An artist, on the mound and off it

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Ace Walker finishes a Goldeyes logo behind home plate before Game 3 of the Northern League playoff game at Canwest Park Friday. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

He has done everything, absolutely everything, a baseball manager could ask of a starting pitcher.

Lead the league in wins? Check. Eat up innings? His six complete games also lead the league. Make the league all-star team, provide a mature influence in the clubhouse, keep a low ERA? Check, check, check.

Heck, Ace Walker has even done some painting and groundskeeping duties at Canwest Park this summer, using his other unique skill as an artist to paint a huge mural in the Fish training room and, just in time for the playoffs, a massive Goldeyes logo on the field behind home plate.

And so it all begs the question: Why, oh why, is Walker still in Winnipeg, wearing a Goldeyes uniform as he will tonight as his club's starter in Game 4 of their opening-round Northern League playoff series with the Fargo RedHawks?

Simple, says Walker: Speed kills careers in baseball. And he doesn't have any. "In affiliated baseball, it's all about velocity. And they'd rather see you with a 4.00 ERA, throwing 92, 93 (m.p.h.) than a 3.50 ERA throwing 85, 86, like I do.

"Unless you're throwing like that, it's hard to get out of independent ball."

Walker, a 2002 draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a farmhand for four years in that organization and that of the Texas Rangers, had hoped a stellar season this year would earn him a second chance at a major-league organization.

And so it was a sober reckoning for the 26-year-old Oklahoman at the all-star break this season. Walker made the all-star team and boasted impeccable numbers at the break, a 5-1 win-loss record and a 2.00 ERA.

If ever, Walker figured, the call was going to come from a big-league organization, it was at that moment.

The silence was as deafening as it was disheartening. "After the all-star break, my numbers were pretty decent and I didn't get any kind of interest at all," he recalls. "And then after that, I kind of hit the tank for four or five outings. I think it was playing with me a bit mentally. I kind of got down on myself a little bit.

"And then I just kind of realized, I have a team I'm playing for right here, right now. And we're trying to accomplish something special. I kind of had to get away from my self-interest and remember I'm part of a team."

It was a lesson that came in handy in the past week when Walker learned from Fish manager Rick Forney that, despite his stellar numbers this season, he wouldn't pitch until tonight's Game 4.

Forney felt it was the best move for the team -- and so did Walker, eventually.

"It's going to be a huge game. When I first got told I was pitching Game 4, I was like, 'What the heck?' "

"But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it made perfect sense. In some ways, it's the most important game (in a five-game series)."

Walker hasn't won a championship since Grade 8 and he has been stewing for almost a decade now on the high school title he lost as a senior.

And so if that means Walker ultimately makes his living painting murals instead of painting corners, well, he was OK with that Friday afternoon as he held a can of spray paint and put the finishing touches on the mural.

"You know, if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be," he says. "I have something I can fall back on. This is something I really enjoy and it appears to give other people joy. And that, really, is what it's all about -- bringing people happiness and joy."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 5, 2009 D7