NICHOLAS MERCER
THE CENTRAL VOICE
GANDER, N.L. — Gander's Steve Goulding has a Larry Walker folder on his cellular phone.
Inside are screengrabs of all baseball statistics applying to the former Montreal Expos right fielder.
As a lifelong Expos fan, Goulding combined those hundreds of screengrabs with his popular Expos Exposed Twitter account to help campaign for Walker’s inclusion in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Prior to the Jan. 21 deadline for enshrinement, Goulding would sporadically fire out a tweet to his 1,894 followers — with one of his screengrabs attached — just to help people remember Walker’s greatness. Sometimes, he’d reply to a tweet doubting that greatness with one of his statistic images.
Walker secured the percentage of voters he needed — 75 per cent — from the Baseball Writers Association of America to secure his place in Cooperstown, N.Y., where the Hall of Fame is located. He finished with a voting percentage of 76.6 to become the 333rd member of the Hall.
“I had myself rescinded to the fact that he wasn’t going to make it,” said Goulding from his home in St. John’s. “I kind of found it like the storm. I was planning for 40cms and not 80cms.
“It was prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
His hopes were reinforced as Walker became the ninth position player with Expos ties inducted to the Hall.
What followed the announcement Tuesday night was a string of congratulatory tweets from Goulding and a failed attempt to grab a snowbank selfie of himself wearing a Walker jersey.
He planned to get a proper picture taken somewhere in snowbound St. John’s on Wednesday.
Walker is on Goulding’s top favourite Expos list and while he is ecstatic to see him selected, it also brings a piece of the franchise to close.
“It is bittersweet,” he said. “He is kind of the last sort of tie to the past that was still there.”
Goulding made the trip to Cooperstown in 2017 to witness the enshrinement of Tim Raines.
Now, he is trying to decide whether to head to Cooperstown again for Walker’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
“It brings (the Expos) to the forefront,” said Goulding. “Any publicity is good for the Expos.”
