Dennis Martin Walling (born April 17, 1954) is an American former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player. Walling played all or parts of 18 seasons in the majors, from 1975 to 1992. His most frequent position was

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

, but he also saw significant time as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. Walling may be best known as a pinch-hitting specialist for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

. Nicknamed "Good Wood", Walling was a valuable bat off the bench for most of his career. Entering the 2009 season, his 108 career pinch hits are tied for 13th all-time. He hit .271 with 799 hits in 2,945 lifetime

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

s with 49

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run ...

and 380 RBI in 1,271 games. Walling served as the hitting coach for the

Norfolk Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's loc ...

, the Triple-A affiliate of the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

before Butch Davis

Amateur career

Walling grew up in Farmingdale, New Jersey, and played baseball at Howell High School in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. Walling played college baseball at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

. He was drafted by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

in the 8th round of the 1974 Major League Baseball Draft, but he chose to remain at Clemson. He was then drafted in the secondary phase of the 1975 draft by the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

Professional playing career

Oakland

Walling began his professional career as an outfielder. Three months after being drafted by the A's, and before he appeared in a game in the minor leagues, Walling made his major league debut on September 7, 1975. He appeared in six games for Oakland down the stretch, getting one hit in eight at bats for a batting average of .125. Walling opened the next season in the minors with the

Chattanooga Lookouts The Chattanooga Lookouts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League and the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and are named for nearby Lookout Mountain. The team plays its home g ...

, the A's Class-AA affiliate. After batting .257 in 115 games for Chattanooga, Walling was again in Oakland in September. This time, he played just three games, going 3-for-11 for a .273 average. In , Walling was back in the minors to start the year, but played just three games for the Class-AAA San Jose Missions in the first two months due to injuries. On June 15, Walling was traded to the

for outfielder Willie Crawford, who was playing his last season in the majors after a long career.

Houston

After being traded to the Astros, Walling was assigned to Class-AAA Charleston Charlies. He played 29 games for Charleston and batted .348. It would be the last time Walling played in the minor leagues for over a decade. He was once again promoted to the majors in September, this time playing in six games, going 6-for-21 (.286 average) with 6 RBI. In , Walling was the closest thing the Astros had to a regular left fielder, playing 49 games there, more than anyone else on the team. However, even then, he made more appearances as a pinch hitter than in the field, as he played only 55 of his 120 games as an outfielder. The

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, formerly and also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, was the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, United States. It seated around 50,000 fans, with a record atte ...

was a notoriously difficult place to be a batter, but Walling managed to be about an average major league hitter, posting an OPS+ of exactly 100. Overall, Walling batted .251 for the Astros, with 36 RBI. Over the next ten seasons, Walling played much the same role on the Astros, generally playing only against right-handed pitchers. For his career, Walling batted seven times as often against righties as against left-handed pitchers, prompted perhaps by his significantly lower batting average (.276 vs. righties, .236 vs. lefties) and

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

(.399, .330). Statistically, his best year was , when he set career highs in several categories, most notably in

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s (13) and RBI (58) while batting .312 in 130 games. During this time, he shifted all over the field, playing good chunks of time at first base in , and , while playing mostly third base from until , when he was traded to the

on August 31 for

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

Bob Forsch. In Game 3 of the

1980 National League Championship Series The 1980 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five playoff in Major League Baseball’s 1980 postseason between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros for the National League (NL) pennant and the right to play in the 1980 ...

, Walling hit a ball that was caught by the left fielder in a tie game of the 9th inning that gave the runner at third base (

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Fran ...

had hit a triple before being replaced by a pinch runner) enough room to score to win the game. It was the first walk-off postseason hit in Astros history. In Game 2 of the 1981 National League Division Series, Walling hit a walk-off single against the Dodgers, which was just the second walk-off postseason hit for the Astros in their history. It would be their last walk-off win until

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Cardinals

Walling played two and a half seasons in St. Louis, mostly as a pinch hitter. While he batted .304 in in 79 at bats, he batted just .220 in , and was allowed to become a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

at the end of the season.

End of career

Going into , Walling signed with the Texas Rangers. However, he went just 4-for-44 in 27 games, for a batting average of just .091. He had just one double and three singles among his hits, and had just 2 RBI. He was released by the Rangers in June, and did not play professionally for the rest of the season. In , Walling briefly attempted a comeback with his longtime team, the Houston Astros. However, he batted just three times with one hit before retiring.

Coaching career

After his playing career ended, Walling remained in baseball as a coach. In the major leagues, he has served as the

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisi ...

for the Athletics from until , and for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

from until . In both positions, he served under

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Art Howe, who was his teammate in Houston.ESPN article announcing Walling's firing
/ref> In , he was hired by the Orioles as their roving minor league instructor and later became the hitting coach for the

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walling, Denny 1954 births Living people Brookdale Jersey Blues baseball players Oakland Athletics players Houston Astros players Howell High School (New Jersey) alumni St. Louis Cardinals players Texas Rangers players Oakland Athletics coaches New York Mets coaches Major League Baseball third basemen Major League Baseball first basemen People from Farmingdale, New Jersey Sportspeople from Neptune Township, New Jersey Baseball players from Monmouth County, New Jersey Major League Baseball hitting coaches Chattanooga Lookouts players San Jose Missions players Charleston Charlies players Tucson Toros players Oklahoma City 89ers players Senadores de San Juan players 20th-century American sportsmen