August 20, 2021

His home province of British Columbia is sure proud of him, and so are baseball fans all across Canada. To celebrate Maple Ridge, B.C., native Larry Walker becoming the first Canadian position player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, we will be running a series of tribute articles from many who have known and been inspired by him - including former teammates, managers, coaches and even his dad - leading up to the September 8 ceremony. We will also be publishing tributes to Walker's fellow 2020 inductees Derek Jeter, Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller.

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By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

When time came for us to pick the all-time team for each province we asked Bill Green (Vancouver, BC) of the Coquitlam Reds to chose the team for his province for our book, The Northern Game. Green had been involved in amateur ball since 1962 as a player, coach, provincial high performance evaluator, evaluated for the Major League Scouting Bureau and served as a board member on the BC Premier League ... Canada’s best high school league.

Green chose John Haar (Vancouver) as his manager with Larry Kissock (Trail) behind the plate, with his arms as RHP Ryan Dempster (Gibsons), LHP Jeff Francis (North Delta) and RHP Jeff Zimmerman (Kelowna) as his closer.

Around the infield, he had Justin Morneau (New Westminster) at first, Jim Chapman (Vancouver) at second, Shawn Bowman (Coquitlam) at third and Kevin Nicholson (Surrey, BC) at short.

And in the outfield he had Jason Bay (Trail), Gerry Reimer (Enderby) and Larry Walker (Maple Ridge), the Hall of Famer. No surprise there. What we didn’t know was that Walker was a chip off the old talent block and he was Larry Walker, Jr.

At DH he chose Larry Walker’s father, who goes by the same name.

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Proud dad

By Larry Walker

There is not much I can say that hasn’t already been said about my son ... Larry Walker.

Bob, I know you call him Lawrence at times but his given name is Larry .... Larry Kenneth Robert Walker.

However, way back when he first attended the Montreal Expos camp at West Palm, never in our wildest dreams did we or I expect him to become a major leaguer -- a member of the big leagues first with the Expos, then the Colorado Rockies and finally the St. Louis Cardinals.

Then for him to win batting titles, Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards was amazing.

To be inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in St. Marys and now to be a member of Cooperstown is something that even now ... I still have to pinch myself -- to make sure it is not a dream of mine.

Larry has had an outstanding career and to put it mildly I am a VERY proud person to be able to say that I am his father.

Can’t think of any more to add, thanks for asking.