New Mets second baseman Neil Walker took a spring training swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: The tragic death two years ago of your childhood friend Clint Seymour, who was sucker-punched and hit his head on the concrete in Seabrook Island, S.C.
A: It’s something that I think about every single day. His dad was actually down here for three days this past week, and we’ve started a foundation. … He was a guy who was completely full of life, and he had more energy than any single person, and when you say that somebody lived their life to the fullest, he absolutely lived his life to the fullest, more so than any of us.
For him to go as young as he did was just a tragedy. We’ve worked hard to help others, particularly in the baseball forum in the Pittsburgh areas and the Charleston, South Carolina, areas, help kids whether it’s inner city or don’t have the means financially to play that want to play. We’ve given out scholarships, we’ve helped give baseball equipment to organizations, we’ve held clinics. These are things that we want to do in memory of Clint, but the day that he passed a couple of years ago was one of the hardest days.
Two years ago coming up here in about a month … to have to read his eulogy at 28 years old for somebody was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. It brought a lot of people that we lost touch with in the past, it brought a lot of us back together, kids that we had played baseball with in the past and kind of went our separate ways. We still feel like he’s with us every day, and when I go to the ballpark and I remember how much fun he had on a baseball field. In my slumps and in my times when I’m not doing so well especially, I try to remember how fortunate I am to play this game, but to have somebody like Clint that was such a positive impact on my life.
Q: How did you and Clint become fast friends at 9 years old?
A: His father started a baseball team, and it was all around Pittsburgh. He actually lived about 20 miles away, but during the summer months for like three, four years in a row, we would go pretty much every other week, to baseball tournaments across the northeast and the southeast part of the country, and we all just kind of developed a relationship, and then when everybody got to high school and kind of was playing high school ball and whatnot, we still all kept in close touch. Particularly him and I had a close bond.
Q: You flew from Baltimore to be at his funeral?
A: We were in St.Louis the day that I found out that he was in a coma, and we had a day off, we flew to Baltimore from St. Louis, and fortunately I was able to jump on a plane with my wife and be down there at his side when they pulled the plug. … I wasn’t able to get to his funeral with the schedule the way it was, but I feel really fortunate that I was able to spend 24 hours at his bedside in his last hours.
Q: You and another friend, Tyler Haak, read eulogies before at PNC Park.
A: The Pirates were gracious enough to give us an area before a game in PNC Park. We kind of read our own version of a eulogy there, and they had a formal burial, funeral, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Q: What do you remember about that eulogy?
A: I wrote down some things, and I had a hard time getting through a lot of it without breaking down. He had come down to spring training with Tyler, and those two and my wife and I just loved going out to eat, going bowling, going fishing, going to the beach, swimming, all that sort of stuff. I just remember telling stories of all the great times that we had, and all the fun that we had.
Q: He must have been very proud of you for making the big leagues, right?
A: Yeah, yeah, he was. He had a very good career himself (at Eastern Kentucky). He was a very, very vibrant guy. He loved to come to spring training. He used to watch guys take BP. I remember him in Pittsburgh, he would be out in the stands shagging home run balls during batting practice and all those sorts of things. He was just the life of every gathering we ever had.
Q: Whatever happened to the guy that sucker-punched him?
A: The trial is actually about to start here I think in the next three weeks or so in Charleston, South Carolina. They’re hoping to put him away for as long as they can.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: I’d say it’s more of kind of a grinder mentality. There’s certainly no flash to my game. I try to play the game the right way, I guess, from a hitting standpoint. Be opportunistic, and take what’s in front of me, and try to do things the right way — run the bases the right way, break up double plays, hang in there at second base around the bag, get dirty, do all the little things that are necessary to be a good baseball player.
Q: What drives you?
A: I think every baseball player wants to win a World Series, wants to maximize their abilities as much as they can — whether it’s in the offseason working out, or helping a teammate out or whatever capacity it may be. You want to see how good you can be, and then when you reach goals or you reach pinnacles in your career, you want to try to take that next step. Those are the things that I think about when I’m in the offseason working out when nobody’s around. You gotta work harder, particularly when nobody’s watching, to get yourself better to see how good you can be.
Q: Have you detected a swagger on your new team?
A: There’s confidence in this group that was similar to what I felt in Pittsburgh the last several years, and winning obviously does that to individuals and to teams. It’s a great clubhouse. Guys are pulling for each other. Everybody wants to win. … Guys look forward to working, to pushing one another, and when you have that type of camaraderie and you have those type of players pushing each other, it makes for a great atmosphere and a competitive atmosphere and an atmosphere that breeds winning.
Q: What do you think of Yoenis Cespedes’ car collection?
A: I think it’s impressive. Each one has it’s own kind of staple on it. They’re all really cool cars. I love cars, too, but he really, really loves cars. Everybody’s got their vice, and that’s certainly his.
Q: What do you recall about facing Matt Harvey?
A: He’s electric. He’s one of the top pitchers in the game. He’s got obviously a great fastball, he’s got great movement, he’s got a wipeout slider. … He looks to be strong. He looks to be healthy. He looks like he’s as confident as he’s been, and it’ll be exciting to play behind him.
Q: Facing Jacob deGrom?
A: This is a guy with long arms, long legs. It’s almost like the ball doesn’t get released out of his hand until about (chuckle) 50, 48 feet, something like that, from home plate. You gotta get ready for upper 90 fastballs, but he’s got a great changeup and he’s got a great slider.
Q: Noah Syndergaard?
A: He’s the same. He’s got a lightning arm. He’s a big, strong guy. He’s an imposing guy on the mound. He works off his fastball. He’s got a great breaking ball, and he knows how to put guys away.
Q: Steven Matz?
A: Gets a lot of bad swings, gets a lot of ground balls. He obviously throws hard. He’s got good stuff. This is a really good pitcher in the making.
Q: Bartolo Colon?
A: You know you’re gonna get sinkers, you’re gonna get strikes, but even when you get strikes and he’s throwing sinkers. He’s putting it in spots that are tough to do a lot with. He keeps the ball down and puts a lot of movement on it, and he’s not gonna walk you. He’s fun to play behind as an infielder because you know you’re gonna get a lot of groundballls.
Q: What’s your vice?
A: I don’t really have one to be honest with you. … I like golfing, I like fishing, I like doing stuff like that, but I don’t really have anything that I go overboard with. I just kind of like to do a whole lot of everything.
Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?
A: LeBron James, Tom Brady. Year after year after year, you think that this is gonna be the year that they slow down and they just keep progressing.
Q: Second basemen you enjoy watching?
A: I love watching Robinson Cano. He hits, he hits for power, he hits for average, he plays the second base position very well.
Q: Roberto Clemente, No. 21.
A: The guy is an ambassador for baseball, particularly the Latin community, and what he’s done off the field. On the field is only matched by what he did off the field. He holds a special place in my heart, No. 1 from being a fan of his growing up, and obviously he was before my time as a ball player, so I didn’t get to see him play very much. But to know the impact that he made on the field was so impressive, but the impact he made off the field and what he did for others and how he cared for others, all the way to his last day on earth … sending my dad [former major league pitcher Tom Walker] home from the [San Juan] airport [loading relief supplies for the tragic flight to earthquake-torn Nicaragua] on New Year’s eve [1972] … those are situations that I get goosebumps about it. It’s hard to explain, but … I basically owe my life to Roberto Clemente. That’s kind of strange to say, but it’s the truth. He still holds a big piece of everybody’s heart in baseball, and it’s awesome that we are able to honor him in September every year as baseball players, and it’s something that everybody should strive to do.
Q: You became just the second Pirate ever to hit an Opening-Day grand slam in 2011, along with Clemente in 1962.
A: I had no idea that I shared that Opening Day grand slam with him. And the other [memorable home run] was 2014 on Roberto Clemente Day in Pittsburgh [Sept. 17]. I hit my 21st home run over the 21-foot Roberto Clemente wall in right-field on Roberto Clemente Day.
Q: Best Pirates moment?
A: I think being a part of the wild-card game in 2013. There was 20 years of losing in Pittsburgh, and I felt like I was kind of a part of every single one of those years in some capacity as a fan, as a minor league player, as a major league player. Losing 105 games and then turning the tide. That was probably the one thing that I’ll remember is basically the feeling that baseball is back at that one moment in that wild card game against Cincinnati.
Q: How and when did switch-hitting begin for you?
A: I started fooling around with it probably at 10 or 11. I was a natural right-handed hitter growing up, and really enjoyed it. I had two older brothers that were six and eight years older than me. I was the tag-along little brother that was always around the baseball field, and always chasing balls around, and being the batboy and I wanted to do everything at a young age, and I found that I enjoyed hitting left-handed, and I kind of just ran with it and I started to do it religiously from both sides in high school.
Q: You’ve resisted abandoning switch-hitting to bat left-handed all the time. Why?
A: Because I know I’m a good right-handed hitter. When you don’t see a ton of left-handed starters, it’s tough to really kind of get your timing, and that’s certainly no excuse, but when you get 500 at bats and 450 of ’em are left-handed and the other 50 of ’em are right-handed, chances are your numbers are probably gonna be better from the left side just from a work standpoint. I feel really confident in my right-handed swing, and I’ve hit really well in the past right-handed, but I haven’t done it in the last couple of years, and that’s something that Kevin Long and I have worked hard on in the early going here is simplify some things and kind of work to get back to where I was a few years ago.
Q: Why was Andy Van Slyke your favorite growing up?
A: When I would go to games, I would love to watch him run on the turf at Three Rivers Stadium, I would love to watch him run down balls. He had a sweet left-handed swing. … He was at the peak of his game at a time in my career when baseball was such a big influence on me as a young person.
Q: You sat in Peanut Heaven. Where was that?
A: It was anywhere at the ballpark. It was that last row at the very top underneath the awning. You could hardly see the game from up there.
Q: Favorite Three Rivers Stadium memories?
A: Actually my fondest memory was going to the ’93 All-Star Game. I have some autographs from people like Frank Thomas still, and had one from Ken Griffey Jr. Actually I was fortunate enough to go to the 2006 All-Star Game, and be a part of the Futures Game, but that one in ’93 when I was 8 years old was really, really memorable.
Q: Did you like catching in high school?
A: I loved the action, I loved to be a part of it, I felt like it was like being a quarterback in football and a point guard in basketball. And I really did not like pitching, so I liked to kind of be on the other end of that.
Q: Did late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno recruit you to be a tight end?
A: No, they recruited me to play safety. I can remember his son Jay coming into my high school and asking me to play both sports at Penn State, but I really wanted to go to a much warmer state to play baseball.
Q: Memories of Darrelle Revis as a high school cornerback.
A: As good as he is now, he was a man amongst boys. In basketball as well, he was just a stud athlete. He basically did whatever he wanted to do on a football field, and was really impressive to watch, one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. I never got to play against him [Pine-Richland in Gibstonia, Pa.], but I saw him play many times [for Aliquippa] in basketball and football.
Q: So you’re not surprised by the career he’s had?
A: No, no, not at all.
Q: Bill Mazeroski.
A: He taught me how to play second base. When I changed positions in 2010 early on in spring training, I had absolutely no work at second base, and he basically took me under his wing along with a few other people in the Pirates organization, but we started from ground zero. The double play turn is something that I feel like I excel at, having quick hands and quick feet, and that was something that he taught me very early on.
Q: What do you think of the new neighborhood rule?
A: I’m kind of indifferent about it. I think that the idea of it is right. You may have to hang on the bag a split second longer just to make sure that a situation can’t be challenged. There’s gonna be situation where it’s late in the game, you have first and third and one out, and you’re gonna have to make sure that you stay on the bag just in case it’s a close play or something and they can challenge it.
Q: What did you think of the Chase Utley play against Ruben Tejada in last season’s NLDS?
A: What can you say about it? That’s what they’re trying to avoid at second base is guys getting injured, and you hate to see situations like that. … Yeah, that was tough to watch.
Q: Why will you be living in Manhattan?
A: We wanted to be right in the heart of the city. We wanted to do it the right way this year. There’s a lot of guys that stay in Manhattan, and they spoke highly of it.
Q: Any favorite New York City things as a visiting player?
A: My wife and I are kind of foodies, so we like to find every genre of food, I guess you could say. We try to keep a little list of places we’ve gone and kind of give ’em our own rating of whether we go back or not. Anytime we’ve gone there in the past, we’ve tried to venture … off the beaten path to find the best spots, and we’re never disappointed.
Q: Describe your wife Niki.
A: We both went to high school together, she was a year ahead of me. We never dated till after high school. We just work really well together. She understands me. We get along great. It’s funny, in high school and even after high school, she didn’t even know I played baseball, she thought I played football. It was probably a couple of years into me playing pro ball and whatever, and I kind of liked that. She’s fantastic, she’s actually pregnant with our first child [girl] right now. She’s due in mid-August.
Q: Oliver.
A: He’s staring at me right now with a tennis ball in his mouth. He’s a really, really good dog. He’s a 4-year-old Australian shepherd with two big blue eyes. If he’s not sleeping, he wants to play ball. Usually where my wife is, you’ll find my dog too.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Babe Ruth, Teddy Roosevelt, Dalai Lama.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Dumb and Dumber.”
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Jack White.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Chicken parm.