You know the old baseball saying, passed down from little league coaches of yore, "A walk's as good as a hit," right?
Well, does that mean that our All-Walker team will be filled with Hitters? Well, with Harry, Larry, Dixie and Todd in the lineup, it just might be.
Just two of the top 25 most common North American surnames remain in our quest for the perfect Hall of Names lineup/roster; for reasons that we'll delve into later, we're saving the #17 name for last and skipping right to #25, which you will have surmised from the preceding paragraph, is "Walker."
Now, as always, there are a few restrictions; we are looking solely at surnames, meaning former All-Star catcher Walker Cooper, owner of a .285 batting average and 173 home runs over 18 years mostly with the Cardinals and Giants, will not make the team; nor will the middle-named Clifford Walker Lee --not the current Cleveland pitcher, but a career .300 hitter who played OF, 1B and C for the two Pennsylvania teams and the two Ohio teams from 1919-26.
It's true that Cooper and Lee would be a more than adequate starting and backup catching duo, while for surnamed Walkers, we are left with less obvious options -- but at least one is quite famous. Moses Fleetwood Walker, with all due respect to Jackie Robinson, was at least apparently the first black man to play big league ball, hitting .263 while catching 42 games for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings, forerunner to the modern-day AAA Mud Hens.
Actually, three different Walkers made their sole big league appearance in 1884, including Fleet's younger brother and Toledo teammate, Welday Wilberforce Walker, the original WWW, who was four-for-18 as an OF for the Blue Sox.
OF/1B Harry "the Hat" Walker won the 1947 batting title, when after a slow (.200, 5-for-25) start with the Cardinals, he was dealt to the Phillies on May 3, where he proceeded to hit .371 for the rest of the campaign and take the NL batting crown at .363. The Cardinals had traded the eventual Silver Slugger, along with RHRP Freddy Schmidt in exchange for OF Ron Northey; Hat's value must have skyrocketed over the next two years, as by December of 1949 (three trades later), Hat was on the other side of the 2-for-1 trade, dealt by the Reds to the Cardinals for Northey (again) and 2B/UTIL Lou Klein.
Some time back, there was a mini-dynasty of big league Walkers that almost ranks with the Boones and Bells; Harry the Hat, mentioned above, was younger brother to Fred "Dixie" Walker, a .300+ career hitter who borrowed his nickname from his father, Ewart "Dixie" Walker, a pitcher for the Washington Senators around 1910; Ewart's brother Ernie, uncle to Harry and Dixie II, was an OF for the SLB in the 19teens ...
Just six of the 39 Walkers to play in a big league game have made an All-Star team ... LHP Luke Walker, despite his fine 15-6/3.04 mark with the 1970 Pirates, was not one of those six Walker All-Stars; the interesting thing about him, of course, is that he last appeared in a major league game with the 1974 Tigers at the age of 30, and if he'd managed to hang on just another couple of seasons, he would have undoubtedly, thanks to a certain movie released at the time, picked up the ultimately cool, if horribly obvious nickname of Luke "Sky" Walker ...
We really have to turn backflips to fill out the starting infield; for instance, Chico Walker was mostly an OF, but did play 122 career games at the hot corner, making him the team's 3B ... But that's nothing -- though Hub Walker was primarily an OF, he did play three games at 2B, meaning we can move Todd Walker to the other side of the keystone; his one appeearance at SS with the 2001 Reds is apparently the only time a Walker has appeared at short in the big leagues ...
It's too bad that C/1B Johnny Walker didn't share that Cincinnati connection with namesake Todd or with 1980s OF Duane Walker, for that matter; the endorsement opportunities for "Johnny Walker, Red" would have been enticing, even around 1920, when that particular brand of scotch whiskey was already a century old.
Martin Van Buren "Buddy" Walker not only suffered from having an unfortunate given name and a less than prolific nickname, his career ERA is the can-never-be-topped "Infinity" ... He got one start for the 1928 Phillies, gave up two hits, three walks and four runs, all unearned, never got anybody out, and -- in spite of the fact that he was a lefty and lefties always get another chance -- never appeared in another game ...
Well, on that depressing note, let's move on to the Walker roster; it had better be okay to borrow a real team's name, because that's exactly what we're doing as we introduce ...
WALKERS, TEXAS RANGERS
** indicates Hall of Famer (none yet)
* indicates All-Star
Player/Manager: Harry "The Hat" Walker (only Walker to manage; 630-604, no flags)
LINEUP
C Fleet Walker (.263 for 1884 Toledo)
1B Greg Walker (.260, 113 homers, 1982-90 mostly with CHW)
2B Hub Walker (.263, 1931, '35-'37, '45 with DET, CIN)
SS Todd Walker (mostly a 2B; .290, 98 homers through 2005)
3B Cleotha "Chico" Walker (mostly an OF; .246, four teams, 1980-93)
LF Fred "Dixie" Walker* (.306, 1931-40, five-time All-Star)
CF Gee Walker* (.294/124/997 for five teams, 1931-45)
RF Larry Walker* (.313 through 2005)
DH Harry "The Hat" Walker* (.296, 1940-55)
BENCH
C Rube Walker (.227, 1948-58 CHC, Dodgers)
1B Joseph "Speed" Walker (2-for-7 with 1923 STL)
IF VACANT
IF VACANT
OF Curt Walker (.304, 1919-30, mostly with NYG, CIN)
OF Tilly Walker (.281, 129 SB, four teams 1911-23)
ROTATION
LHSP Bill H. Walker* (97-77, 1927-36 NYG, STL; two-time NL ERA champ)
RHSP Tom W. Walker (15-8 with 1904 CIN; 24-16 career)
LHSP Luke Walker (15-6 with 1970 PIT; 45-47 career)
RHSP Ewart "Dixie" Walker (25-31, 1909-12 WSH)
RHSP Jerry Walker* (37-44, 13 saves, 1957-64, out of MLB at 25)
BULLPEN
CL-RH Tyler Walker (6-4, 23 saves with 2005 SFG; 12-5 career)
LH-SET Jamie Walker (15-15, fives aves through 2005)
RHRP R. Thomas Walker (18-23, 11 saves, 1972-77)
LHRP Kevin Walker (7-1 for 2000 SDP, 0-2 in five years since)
RH-LONG Pete Walker (19-13, mostly with TOR, through 2005)
Unless someone can learn to play the infield right quick -- thus filling those "VACANT" slots on the bench above -- then the people not making the team are primarily backup catchers (yes, including the aforementioned Johnny) and low-to-mid-.200s-hitting outfielders like Duane ...
Six more Walkers who didn't make the squad plied their trade from the pitcher's mound, including the puzzlingly nicknamed Fred "Mysterious" Walker (4-16 with 1913 Fed League Pittsburgh; 7-23 career) and Roy "Dixie" Walker (11-12 for 1921 STL; 17-27 career, apparently no relation to the family outlined above), as well as the only lefty Walker not to make the staff, Ed, who was 0-1 for the 1902 Cleveland Bronchos and 1903 Cleveland Naps ...
So what do you say, Bauxites? Are these Walkers going to be any good in, uh, the long run?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20051015000018184