Denny Walling

Dennis Martin Walling

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.
• School Brookdale Community College, Clemson University
• High School Howell High School (Farmingdale)
• Debut September 7, 1975
• Final Game April 10, 1992
• Born April 17, 1954 in Neptune, NJ USA

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Biographical Information

Utility man Denny Walling played 18 seasons in the big leagues, including more than a decade with the Houston Astros, but never had as many as 400 at-bats in one season. He played roughly equal amounts of third base, outfield, and first base. He also was known as one of the game's top pinch hitters, recording 108 pinch hits during his career.

He was on Team USA when they won the 1975 Intercontinental Cup and was in the majors by the end of the year.

One of the highlights of Walling's career was hitting the game-winning home run against the San Francisco Giants on September 25, 1986, in the contest that clinched the NL West title. However, his performance in that game was overshadowed by teammate Mike Scott, who hurled a no-hitter to earn the win.

The similarity scores method does not do a good job of finding comparisons to Walling because of the unusual shape of his career. Most of the comps are of players with much shorter careers but similar total stats.

After his playing career ended, Walling joined the Chicago Cubs organization in 1994 as a minor league hitting instructor, probably with the GCL Cubs. The next year he moved to the Baltimore Orioles organization for the first of three coaching stints. He served as the team's minor league roving hitting instructor for one year. Walling returned to the majors leagues in 1996 as hitting coach for the Oakland Athletics and stayed in that role through 1998. He left the A's after that season so he could be closer to his family in Virginia. From 1999-2002 Walling served as a minor league roving hitting instructor for the Orioles once again. This led to his next major league opportunity, hitting coach for the 2003 New York Mets. In both Oakland and New York Walling worked under his former Houston Astros teammate and friend Art Howe. Walling's sojourn in New York did not go well and he was fired on June 15, 2004.

Walling was out of baseball in 2005 before returning the the Orioles once again. He was a minor league hitting coordinator in 2006 and minor league roving hitting instructor from 2007-2011. Walling finally settled with a team in 2012 for the first of three years as hitting coach for the AAA Norfolk Tides. Walling retired after the 2014 season.

Denny played for the Bayamón Cowboys of the Puerto Rico Winter Baseball League. His brother, Gregory Walling, was a minor league outfielder in 1967.