Walkoff Walker Lives ChildHood Dream (Gregg Drinnan KDN column) May 28, 2009
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Matt Walker at the Plate
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
May 28, 2009
Kamloops – For as long as youngsters have gathered in fields and on outdoor rinks, there have been dreams.
It’s Game 7 of the World Series . . . or a Stanley Cup final . . . and, yes-s-s-s-s, you get the hit or score the goal that wins the championship. The crowd goes wild.
For most of us, it is just that . . . a dream. Forever.
Matt Walker used to dream like that, too.
“Winning a championship with one hit has always been a dream of mine” is the way Walker puts it.
The difference is that Walker, a pitcher/outfielder with the TRU WolfPack baseball team, got to live his dream. That feeling about which you and I have dreamt? Walker has lived it. Really. And now, when he sees replays of the likes of Bobby Thompson and Joe Carter with their championship-winning home runs, you bet that he can relate.
Two out. Bottom of the ninth inning. Score tied at eight. Count 1-1. Slider sits there. Solo home run. TRU wins the championship.
That’s what happened May 16 when Walker’s dinger gave the WolfPack a 9-8 victory over the host Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs in Lethbridge. It was the final game of the Canadian College Baseball Conference championship tournament.
“I think I’ve come back to reality now,” Walker, 21, wrote in an email earlier this week from Vancouver, a day before he left to spend some time touring Germany, Italy and the Greek Islands. “It definitely took me about a week, though.
“On the bus ride back to Kamloops, every time I thought about what had just happened, I couldn’t help but smile or laugh. It was surreal.”
First, let’s set the stage. Then we’ll let Walker tell the story.
Walker, from Bowen Island, joined the WolfPack as an outfielder. Prior to this season, however, he took one for the team and moved into the bullpen, never mind that he hadn’t pitched “for six or seven years.” In fact, he ended up as TRU’s closer. That meant he was limited to only 68 at-bats in the entire season.
In the championship final, the WolfPack, the home team because it was the top qualifier, trailed 5-0 after two innings, got back to 5-5 but then gave up a two-run swat in the fourth to trail 7-5. TRU got its first lead, 8-7, in the bottom of the fourth, but the Dawgs tied it in the fifth.
Which is how the teams were 8-8 with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
As the Dawgs hit in the top of the inning, Walker, a 6-foot-2, 180-pounder who bats right, stood in left field and began to prepare for his at-bat, which would come against Katlin Nunweiler, a 6-foot-0, 165-pound right-hander.
“I realized that I was going to be the third one up and was very excited,” Walker wrote. “When the two hitters ahead of me made outs I was disappointed that they didn’t get on base. However, I was excited at the same time for the opportunity to be a leader and really give it my all.”
In other words, he recognized the opportunity and wasn’t about to walk away without taking his best shot.
“When I stepped into the batter’s box,” he recalled, “I mentally prepared myself by just relaxing and not thinking too much.”
The first pitch was a slider. Walker took it for a strike.
Nunweiler’s second pitch was high and tight. Really tight.
“It almost hit me in the head,” Walker stated. “But I pulled back. . . . I wasn’t bothered by the pitch and stayed relaxed.”
The third pitch . . . well, it landed on the other side of the left-field fence at Lloyd Nolan Yard for Walker’s fourth home run of the season. The left-field corner is 328 feet from home plate, with the centre-field fence 405 feet away.
“I believe it was a slider . . . however, Nunweiler left it up in the strike zone and I quickly saw the pitch I knew I wanted,” Walker remembered. “I’ll be honest . . . I was thinking home run during the at-bat. I wanted the opportunity to win the game for my team.
“When it comes down to it, I was lucky with the timing, and I took advantage of the opportunity.”
And, yes, the moment bat met ball, he knew . . . he just knew.
“As soon as I made contact I knew it was gone,” Walker stated. “I saw it right off the bat and didn’t expect anything but for the ball to go over the fence.”
If you have seen any of the celebrations that follow walk-off hits these days, you know that Walker’s day wasn’t over just yet. There was still the matter of surviving the welcoming committee at home plate.
“The celebration was amazing,” Walker wrote. “As I was rounding third base I saw my team waiting for me at home plate. It was unbelievable. I ran into home plate and was instantly covered by teammates.”
So . . . what was Walker thinking at this point?
“As hard as it was to move around, I tried to find (winning pitcher) Jordan Broatch as fast as I could to congratulate him. And I tried to find the graduating players, Ben Bradford and Bryan Mahon, who have been major contributing factors to the program and will be greatly missed . . . also my buddy Kyle Dhanani, who is moving on to the next level of baseball, which is well deserved.”
(Broatch, in a rather gritty effort, went the distance for the victory; a right-hander from White Rock, he is believed to be on the verge of joining a summer-league team in Regina. Dhanani, a shortstop from Blaine, Wash., is expected to sign with the Milwaukee Brewers or to leave TRU to attend an American college.)
“The rest,” Walker admitted, “is a blur.”
A fan got the ball and brought it to Walker, who has had TRU’s players and coaches sign it. It is destined for a trophy case.
Walker was born in North Vancouver but was raised on Bowen Island. He got his start in baseball with the Cypress Park Little League. That is where “I fell in love with the game.” He points to three coaches — Jack Brick, Rick Sinke and Bob Wilshire — as having been his major baseball influences on Bowen Island. He also credits the well-respected John Haar, for whom he played with the Premier League’s North Shore Twins.
Walker’s father, Brent, is a captain in the West Vancouver fire department, while Mom (Caroline) owns a couple of flower shops. He has two younger sisters — Devon is graduating from high school this spring, while Chanelle is in the musical theatre program at Capilano University. He is close with his sisters.
“They have sat on the bleachers and stood on the sideline even when they probably didn’t want to,” Walker wrote. “When I called to tell them about the win, my sisters actually answered and were almost as excited as I was!”
That excitement has begun to subside now — it’s doubtful that anyone will recognize him in the Greek Islands — but the memory of that one moment is frozen in time.
When Walker returns in a couple of weeks, it’ll be back to the routine.
“I will be working all summer landscaping and trying to make enough money to pay for school and baseball after the trip,” he wrote, “And . . . I will be training harder than ever.
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