From Pine-Richland to Pirates, Neil Walker bids farewell to 12-year MLB career

Before Neil Walker could begin to talk about the end of his baseball career, his voice cracked. He flashed a big smile, the one that took him from fresh-faced first-round pick out of Pine-Richland to a stubble-bearded 35-year-old finally bidding farewell to his favorite sport.

The Pittsburgh Kid hopes this isn’t a goodbye but rather a see you later.

After a 12-year MLB career in which he helped his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates end two decades of losing by leading them from baseball’s abyss to three consecutive postseasons, Walker formally announced his retirement Tuesday.

Walker followed in the family footsteps of his father, Tom Walker, and uncle, Chip Lang, both major league pitchers, to play 1,306 games for the Pirates, New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies. Neil Walker spoke fondly on a video conference call Wednesday of his time with the Pirates, who drafted him 11th overall as a switch-hitting catcher in 2004.

“I got to live out my dream,” Walker said. “I think that when I was younger and coming up and being obviously very interested in baseball with my dad and my uncle and my brothers, it was ingrained in me pretty early on that I wanted to try and be a baseball player.

“Of course, a lot of kids say ‘I want to be a big leaguer. I want to be in the NFL. I want to be that,’ but truly in my mind there was no other option for me. I wanted to play in the big leagues. I wanted to do everything I could to get there.”

Walker starred as a catcher at Pine-Richland, but he moved to third base before switching to second base before his major league debut Sept. 1, 2009. He became a mainstay at the position, finishing fifth in 2010 NL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting a career-best .296 with 29 doubles, 12 home runs and 66 RBIs for a team that finished 57-105.

The following year, Walker hit a grand slam on Opening Day at Wrigley Field. He also hit a walk-off homer to break a scoreless tie against the Cubs in the 2014 home opener at PNC Park.

Walker’s favorite moments, however, came three years later.

The first was Sept. 9, 2013, when Walker fielded an A.J. Pierzynski grounder to second and made the final putout in a 1-0 win over the Texas Rangers to clinch the Pirates’ 82nd victory and end their two-decade drought without a winning season. Walker asked first baseman Justin Morneau for the ball, knowing what the keepsake meant for the city and its baseball fans on the way to a 98-win season and wild-card playoff berth. The wild-card game, a 6-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at PNC Park for which Walker’s double drove in the winning run, remains the most memorable moment of his career.

“That’s something that strikes home to me, because the wild-card night was a culmination, in my opinion, of 20 years of frustration brought into one stadium,” Walker said, with his Silver Slugger Award for slashing .271/.342/.267 with 25 doubles, three triples, 23 home runs and 76 RBIs in 2014 prominently displayed on a table. “And not just the stadium, but the people on the streets and on the bridges, all of that. Forget any individual accolade I may have had, Silver Slugger to whatever. That moment, for me, was so prideful.

“I won’t forget one second of that entire game and that entire night, because I felt it. My family felt it. My friends felt it. My teammates felt it, and they finally understood what this city and this community, how passionate they are about their sports. And that night just brought back… anybody who might have been on the fence and said, ‘Oh, this team hasn’t won for a while. Why am I going to back them?’ That year, and especially the second half of that year going into the playoffs, those people were 100% in, and they showed up in full form that night, and we played well and we won. It was just something I’ll never forget, and almost every guy, outside of guys that, that you ask that played that night, or were on that team, that won World Series along those lines, I almost guarantee they’re going to bring up that night.”

Despite Walker asserting he was proud to “say that I have no regrets,” the trade that sent Walker to the New York Mets for pitcher Jon Niese in December 2015 remains a sore spot for Pirates fans. The trade occurred just months after he purchased a $2.5 million home in Pine, where he still lives with his wife and two children.

“Sure, I think as someone who was drafted by this organization and came up through this organization, in my mind it would have been amazing to play my entire career for Pittsburgh,” Walker said. “But, just kind of where baseball is and the economics and business end of it, it’s naive to think that.

“For 99% of most players, it’s just not the reality. That was a harsh reality for me, in general. I wanted to stay involved with this organization because I love the people I was able to work with in all aspects, from coaching to front office to ownership to workers at the field, something I felt was very important to me was being part of this organization.”

Walker, who signed a one-year, $10.55-million deal with the Mets, hit nine homers in April on his way to tie his career best with 23 in 113 games before undergoing a season-ending lumbar microdiscectomy.

Walker hit his 100th career homer with the Mets — he finished his career with 143 — but was traded to Milwaukee in 2017. The following year, he signed with the Yankees, who won 100 games and reached the ALDS. Walker became a utility player with the Marlins and Phillies, when he saw the writing on the wall that his career was coming to a close.

“I’ve seen so many different aspects. In leaving Pittsburgh, the perspective it gave me was to see bigger markets,” Walker said. “I played for one of the biggest markets in the world, playing for the New York Yankees. I played for one of the smallest markets in the Miami Marlins, with the Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers somewhere in between. I won 100 games. I’ve lost 100 games. My perspective on baseball has been very vast. I feel it’s important for me to give back where I can so that’s my general thoughts as my career ends here and I move into a different chapter in my life.”

Walker sounded like someone ready to close the book on playing but not necessarily baseball. He’s involved in No Offseason Sports, which is building a four-field baseball and soccer complex in Russellton and plans to provide showcase events for prospects.

And he’s talked with the Pirates about a future role. His brother-in-law is bench coach Don Kelly. After taking this summer off, Walker hopes to extend or pass along his “wealth of knowledge within the baseball game” in some capacity, possibly as a special assistant or part of the broadcast team.

“I want to congratulate Neil Walker on an unbelievable career. You know, definitely a kid from Pittsburgh being able to play in Pittsburgh is really cool,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Any time you can get a switch-hitter that can do what he did and the type of person, the type of teammate he is. When you play in your hometown — and we’ve talked about that with (pitcher David) Bednar — but his family’s got some history in this town, and it’s really cool. So I want to congratulate him on a really nice career.”