In his second-to-last year on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot, former Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker is inching closer to a possible induction.
According to the latest ballots submitted, Walker has now garnered a vote on 67.2 percent, just shy of the 75-percent threshold needed for induction. The latest numbers were posted today, with a link to the spreadsheet of live tallies:
And ballot #116 is from Peter Barzilai. No adds or drops for returning candidates. Larry Walker is currently at 67.2%(!) in the Tracker: https://t.co/8ISx827lpe pic.twitter.com/Gs7PK7GeMJ
— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) December 27, 2018
In his career, split between three teams, Walker accumulated a .313/.400/.565 slash line. When looking at stats totals, the outfielder finished his career with 383 home runs, 1,311 RBI, 230 stolen bases and seven Gold Gloves.
In 1997, Walker also garnered his lone National League Most Valuable Player award. He finished in the top 20 in voting in seven separate seasons, including his aforementioned first-place nod.
The main knock on his candidacy for Cooperstown has long been his lack of games. In his career, Walker missed 20 or more games in 13 of his 17 seasons. In all, he played in 1,988 career games, falling short of 13 respective players on this year’s ballot.
With the latest numbers, it appears voters are becoming more open to putting Walker in the hall, despite some shortcomings in his resume.
On last year’s ballot, Walker garnered 34.1 percent of the votes, a modest step forward from his 2017 mark of 21.9 percent.
If Walker is able to keep his percentage above 57.5 by the time the votes are finished and announced on Jan. 22nd, he will almost certainly be inducted next year in his 10th and final time.
With an induction, Walker would enter the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame as the first Rockies player ever. While it may not be this year, things are much brighter for a key member of the acclaimed “Blake Street Bombers.”