#33-Greg Walker

Greg Walker was the first baseman of the Chicago White Sox through most of the 1980's. His fielding wasn't the greatest nor was his offense anything out of the ordinary other than his 85 and 87 seasons. 

Drafted by the Phillies in the 1977 draft he made his debut at Auburn in the New York/Penn League and hit just .255 with 2 HR's and 8 RBI's in 33 games. The next two years were pretty routine-and all were played at A ball level. In December of 1979 the White Sox picked him up on a Rule 5 Draft, but he spent several more years in the minors instead of the normal going right onto the major league roster. In 1980 at Appleton, still in A ball, he hit .280, knocked out 21 homers and drove in 98 runners. A similar season at AA saw him make a short stay at AAA Edmonton in 82 and a call up to the majors that same year. 

In 84, after a slow 83, he hit .294 with 24 Home Runs and drove in 75. One of those home runs caused a bit of ruckus in Chicago when the the scoreboard fireworks went off in the stands. During a game against the Texas Rangers at Comiskey Park Walker homered and the fireworks that would go off, but instead of going off in the air then fall into the stand and sent up six fans to the Park's first-aid station and four went to the hospital. In spite of that he had a career best WAR of 2.0 and a defensive WAR of -1.2. While he had another good stats year in 85 he could only garner a WAR of -0.1 and the same poor numbers on his defense. (I think those WAR numbers must be wrong.) 87 was his last good season with this 27 Homers and 94 RBI's though his average dropped to .256.

From 1988 on his numbers and appearances began to drop. One thing that didn't help was in July of 1988 when Walker, who was fielding ground balls before a game collapsed and suffered a seizure. According to the July 31, 1988 New York Times, "At first, his lips were starting to turn blue," Chicago bullpen coach Dyar Miller said. Four trainers, including Rick Smith of the Angels, were needed to hold Walker down and pry open his mouth to prevent Walker from swallowing his tongue. Walker bit his tongue and chipped a tooth from biting down so hard on a pair of scissors." He had no history of seizures before that incident. Walker recalled "I was pretty much dead, I was probably seconds or minutes away from being dead. That changes your perspective some." He suffered another seizure while in the hospital and the cause was a viral infection in the brain. After that he had no other seizures. In 1990 was released by the Sox though he quickly signed on with the Orioles his slide continued and he played his last game on July 1, 1990 and was released two days later. In 1991 he played in Spring for the Angles but was cut. Currently he works as batting coach for the Atlanta Braves.