Walker’s Only Airs Are a Mile High

Larry Walker is a terrible disappointment to me.

Look! He was leading the league in batting, home runs and runs, he had more than 200 hits and was second in runs batted in when he came to town Friday. He was having a year to rank him right up there with old Teddy Triplecrown, himself, Ted Williams.

And, we all know what that means. He arrives at the park fashionably late in a stretch limo, he’s wearing dark glasses and a $2,000 Armani suit, right? His agent is with him. Hollywood is on the phone. They want to make “The Larry Walker Story.” See about John Travolta for the lead--or maybe Sly Stallone.

Maybe the mayor will declare “Larry Walker Day” in his honor.

I mean, this guy is BIG. Michael Jordan territory, if you know what I mean.

You figure he’ll be as hard to interview as the Pope. You know, one of those “Get out of my face! “ types. Eddie Murray. Kirk Gibson. Albert Belle. Superstars who know how to act like it.

So, I was kind of thrilled in anticipation of asking for an interview. After all, I’ve been in this business a long time. I know what to expect of superstars.

So, I approached the Colorado Rockies’ director of public relations with a request for a few minutes of the superstar’s time. I expected him to laugh. Instead, Mike Swanson said, “Oh, sure! Larry’ll be glad to talk to you. Just as soon as he comes out of the trainer’s room.”

I was rattled. “But around the batting cage, right? “ I asked. “He’ll say he has to take BP first?”

“He doesn’t take batting practice, “ Swanee said.

Well, at least he’ll be on his cellular phone when we get down to the locker room, I thought. Probably closing a deal with a shoe company.

Larry Walker was just closing a deal with a potato chip when we got there.

Well, the questions, I told myself, he’ll bristle at those. Give snotty answers. “What’d you want to ask a stupid question like that for?!” kind of thing.

Walker just laughed. He’s not at all impressed with being Larry Walker. I’ve known designated hitters who were haughtier. Backup shortstops.

He even answered questions about the famous incident when he half-jokingly declined to step in the batter’s box against The Big Unit, Randy Johnson. That’s when he found out how big he was with us knights of the press.

Walker is left-handed--so is Randy Johnson--so the implication was, he would be a target for the fastest ball in the west that night in Seattle’s Kingdome. Walker sat it out. Lots of guys do that. Only Walker admitted it.

It became a cause celebre. You’d think he set fire to a church. But Larry responded as Larry Walker. He stepped in the batters’ box against Johnson in the All-Star game, clowning, wearing his batting helmet backward.

Ducking the difficult is nothing new in sports. Basketball centers always used to catch flu on the days they had to play Bill Russell. Baseball managers usually automatically seated left-handed hitters against left-handed pitchers, particularly when that left-hander was Randy Johnson. John Kruk batted against him one night with one foot not in the bucket but in the dugout.

Larry Walker is more than a bat. He has thrown out guys at first base on clean singles to right. He has 11 outfield assists this year. That’s Roberto Clemente stuff. He has stolen 32 bases. He leads the team.

So, we are talking here about a legend in the making. If he played in New York, he’d be “The Yankee Clipper II” or another Iron Horse, maybe even the new Sultan of Swat. Larry The Man.

But, he’s just “Walk” to his teammates. He leads the league in unpretentiousness. He even feels his athletic career has been a failure. Canadian-born, he’d much rather be in the crease for the Montreal Canadiens than in right field for the Rockies. Where he grew up, baseball was for guys who couldn’t skate. Walker would rather win the Lady Byng Trophy than the MVP.

The Colorado Rockies’ manager, Don Baylor, is glad Walker opted for baseball. Not because it’s a better way to keep your teeth but because Walker is, in Baylor’s words, “the complete player.” Adds Baylor: “He never misses the cutoff man, he never throws to the wrong base, he has speed, power and intelligence. All you have to do is write his name down in the lineup and he’ll take care of the rest.”

The critics say “he’s hitting in mile-high thin air.” But, the facts are, he hit 29 of his 48 homers on the road this year. And he hit 99 homers in five injury-shortened years at Montreal--and no one ever called Olympic Stadium a hitter’s paradise.

No, Walker’s big trouble is he has to learn how to play the role. You will remember once when Frank Robinson and Pete Rose were teammates on the Reds, and Rose got a rare home run one day and streaked around the bases like a guy being shot at and Robinson frowned and greeted him in the dugout with “Son, you got to leave those home runs to those of us who can act them out.” Like a Barry Bonds, for instance, who turns his home runs into a soliloquy by Hamlet.

Walker has to learn how to act out being a superstar. Never mind studying Ted Williams’ swing, study his attitude. Get some “Prime Time” lessons from Deion Sanders. Can you imagine Deion if he had 48 home runs, 127 RBIs, 204 hits, and led the league in batting?

But, you know who Walker’s baseball hero is? Paul Molitor. Molitor is one of only 21 batters in baseball history to have 3,000 hits. But people have to stop and think what he looks like--and which team he plays for.

Walker’s hopeless. He probably won’t even charge for his autograph when he’s through.