Dan Walters Obituary - Page 3
Walters ended up a good share of starts in September as an audition for the Padres’ catching role in 1993. Santiago was expected to depart as a free agent and, after refusing to play in the outfield, sat on the bench. Walters played in a total of 57 games for the Padres in 1992, slashed .251/.295/.391 and hit 11 doubles and 4 home runs. The 225-pound catcher also stole the only base of his MLB career.
Walters was given the starting catching job for the ’93 Padres. After a hot start, he slumped in the second half of April, and it carried over into May as well. He also had some problems in the field as well, committing back-to-back passed balls and allowing two runs to score in a game that the Padres lost 8-6 to the Cubs. On May 23, 1993, Walters went 2-for-4 with a single and RBI double, raising his batting average on the year to .202. It was his last game in the major leagues, as the Padres sent him back to AAA.
In two years in the major leagues, Walters played in 84 games and slashed .234/.281/.348. He had 64 hits, including 14 doubles, a triple and 5 home runs. He had 32 RBIs as well. Defensively, he had a .985 fielding percentage behind the plate, and he threw out 30 percent of baserunners.
Walters hit .287 with Las Vegas for the rest of the 1993 season. He left the Padres organization after the season as a free agent, and he ended up sitting out all of the strike-shortened 1994 season. He almost signed with the Cubs and Pirates, but nothing ever was finalized. He kept in shape by taking batting practice three or four times a week while living in San Diego. He attempted a comeback with the Colorado Rockies in 1995.
“I’m relatively young,” the 28-year-old told the Tucson Citizen. “I got a lot of baseball left in me. I expect to play baseball for a long time.” He spent the season in Colorado Springs, the Rockies’ AAA affiliate, and he hit .284. He signed with the Oakland A’s in 1996 and hit .250 in 25 games. He suffered a spinal injury while diving for a ball in spring training in Arizona. Though he fought through surgery and rehabilitation, his baseball ended at the age of 29.
Walters successfully underwent spinal surgery and rehab, and he began working toward his next career. In 1998, Dan was hired by the San Diego Police Department as a member of the 42nd Regional Academy He graduated from the San Diego Police Academy in 1999 and became a SDPD officer Assigned to Southeastern Division. “Becoming a cop is something I have had in the back of my mind, even while playing,” he said. He had a cousin who was a police officer in Houston. Officer Walters worked as a patrol officer for five years.
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