Rockies fans are going to find this hard to believe, but St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Larry Walker was hurt and didn’t start Monday night in his homecoming series opener at Coors Field.
Walker knew better. He knew after his star-crossed 10 seasons in Denver, his sprained left ankle would be a source of wisecracks from the local media, if not a sore spot to local fans.
“Yeah, I tried to get myself in,” Walker said, referring to a quick pregame conversation with St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. “I told him, ‘Let’s go, we’re at 75 to 80 percent, I can play.’ But he said he didn’t want take any chances.”
Although Walker remains the undisputed best all-around player in Rockies history, his playing time with the team was curtailed by injuries. He once ran into a center-field wall and broke his collarbone. He once slipped down a hill while fishing and separated his shoulder.
Saturday, in the middle of another St. Louis victory, Walker’s spikes got caught in the dugout steps and he twisted the ankle.
“We were close to playing, but I’m on a team where if anyone of us sat out we’d still be all right,” Walker said.
Walker was a Rockies star until general manager Dan O’Dowd did him a favor by trading him to first-place St. Louis in August. The Cardinals didn’t stop winning until they reached the World Series, and they again have the National League’s best record this year.
“You come to the park always happy and in a good mood because you’re winning and in first place,” Walker said. “It’s the greatest.”
Except in the 2004 postseason, when it mattered most, St. Louis hasn’t seen the same Walker that Rockies fans enjoyed. He hit .334 in 1,170 games for the Rockies; .271 in 85 games for the Cards, including a .262 average with five homers this year while hitting mostly from the No. 2 hole.
“It’s been up and down,” Walker said. “Got off to a slow start, got hot for a little while, but I just can’t find a comfort zone, can’t find the right stance. Trying to battle through it. But I’m at the top of the lineup and I’d like to think my job is to score runs and I’ve been scoring runs, so I’m happy with that.”
Not playing blame game
Rockies first baseman Todd Helton had become arguably the third-best hitter in baseball – behind Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols. Then Wayne Hagin, the St. Louis and former Rockies broadcaster, slandered Helton’ during a spring training radio interview, which was followed by a Baltimore newspaper report of a possible Helton trade to the Orioles.
Is it any coincidence Helton is having the worst start of his big-league career?
“I would to love to use that as an excuse,” Helton said. “But it’s not true.”
Helton was batting a Helton-like .339 after playing May 14. Then came an unprecedented 3-for-46 slump in 13 games that tumbled his average to .265. After going 0-for-3 Monday, he’s down to .260
“The game’s really sped up on me the last couple weeks,” Helton said. “(I’m trying) to slow it back down. I usually have a series of checklists I go through to get out of that bad period. It just hasn’t been clicking for me.”
