it comes to Larry Walker, the stats speak for themselves, said presenter and fellow CBHFM inductee Jim Fanning.
Walker, 42, leads all Canadians in virtually every offensive career category — amassing 383 home runs, 62 triples and 471 doubles among his 2,160 career hits, while stealing 230 bases.
The five-time All-Star and 1997 National League MVP, who also won seven Gold Glove awards and three batting titles along the way, compiled a career .313 batting average and .565 slugging percentage — 15th best in Major League history. He finished with a .379 average to win one of the batting crowns.
During a 17-year Major League career, the Maple Ridge, B.C. native had over 8,000 plate appearance. He said winning MVP in the 1997 season was a career highlight when “nothing seemed to go wrong that summer.”
Fanning was one of the men who scouted Walker in 1984 when he was a 17-year-old shortstop. His first contract was for $1,500. “That’s the best $1,500 the Montreal Expos ever spent,” Fanning quipped.
Fanning described Walker as a “magnificent baseball player” and “one of the smartest outfielders I’ve ever seen play this game.”
When he went to the podium, Walker said he was “damn proud” to be a Canadian, and that he now has a tattoo of a maple leaf with the words, ‘I am.’
He also thanked his wife Angela and daughters Canaan, 9, and Shayna, 7.
Ernie Whitt
Presenter for Ernie Whitt was GM Pat Gillick, the architect of both the Blue Jays and Phillies’ world championship teams.
“Ernie is just like the guy next door,” Gillick said, describing the 57-year-old Detroit area native.
Ashley Whitt also spoke about her father, calling him a “wonderful family man.”
When he went to the podium, Whitt described Saturday’s induction as an “awesome honour”, saying “never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be inducted. I really feel Canada is home.”
He described induction weekend as “outstanding” and thanked both the town and the CBHFM for their wonderful hospitality. “Tom (Valcke) and (executive director) Scott (Crawford), I’m truly honoured to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.”
Whitt also thanked his wife of 35 years, Christine, for raising their three children “when I wasn’t able to be there” and his mother Dolly who had a lot of “special influence” in his life.
He specially thanked 2002 CBHFM inductee Bill Slack as well, a man who threw “countless hours” of batting practice to Whitt and taught him the necessary baseball fundamentals.
“I’ve been fortunate to have great people in my life,” he said.
Whitt, who was selected by the Jays in the 1976 expansion draft, caught over 1,200 games with Toronto and hit a total of 131 homers. He drove in 75 runs in his best Jays’ season.
He is in the Blue Jays’ top 10 in several offensive categories.
“There is a lot of great people in the Toronto organization,” he said. “They cared for you as a player and as a person.”
He credits former manager Bobby Mattick for giving him his chance to play with the Jays.
His Major League career spanned 15 seasons, ending in 1991. His final two seasons were with Atlanta and Baltimore.
Whitt has been manager of Team Canada’s baseball team since 1999. At the 2004 Olympic Summer Games, he guided Canada to a fourth-place finish. “I’ve had a great run with Baseball Canada,” he said. “We’ve put this country on the (baseball) map. “The (Canadian) players play with pride and passion.”
Whitt currently manages in the Phillies’ farm system with the Class ‘A’ Clearwater Threshers.
Bernie Soulliere
“Forty-eight years of volunteerism to Canadian baseball.” That’s how presenter Greg Hamilton described Bernie Soulliere.
Soulliere, 71, who has helped make Windsor one of Canada’s true baseball hotbeds, has been volunteering behind the scenes for more than 40 years in amateur baseball circles as well as with numerous provincial and national teams.
“He’s truly an unsung hero behind the scenes,” said Hamilton, the Team Canada GM. “He’s always a giver, never a taker.
“He’s had a remarkable journey of volunteer excellence. He’s definitely a volunteer MVP.”
Soulliere coached Windsor teams to four Ontario championships and a pair of national titles in the 1970s, he was the chair when Windsor hosted the World Junior championship in 1986, ‘87 and ‘93, and he was GM of Team Ontario when it won three consecutive Canada Summer Games gold medals in ‘81, ‘85 and ‘89.
The never-say-no diehard served as vice-president with Baseball Canada in the ‘90s, and was president of Baseball Ontario from ‘93-’95. Soulliere has also acted countless times as Team Canada’s business manager.
“I don’t like to be in the spotlight,” Soulliere said at the podium.
He called it a “special day” for he and his wife Carol (of 52 years) and their family.
“It’s a little overwhelming and I never imagined this today,” Soulliere said. “It’s the ultimate walk-off home run.”
Roy ‘Doc’ Miller
‘Doc’ Miller (1883-1938) was enshrined posthumously. The presenter was Patrick Harrigan, a historian at the University of Waterloo.
The Chatham native played 557 games in the Majors for six teams, including the Boston Rustlers. His highlight season was in 1911 when he hit .333, losing the batting title by one point to Honus Wagner.
He is 27th all-time in games played by a Canadian.
Saturday’s induction notebook:
—Saturday’s induction was broadcast overseas (via Skype) to Ernie Whitt’s son E.J. in Baghdad, Iraq.
—The Hall of Fame has received a donation of $250,000 from the R. Howard Webster Foundation (Montreal). Nancy McFadyen made the announcement Saturday.
—Popular singer Michael Burgess again sang the Canadian and U.S. national anthems.
—Carl McComb’s grandchildren received an award in his honour Saturday. McComb, the Hall’s former museum curator, passed away earlier this year.
—Also receiving an award was John Harlton, of Granton, former executive director of the CBHFM. He accepted the Hall’s volunteer award for 2009.
—All three levels of local government were represented Saturday: Gary Schellenberger, John Wilkinson and St. Marys mayor Jamie Hahn. All brought greetings.
—Tom Valcke says a 2,000-seat main stadium at the CBHFM is still in the Hall’s plans.
—The only former Major Leaguer from Canada enshrined in Cooperstown is Chatham’s Fergie Jenkins, who made another appearance at this year’s induction weekend.
The big righthander won 284 games in his illustrious big league career.
—Rod Black, this year’s MC, drew raves from 2000 inductee Jim Fanning for a poem Black said he wrote on baseball on his trip to St. Marys from Toronto Saturday morning.
“Baseball is a game that makes you a kid for the rest of your life,” Black said in his well-written and entertaining rendition of the grand ole game. In it, he alluded to St. Marys as being ‘Cooperstown north.’
Black also described Whitt as one of the “greatest Blue Jays ever” and Fergie Jenkins as one of his “heroes.”
Black has been a sports broadcaster for 24 year with CTV and TSN, and won outstanding sports broadcaster in this country in 2005.