Larry Walker Hall of Fame Top Whatever!
The National Baseball Hall of Fame grew by two on January 21, 2020.
Some guy was inducted!
And this guy was inducted too!
Giving that Hall another former Expo in it’s ranks, joining Vlad, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.
The Hall now has it’s first representative from the Colorado Rockies.
I moved to Colorado in October, 1996. Waited all winter to see my new home team play in their new(ish) home ballpark. I could wait no longer and sprung for tickets to the first exhibition game played in Denver, just before the 1997 season would start. American League doormats, the Kansas City Royals, were in town for the weekend. Good enough for me! Bring on some new baseball!
Coors Field was so not the Metrodome.
Denver was so not Minneapolis.
And I loved everything about that.
As another side note, despite the blurriness of this photo, none of the lofty condo clusters had been built behind the left and center field fences. In 1997, you could still see the Rocky Mountains from a seat in the lower deck. As shown in this photo. This view wouldn’t be possible even 2-3 years later. Thanks progress!
Walker would have the best season of his career in 1997, batting .366/.452/.720, with 49 home runs and 130 RBI's. Throw in a career high 33 stolen bases, topped off by the National League MVP Award. And if you're into those kinds of stats, a 9.8 WAR. Greatly explaining how the 1997 Rockies managed to go 83-79.
Six and a half years later (August, 2003), I was attending another game, with a friend from Minnesota. It was her birthday, and we hit up a Rockies game while she was in town. The Rockies had a promotional giveaway that night…
A pin honoring Larry Walker’s 2002 Gold Glove Award!
Brought to you by King Soopers!
I really miss King Soopers…
I also missed out on the rest of the 2002 pin series, but I still have the Walker. And it’s still in it’s sealed plastic bag.
So that means it’s probably worth millions at this point.
2019 was the last year of Larry Walker being eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame election (through standard means anyways). After being disappointed in his vote totals over the last 10 years, I fully expected him to fall short again in his last year of eligibility. That damn Coors Field bias… So I didn’t bother to prepare anything just in case he was elected. I didn’t think it would happen, so I didn’t bother setting anything up.
I watched the Hall of Fame voting results live. It was a forgone conclusion that at least one guy was getting in this year, and he certainly did. (Can’t remember his name, think he played for Boston?) But After the brief buildup, the Hall president said that two players were elected this year, and I was shocked. And very happy. It would include Larry Walker. The first Colorado Rockie to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Oh, and he was an Expo too!
Larry Walker always wore the number 33...
33 Expos cards…
33 Rockies cards…
And exactly ZERO cards from the team he finished his career with!
Because I don't like the Cardinals!
So here we go, the Top 33 Expos and Top 33 Rockies, counted down by alternating teams!
(Starting with Colorado, who won the coin flip that I didn't do.)
#33 - 1995 Bowman
#33 - 1990 Donruss
The first Walker rookie card on this Whatever. I think it may be the only one showing Walker wearing a uniform number other than 33. Which makes me think this photo was taken in 1989 Spring Training.
#32 - 1998 UD3
I bought exactly one pack of Upper Deck's gimmick set UD3. For that price, I expected something great. I got something pointless. And this Larry Walker card. Which didn't scan that well, but is nice looking in real life.
#32 - 1990 Score
Stick to your convictions!
#31 - 1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars
Rookies & Stars was one of the last releases from Pinnacle Brands before bankruptcy struck. It was incredibly hot at the time, and incredibly hard to find in Denver after it's release. I finally ended up overpaying for a couple of retail "Blasters" on ebay that Summer. Or the 1998 equivalent of retail Blasters.
I really wanted the J.D. Drew card (still do) to commemorate his status as a money grubbing bag of dicks. After his agent inspired post draft trickery against the Phillies, meant to circumvent the system while holding the team up for an unreasonable amount of money to sign. Then his subsequent stint with the independent St. Paul Saints, meant solely to change his status to a professional player. In short, his antics eventually changed the entire MLB Draft.
#31 - 1992 Donruss
Great action photo of Walker playing first base. This should have been a horizontal card.
#30 - 2000 Fleer Tradition
I liked this design and set a lot, even though it's a shameless rip off of 1954 Topps. At least it's a well done rip off!
#30 - 1993 Pinnacle Slugfest
Pinnacle's Slugfest inserts were some great junk wax hits, back in the day.
#29 - 1995 SP
Upper Deck's SP line always seemed to me like it should have been a rock solid foundation set. Something you can count on to be an attractive and well done upgrade to their base set every year. But it seemed to me like Upper Deck could never really settle on what they wanted SP to be. The set was inconsistent from year to year in how the set was constructed and inserts tiered. Sometimes groundbreaking, sometimes yawn inspiring. 1995 SP was a MASSIVE disappointment to me. Washed out and blurry photos, tired design, and just a bad effort. Maybe we can blame the 1994 Strike fallout?
#29 - 1990 Fleer
I'm glad Fleer ventured all the way up to Montreal to take Walker's rookie card picture. They even through in a batting cage! If 1990 Fleer wasn't so boring on the whole, it would rank higher for sure.
#28 - 2001 Fleer Platinum
Big fan of 2001 Fleer Platinum for some reason. Bought a ton of wax, even in an era where I spent relatively little on cards. Going as far as trying to complete the entire set. As in the full base set, plus the ridiculously huge amount of short printed stuff Fleer tacked on at the end. I finally pulled the plug on it in 2011. I boxed up the base set, filed the short prints I had acquired into their appropriate spots, and bought a wax box of 1981 Fleer off ebay.
You can read my 1981 Fleer Top Whatever here!
#28 - 1994 Leaf Limited
Leaf's answer to Topps Finest. Which was a decent effort, but not nearly "Limited" enough to hold a candle to what Topps did the year before. I liked the serial numbed boxes, but there was too many of them. Plus, the sets big hits were all serial numbered out of 10,000. I understand that was their patented go to number, but 10,000 doesn't hold a candle to 241, when it comes to truly Limited.
#27 - 1997 Ultra
1997 Ultra was another set I tried to complete, but gave up on about a decade ago. I was a big fan of the reflective foil used for the name and logo, and the photography and color was everything I liked Ultra for.
#27 - 1993 SP
Featuring a cameo from Expos great, Moises Alou!
#26 - 2004 Donruss Team Heroes
Team Heroes was a nice set concept from Donruss that wasn't allowed to continue when MLB pulled their license in 2005. I still want Topps to have some REAL competition!
#26 - 1991 Score
This card would be so much better if the photo was clear.
#25 - 2001 Topps Gallery
#25 - 1994 Flair
Fleer's Flair 1993 offering was cut from this Whatever because the photos were too soft for my liking. Fleer corrected that for their 1994 set by making both photos equally sharp. Leading to the cards looking like some multiple armed, legged and headed monstrosity with golf foil stamping. Yet, I like this set!
#24 - 2002 Stadium Club
Another product that I probably didn't buy more than a couple packs of, was 2002 Stadium Club. I'd like to have some more now, this is a clean design and likely some great photos are in the set, knowing how Topps does Stadium Club. Bonus points for the large Marlin tail from Joe Robbie Stadium. Or whatever Miami was calling it when this photo was taken.
#24 - 1992 Stadium Club
A surfboard needs to be added to this card...
#23 - 2000 Upper Deck MVP
Typical Upper Deck card over busy-ness design of that era... Though it kinda works with this photo.
#23 - 1992 Topps
Another great 1st base action shot for a 1992 Larry Walker card. Unlike what Donruss did, Topps got this one correct and flipped it on it's side.
Let's take a break from all this Whatever and look at a couple of non-countdown related Larry Walker items in my collection.
Starting in Philadelphia!
Veterans Stadium had a "newsstand" inside that sold programs and yearbooks from other cities' teams. A chance for the collector dork in me to pick up magazines from teams that I'd never make it to in person. At least at that point I didn't expect to ever see a game in Montreal, or Denver for that matter. So I happily grabbed a Rockies Spring Training program, and a couple of issues of Expos Match magazine.
Including this one, with a great picture of Walker in an Expos uniform and hockey goaltender equipment!
Expos Match Magazine - Vol. 1, issue 2 (May) 1993
Bring on the toys!
1998 Starting Lineup
The outfielder leaping at the wall was of my favorite poses Kenner used for the Starting Lineup toy line. I had the 1997 edition Devon White and Ken Griffey Jr. figures using this same toy mold. Not that any of the three actually looked like the actual players. The toys were cool, had a respectable staying power (1988-2000) in the hobby, and made for some nice display pieces. Some of which decorated the bathroom hallway of my old Kenyon Place Apartment in Englewood.
Kenyon bathroom hall, January 2000.
Starting Lineup figures hung with no intended pattern or plan. That apartment was strange in it's bathroom set up. The sink was in the hallway, across from the bedroom door. Toilet and shower behind another door. With a window in the shower. In my apartments case, it opened to the north, with a clear view of Swedish Hospital. That orange dot is a light on the hospital's roof. A 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins towel hangs over the shower curtain rod. The black and white towel by the sink is stained with multiple colors of hair dye. Going through a weird phase or something...
Eventually, my Starting Lineup collection needed to be whittled down a bit. A lot of the common figures were opened and placed in gallon sized Ziplock bags. I couldn’t just toss them because they are still cool to have. I’m just not sure what to do with them now. I did keep the Walker, Griffey Jr. and Devon White in their original packaging. Those are worth displaying!
Getting back to the Whatever...
1995 Collectors Choice Trade Card
I never mailed this in. Despite it netting me an updated Larry Walker card, in Colorado colors, it already has a great home in the Expos binders.
Okay, now back to the Whatever for real!
#22 - 1998 Ultra
#22 - 1992 Ultra
Back in the days when Ultra had a little bit of a border. Sets that came out in mid-season 1992 showed the new Expos uniforms. A drastic change from their iconic look, which didn't vary much between 1969-1991. Took a while for the new look to grow on me. Soon the new Expos home whites, with blue pinstripes and script logo, became my favorite jersey in baseball.
#21 - 2004 Topps
The number of packs of 2004 Topps that I bought is less than the number of fingers on my left hand. I bought a factory set late in the year and that was good enough for me. Looking at it now, I think I’d like to open a wax box of 2004 Topps. I really like that silver foil outline of the player featured on each card. I bought a Rockies and Expos team set, but I only have 3 Twins cards from it. So I need some more 2004 Topps.
#21 - 1993 Studio
Close up of uniform patches as a backdrop. Leaf had some fun ideas in the early 1990’s.
#20 - 2002 Bowman’s Best
This card scanned a lot worse than it really is. In real life, it’s not this golden yellow. In 2005, I picked up a wax box of 2002 Bowman’s Best, for more than I should have paid. The lure of an autograph or bat card in every pack was a strong draw. Searching for a Job Mauer autograph being equally strong. I didn’t get a Mauer card from the box. I didn’t get a good autograph either. What I did get was 3 autographs of Rockies prospect Rene Reyes, who never panned out. If it wasn’t for him being a Rookie, I would have been disappointed on unheard of levels…
#20 - 1990 Leaf
Leaf was Donruss’ answer to 1989 Upper Deck, as far as making a “premium” trading card. I thought they did a great job with this set. It has nowhere near as much value and prestige as it did during the Junk Wax Era, but it’s still a very nice set. As for the Larry Walker rookie card, I once had 4 of these, but my old roommate’s cat chewed on one of them, back in the days of Ninja School (1996).
#19 - 2002 Donruss Originals
I’m a sucker for new cards on old designs. By the early 2000’s, the remaining card companies had enough material banked up where they could start cashing in on nostalgia. It wasn’t just Topps that could play this game. For X-mess 2002, I received a re-pack that featured a bunch of packs of 2002 Donruss Originals inside. I remember those packs being a lot of fun to open. I certainly wouldn’t mind getting my hands on more packs of this product.
#19 - 1993 Stadium Club
Hi Larry!
#18 - 1995 Topps Traded
After years of Topps marketing their year end “Traded” sets in complete set boxed form, 1995 was the first year when it would be released only in pack form. Personally, I didn’t like it at all. The result was a bloated mess of a set that included far too much that it shouldn’t have, for what it was. Definitely a precursor to how Topps has handled it's update sets since 2001.
But the Walker card is nice, with a Coors Field cameo from Ellis Burks.
#18 - 1993 Upper Deck Triple Crown
1993 Upper Deck ranks as one of the greatest sets during my years of collecting. Just a classic all around. Simple and clean design with a diverse photo selection and color that pops. Even the insert cards were memorable. Walker's base card just missed the cut at 33. Falling victim to the abundance of nicer Expos cards. Too bad 1994 Upper Deck was such a flop as a follow up.
#17 - 1996 Bowman’s Best Preview Refractor
Which looks EXACTLY like the 1996 Bowman’s Best Refractor, that I don’t have, with the exception of the card number noting it as a preview. These were inserts in regular 1996 Bowman boxes, with Refractors falling one every three boxes.
#17 - 1992 Leaf
Remember what I wrote about 1992 Ultra showing the new Expos uniforms? That also applies here...
#16 - 2004 Playoff Honors
I have very few cards from this set (this Rockie, a couple Expos and zero Twins), and I’d like to have more. I really like the look of these cards, even if they don’t scan well.
#16 - 1991 Score Young Stars
I’m trying to figure out who that Expos is behind Walker. Possibly Mike Aldrete? I’m skeptical...
Score used to make 100 card sets, packaged with a book/magazine about the players featured in the card set. These would be sold at retail locations for around $12-15. Usually one set of All Stars and another set of young stars and rookies. I never bought any of them, and have only picked up a few of the cards here and there.
#15 - 1998 Flair Showcase
Man were these boxes expensive for 1998.
#15 - 1993 Pinnacle Home Run Club
Another card from a box set that I didn’t buy. I picked up this card for a quarter at a mid-1990’s card show.
#14 - 1997 Fleer
After the unholy abomination that was 1995 Fleer (and I did collect a complete set of that mess), Fleer stripped down to basics for 1996 and 1997. Printing a very clean design on rough matte stock. It was an innovative move to go away from the trends of loud flashy color and distracting graphics. Both sets are great.
#14 - 1991 Fleer
Great photo/card ruined by all that yellow…
#13 - 2003 Upper Deck First Pitch
This card features a photo of Walker that you didn’t typically get, finishing up a slide into second base. It’s a tad blurry, but still a great image. First Pitch was a smaller retail version of Upper Deck’s base set. Most of Upper Deck’s efforts from 1998-2005 went unpurchased by me. They simply didn’t fit into my shrunken card budget of that era. I would like to go back and pick up some those missing years of Upper Deck in my collection.
#13 - 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection
When 1994 Pinnacle first came out, I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. Museum Collection parallel card. That sold me on them, and I immediately decided that I was going to pursue all 540 cards showing off Pinnacle’s ground breaking “Dufex” technology. At only six Museum cards per wax box, chasing the set proved too difficult to continue and I finally gave up on it about a decade ago. Still close to 200 cards short (including uber-rare cards only available by redemption, which are next to impossible to find these days) of the complete set.
#12 - 2003 Topps
2003 Topps’ blue borders look really bad on teams with red or orange as their dominant uniform color, but teams that feature blue (or purple) jersey’s, they look great. Luckily for me, that includes the Rockies Twins and Expos!
#12 - 1992 Bowman
1992 Bowman is still one of my all time favorite sets. And just like Leaf and Ultra, feature the Expos in their all new clothes. A 1992 Bowman Top Whatever is in the plans for the near or distant future… I haven’t decided which one.
Speaking of Whatever, it’s time for another break...
In 1998, the Colorado Rockies hosted the MLB All Star Game. I tried for tickets, entering a lottery drawing run through the Rocky Mountain News (RIP), but had to settle for attending the All Star Fan Fest at the Denver Convention Center. Beckett, of all people, ran several Rockies heavy stories that summer. Including a 3 page checklist of all of Larry Walker’s cards (to that point).
August 1998 Beckett
Beckett did that quite often in those days. I’m not entirely sure why. They chewed up a lot of content pages, and were outdated before ink ever hit paper. Although in this case, I had a full list of every Walker Expos card from his days as an active player. Walker never played for the Expos after 1994, so all of those are there. If I ever decide to go for them all, I have a great list to work from!
And in non-Larry Walker Expos news:
A week ago Friday, I had just come home from work and hopped online when I sat down at my desk. I saw that Mike’s Stadium Sports Cards, out of Aurora, Colorado, was having an online “singles night.” In this case, that meant holding up cards in front of a webcam, and naming a price for them. Collectors from anywhere could purchase the card by simply typing in that player’s name, then sending payment in via PayPal. I watched it in the background as I was doing other things for a while, until a card caught my ear.
A 2019 Topps Archives Expos 50th Anniversary Dennis Martinez Autograph. For only $10! No one jumped on it, so I started debating buying it myself. However it had been years since I’d bought anything online through PayPal, and had to first update my account. And password, which took forever. Luckily, no one swiped the Martinez before I got everything straightened out. Then I bought the card.
A few days later, it arrived in the mail!
Buying this card in this method worked flawless. I only discovered Mike’s Stadium Sports Cards shortly before moving out of Colorado, but loved his store from the few times I visited. (And wrote this story about a key transaction at his store) Next time he has an online “singles night”, I will try to watch. Not that I’m expecting to buy anything, but you never know what may pop up for sale.
Maybe Dwayne Schintzuis!
With this addition, I’m only 19 cards short of the autographed set!
A lot closer than 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection!
Whatever...
#11 - 1999 Upper Deck
21 years later, I'm still trying to figure out what Upper Deck was going for in this design. Though this card gets extra bonus points for the silver foil Rockies All Star Game logo in the corner.
#11 - 1991 Leaf
Have a soft spot for 1991 Leaf. I bought a bunch of it back in the day and completed the set. Both base and the Gold Leaf Rookies inserts. Which they did a great job of loading with the top prospects that didn't make the base set. Including Todd VanPoppel, months before his Major League debut.
#10 - 2001 Sweet Spot
Chalk this one up to another early 2000's Upper Deck set that I never bought any packs of. However, this single came from a dime box, some point afterwards. I like the subdued color in the picture. Which is more due to the Rockies color matching the background of the base set than anything else.
#10 - 1995 Upper Deck SE
Pointless non-parallel parallel set to 1995 Upper Deck. A completely different design from the base cards, falling 1 per pack. Some of the cards were pretty good, most were lame. This Walker stood out to me immediately after it fell out of the pack. Since they are all printed on a foil stock, they are hard to get a decent scan, but this turned out acceptable.
#9 - 1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified - Promotional Sample
A card from Coaches Corner, a couple years after I moved. Ron gave it to me to see if it would sell in Colorado. I got one low ball offer, then just bought it myself.
#9 - 1994 Collectors Choice Silver Signature
Here's the type of staged photo that Upper Deck did so well in their early years...
#8 - 1998 Topps Gold Label
#8 - 1994 Score Dream Team
Extremely dark card of Walker wearing an old Brooklyn Dodgers uniform from the 1930's? Score's logic in this one is that Montreal didn't have a team in the 1930's (or the the 2010's), but was the home of the AAA Montreal Royals. A farm team of the Dodgers. So Walker is wearing a Dodgers uniform. But why isn't he wearing a Montreal Royals uniform? Score didn't tell us that on the card back...
#7 - 2000 Topps Gold Label
2000 Topps Gold Flair is much better than 1998's flavor.
#7 - 1994 Stadium Club
As good as Upper Deck was with the posed photo, Topps was even better when it came to their Stadium Club set. My only gripe with it is Walker's right arm completely covers the Expos patch on the jersey. This could almost pass for a Mets or even -gasp- Cubs card upon a quick glance.
#6 - 2002 Fleer Platinum
#6 - 1995 Topps
Walker had some really great cards during his years with the Expos.
His Rockies cards seem a lot less inspiring.
#5 - 1995 Select
1995 Select is another set I still have the warm and fuzzies over. It's a small set, with good photography and sharp color. And while I would normally be annoyed by the large space taking faux-marble team colored block on the right side of the card, it works well in combination of the inset photo.
#5 - 1994 Topps
Topps had a pretty rough stretch in the 1990's. After the great design, photography and color of 1992, 1993 was a bogged down, redundant looking set, with lackluster color. 1994 continued the slide, where the color just appeared off.
#4 - 1997 Bowman’s Best International Refractor
This may be another preview, I don't remember. I don't care either.
Look at that Refractory Canadian Flag!
#4 - 1993 Topps
That's a great bat rack! I looked at this card for a while, trying to figure out which ballpark had the large circle bat and helmet rack. Oddly enough, the next card helped me figure it out...
#3 - 2000 Upper Deck
Candlestick Park in San Francisco! The stadium I can recognize by the floor tile in the dugout! Which I recognized from a 1996 Donruss card I can't remember! Years of studying baseball cards can lead to the most pointless information being retained.
And they painted the bat rack over the last 7 years.
#3 - 1993 Donruss Elite Series
Card show pick up in 1994. Great card. Nothing more needs to be said.
#2 - 1999 Bowman Late Bloomers
In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Topps made some really trippy insert cards.
#2 - 1995 Stadium Club World Series Parallel
I would assume this Walker image is from the same photo shoot that brought me the great cover of Expos Match magazine. Although his glove is covered by the gold foil World Series logo, on this version of the card. I wrote about these cards a couple of years ago. They're still awesome.
And the number 1 Larry Walker Rockies card in my collection is...
#1 - 2003 Leaf Home Jersey
Pulled from a hobby box of 2003 Leaf, picked up at a small card show in the Mounds View Square shopping center, in January 2004. This was one of the first jersey cards I'd gotten from a pack. Due to the fact that I wasn't buying a lot cards back then, and jersey cards weren't nearly as common as they are today. That purple pinstripe adds a lot to what would have been just a boring white swatch.
But the number one Larry Walker Expos card in my collection is...
#1 - 1993 Donruss McDonald's Expos
Part of a 30 card set printed by Donruss in 1993, and distributed through 3 card packs at Montreal area McDonald's. Eventually I bought the complete set off the internet about 10 years ago, but this particular Larry Walker card was purchased from a gift shop in Montreal. They didn't have any complete sets, but several singles were available for $1 each. I picked up Walker, Moises Alou and Ken Hill.
It was July, 1995, and I was in Quebec, Canada, on a Jay Buckley Baseball Tour. We traveled up to Montreal, spending some of the morning wandering the city, then part of the afternoon taking a look at Jarry Park. The first home of the Expos was now used for professional tennis matches, but still looked somewhat close to a piecemeal baseball stadium then. A few weeks later, Jarry Park closed and was renovated into the gigantic tennis complex it would become.
Seeing an Expos game in Montreal, with the addition of getting to stand inside Jarry Park and take pictures of it, is still one of my favorite baseball memories. I wrote a story about Jarry Park and that day here.
So there's the big Larry Walker Hall of Fame Whatever.
Fresh off signing star third baseman Nolan Arenado to a massive contract to keep him in Denver for the next 7 years, the Rockies came to the realization that they just couldn't afford it. Not even a year later... So of course it turned ugly quickly, because it was handled poorly by team management. Because that is the only way they know how to handle things.
At the same time Colorado should have been celebrating Larry Walker, an equal amount of press was devoted to weather or not the Rockies should trade Arenado. Nolan himself released a statement declaring angry pissed-offedness toward Rockies General Manager, Jeff Bridich, saying he'd been lied to...
Things calmed down after a few days, but I'm no longer optimistic that I will see Arenado play his entire career in the black and purple. And it's likely inevitable that one of my favorite players will be eventually be wearing Dodger blue...
After Laura bought me an autographed Arenado bat for my birfday last year... Celebrating the player we both had been watching since his Major League debut in 2013, now committing to staying with the team. In turn a year later, looked to break it's commitment to him. The bat itself is beyond awesome, but it doesn't note the Colorado Rockies on the bat itself. Probably a good idea in hindsight...
But back to the good thing about this story.
The Rockies have their first Hall of Famer!
And I really like 1997 Upper Deck!
I may have to write about that soon...
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