Larry Walker’s bronze now has a permanent home outside Coors Field, and the Rockies chose one of the most memorable swings in franchise history to tell his story.
The 15-foot, 800-pound statue was unveiled Sunday morning at the ballpark’s main entrance at 20th and Blake in Lower Downtown Denver. As the purple shroud came off and “Crazy Train” pumped through the speakers, the crowd roared and Walker was brought to tears.
Walker, the Rockies’ first Hall of Famer, stood before fans, former teammates and familiar faces from his Colorado days. Ferguson Jenkins was there, the only other Canadian player in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Todd Helton, who will get his own statue on Sept. 19, was also in attendance, along with Bob Gebhard, the original Rockies general manager who brought Walker to Colorado.
Walker’s speech moved along with his usual calm and grace until he turned to his father, Larry Sr., sitting nearby.
“A few months ago, I was at my cabin in British Columbia,” Walker said. “I asked my dad to come up and visit for the weekend, but he told me he couldn’t. He had to umpire a game on Thursday, two games on Friday, a game on Saturday and two games on Sunday.
“He’s umping home plate in all these games. He’s umping 13- to 15-year-old kids.
He’s 88 years old. So, I think I know where I got my love of baseball from.”
Walker is the first Rockies player to be honored with a statue at Coors. Helton will be next.
The sculpture captures Walker in the Rockies’ silver and black “Turn Ahead the Clock” uniform, bat raised after his iconic Aug. 18, 1999 moment: a three-run, walk-off homer off Braves closer John Rocker in a 4-1 Colorado win. That night, Walker also homered in the first inning off Kevin Millwood and finished 2-for-4. It was the kind of game that stuck, and the statue freezes it in bronze.
Walker said the pose fit the moment, even if it wasn’t the way he usually carried himself.
“I typically never showed up a pitcher,” he said. “Today, it's a little different.
Now they do the ‘Macarena’ [when players hit a homer]. … And John Rocker used to get under your skin, and he was nasty, too.
Just to get a hit off him, you’re happy.”
The statue was created by George and Mark Lundeen of Lundeen Sculptures in Loveland, Col. Mark Lundeen said Walker did not see the finished piece before Sunday and told him afterward that he liked it.
Walker first visited the studio in Loveland last November, where hundreds of photos were taken to get the details right. Lundeen joked that the sculptors had to add a little hair because of Walker’s look back then, and that holding the bat in place for so long made his arm shake. Walker later said the bat he posed with was plastic and laughed about the arm shaking, too.
Rockies president Walker Monfort introduced him to the crowd and said, “He helped put Rockies baseball on the map. … This statue is our way of ensuring that future generations, when they walk into Coors Field, will know his story and appreciate what he did for this franchise.”
Walker, who played 17 major league seasons with Montreal, Colorado and St. Louis, finished with a .313 average, 383 home runs and 1,311 RBIs. He won three National League batting titles with the Rockies in 1998, 1999 and 2001, and he was the NL MVP in 1997.
For Walker, the day came down to one feeling: gratitude.
“To have a statue outside of this ballpark, that’s an honor that’s pretty tough to put into words,” he said. “When I came here, my job was to keep moving - hit the ball, run the bases, chase fly balls in the gap, do anything I could to help us win.
And now, here I am, frozen in bronze. I guess that’s a way to slow me down.”
In Other News...
Rockies Suddenly Face Another Kyle Karros Concern
Kyle Karros return from the injured list turned short-lived after he left the Rockies game against the Guardians because of a recurrence of concussion symptoms. The move was precautionary, but it was another unwelcome reminder of how fragile the situation remains for a young player who had only just worked his way back after the collision on Aug. 11.
For Colorado, the concern is less about the immediate box score than Karros availability and overall well-being in the days ahead. The Rockies will monitor his condition from here, and given the nature of concussion symptoms, there is little room to rush anything. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Rotation Suddenly Has Two Lefty Questions To Answer
The Rockies rotation is in a holding pattern, and the left-handed side of it is suddenly worth watching closely. Kyle Freeland is working back from a pinched nerve in his neck, a stinger that has kept him on the sideline, while Jose Quintana has been out since May 24 with a left elbow sprain. Both are at different points in the comeback process, but each carries real weight for a staff that could use stability wherever it can find it.
Freeland is tentatively lined up to start a game soon if his bullpen session goes well, which makes that workout a key checkpoint. Quintana, meanwhile, has already taken a step forward by facing batters in a rehab session and is expected to pitch next at the teams complex in Scottsdale, putting his return on a separate track as the Rockies wait to see how quickly their rotation picture can clear up. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Young Core Is Finally Giving Fans A Reason To Watch
Even in a season that has gone sideways, the Rockies are finding something worth watching in the next wave of talent. Hunter Goodman and Ezequiel Tovar have already given the club young pieces to build around, and now Cole Carrigg and Zac Veen are starting to add to that feeling that there is at least a foundation underneath the frustration.
Veen has come out swinging in his early look, while Carrigg has kept piling up production over a much larger stretch, and both have carried the kind of competitive edge the Rockies have been searching for. For a fan base that has had to search hard for reasons to stay engaged, the question now is whether this brief burst of promise can turn into something lasting as the season wears on. [Read more 🡒]