“What’s up with the Steelers?”
That was Neil Walker’s first question when I spotted him stretching outside the New York Yankees clubhouse in Tampa, Fla., in September 2018, a few hours before the Steelers carried an 0-1-1 record into a Monday night game against the Buccaneers.
Of course, Walker already was trying to calculate how much of the Steelers game he could watch once his game ended.
Pittsburgh to the core, this one.
It was jarring to see him in pinstripes that day. He wound up playing for six teams in his 12-year career, which officially ended Tuesday when Walker, 35, announced his retirement.
At one time, it was hard to imagine him in anything but black and gold — and that is the way I’ll remember him. This was by far his most notable stop.
This is where the Pittsburgh Kid authored one of the all-time great Pittsburgh sports stories.
At times, the script almost seemed too corny. Too impossible.
Two-sport Pine-Richland star, son of perhaps the last ballplayer to see Roberto Clemente alive, gets drafted 11th overall by the Pirates, converts from catcher to third base to second — Bill Mazeroski’s old spot — helps lead the club out of two decades of darkness, records the final out to snap a 20-year losing streak and records the final out of the legendary wild-card game?
Nobody will believe it.
This was Greg Brown’s radio call of the second event, the last out of the 6-2 win over Johnny Cueto and the Reds on that unforgettable night at PNC Park.
“Pittsburgh is about to burst. [Zack] Cozart is in the box. Look at this sea of black! Flags a-wavin’. The pitch … one-hopper to second … on to first! Raise the Jolly Roger and meet me in St. Lou-ee, Lou-eee!”
This was Walker’s account when I asked him that day in Tampa: “I remember Jason Grilli throwing the pitch, and I could see out of the corner of my eye, when the ball got about halfway to me, I could see him kind of fist-pumping. A moment I won’t forget.”
Tom Walker, Neil’s dad, pitched parts of six seasons in the majors and became friends with Clemente during winter ball in Puerto Rico. Tom Walker had just completed his rookie year when on Dec. 31, 1972, in San Juan, he helped Clemente load a small plane with food, clothing and medical supplies, bound for Nicaragua. Walker insisted he join Clemente for the trip. Clemente told him to go enjoy New Year’s Eve. Walker relented. The plane crashed soon after takeoff.
"I still get goosebumps talking about it. My dad does, too," Neil Walker later told Fox Sports Wisconsin. “I certainly wouldn't be here if he had gotten on that plane.”
The first time I met Neil Walker was in Indianapolis, where he and Andrew McCutchen had become fast friends playing Triple-A ball.
“We feel we could be the core of this team in the near future,” Walker told me.
That future is now the past — it all happened so fast, didn’t it? — but what a ride. The renaissance began for real in 2011, when the Pirates unbelievably captured first place in the NL Central in July. Attendance soared. PNC Park became the place to be.
Walker was at the center of it all.
"What I'm seeing more often is the 20-something fan, young people at the ballpark who want to see us play," he said that year, right before the Cardinals came to town for the Pirates’ biggest series in years. "A lot of people have said to a lot of us in here, ‘Thanks for making us Pirates fans again.’ ”
I’m not sure Walker ever got enough credit for making the successful transition to second base. He had to make room for Pedro Alvarez, and he became one of the better power-hitting second basemen in the National League (93 home runs, 418 RBIs and a .272 average in six full seasons here).
Sure, the story would have been sweeter if Walker had hit better in the playoffs (2-for-31), if the Pirates had won a World Series and if it all hadn’t come to such an unceremonious end with the trade to the Mets, but sports lives rarely play out that perfectly.
The Kid produced several memorable moments, including an opening day walkoff home run against the Cubs in 2014, a 4-5-4 triple play against the Cardinals in 2015 and, of course, a grand slam at Wrigley Field in his first opening day in 2011.
That was only the second opening day grand slam in Pirates history. Clemente, of course, had the first.
Who writes this stuff, anyway?
Joe Starkey: jstarkey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @joestarkey1. Joe Starkey can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: April 21, 2021, 11:05 a.m.
