The Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced last Wednesday, and for the eighth consecutive year, former Colorado Rockies star outfielder Larry Walker failed to reach the 75 percent voting threshold that would stamp his ticket to Cooperstown.
After hovering between 10 and 23 percent in the Hall of Fame voting in his first seven years of eligibility, Walker received a personal-best 34.1 percent in 2018. He shared his thoughts with Mitch Melnick on Montreal 690 last Friday .
“I can’t fault myself. I played for a major-league team that happened to be in Denver,” Walker said to Melnick. “If thatap a problem and if thatap going to be an issue for them, then get rid of the team and move it elsewhere if itap going to be that big of an issue.
“No needles went in my (butt). I played the game clean, but I played in the ballpark and itap almost like Coors Field is my PED.”
Walker played 17 seasons in the majors — 10 with the Rockies — finishing with 383 home runs, 1,311 runs batted in, a .313 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage. He also won three Silver Slugger awards, seven Gold Gloves and was the National League MVP in 1997 — a year in which he batted .366 with 49 home runs, 130 RBIs and 33 stolen bases.
Walker was asked about his thoughts on players, such as Barry Bonds, who received more votes than him despite being cast under a shroud of performance-enhancing drugs.
“No, I don’t think it was the right thing,” Walker said about the use of PEDs. “(But) I don’t think PEDs are as bad as playing in Coors Field, apparently.”
Walker has two years of eligibility left before his fate moves on to the Hall’s Today’s Game committee.
“It’s frustrating,” Walker said, “but at the same time, I get it.”
