10 years after his MLB debut, Marlins’ Walker ready for homecoming against Pirates
Neil Walker still remembers that first Major League at-bat with his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates. It was Sept. 1, 2009, the first day that rosters expanded, and he had made the two-hour drive in Indianapolis to Cincinnati to meet the Pirates in the middle of their road series with the Reds.
Walker, 23 years old at the time, served as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning for pitcher Charlie Morton. Facing a 2-1 count, he hit a groundball to the right side that, to Walker’s recollection, “in 99 percent of minor-league games is a hit.” Instead, Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips made a diving grab and quick throw to first base to end the sixth inning of an eventual road loss.
“I thought to myself ‘Oh boy, if this is the big leagues, I’m going to have to get better,’ “ Walker said.
Walker slowly adjusted during that final month of the 2009 season. He recorded his first MLB hit, walk and run in his first home start at PNC Park five days after his debut.
Today, just over a decade later, Walker is still making his mark on the Major League even while playing on his fourth team in as many years.
And starting Tuesday, for three days, he’ll be in front of his hometown crowd once again as the Miami Marlins, hoping to snap a 15-game road losing streak, begin a three-game road series with the Pirates.
“It’s great,” Walker, who turns 34 on Sept. 10, said of returning to Pittsburgh. “I still live in the community as well as my siblings and parents and wife and in-laws.”
Walker, born in Pittsburgh and raised in the nearby North Hills suburbs, spent the first six full seasons of his MLB career with the Pirates, who drafted him out of high school in 2004 with the 11th overall pick. The Pirates traded Walker to the New York Mets after the 2015 season for Jon Niese. Walker has since played for the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees and, this year, the Marlins.
Up until then, though, his life and baseball career centered around his hometown in Pittsburgh. Naturally, he grew up a Pirates fan and attended games at Three Rivers Stadium, the city’s old multi-purpose stadium that was used until 2000.
He played high school ball at Pine-Richland, about a half-hour drive from the Pirates’ new home stadium PNC Park which was built during his freshman year in 2001.
He played 836 games with the Pirates as their starting second baseman, won a Silver Slugger Award with them in 2014 and helped turn the first 4-5-4 triple play in MLB history with them in 2015.
“There’s a lot of great memories of growing up in that region and that area in the community,” Walker said, “and obviously playing there.”
This series marks the fourth time Walker is playing at PNC Park since the Pirates traded him. He has hit .263 (10 for 38) with two home runs, five RBI and five runs scored in those previous nine games as a visitor in Pittsburgh.
For his career, Walker has hit .267 with 1,201 hits, 147 home runs, 597 RBI and 598 runs scored. He’s hitting .260 with six homers, 29 RBI and 29 runs scored in 96 games for the Marlins this year.
“I feel like I’ve been pretty resilient,” Walker said. “I’ve been a guy that’s been relied upon when healthy. Had some really good years. ... I’ve been the type of player that if I take care of myself and my body and do my job for the team and try to focus on the common goal of winning that all the individual accolades with work themselves out.”
It’s a message he has used this year as one of the veterans on a youth-laden Marlins roster. As the club continues with its latest rebuild and new players get their first crack at playing in the big leagues, Walker has helped mentor the players who the Marlins hope will become the cornerstones of their team for years to come.
“Whenever these young guys get up here and get their first taste, you try to remind them to kind of bask in it and enjoy the moment,” Walker said, “because you only get one debut.”
Walker still cherishes his.
This story was originally published September 2, 2019 at 1:02 PM.
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