Wally Explains

Wally Wagler's daughter, Bonnie, a 5th grade teacher, asked him why.

"Dad, there on April 9, at the Orioles home opener, in the bottom of the 9th, you hit that ball clear out of Camden Yards, but you veered off just one step short of home plate so you could come home. Couldn't you have just stepped on the plate and then come on home to Periwinkle County?"

"No, because then my whole legacy would have been as the oldest guy ever to play in the majors, the oldest guy who hit a home run. And I wouldn't have been able to stop at one and then come to my real home. One home run leads to wanting to hit another one. I would have been famous and probably rich, but for all the wrong reasons. I didn't do anything to be a good baseball player. It was just because Warden Lucky, the wild young lefthander from Kansas, beaned me that I was able to hit like that. But I worked all my life to be a better addictions counselor. I went to conferences and read books and did experiments and prayed. And those people did me the great honor of letting me walk with them through their most difficult times, trying to kick booze or gambling or drugs. But if I had stepped on home plate, all that would have been forgotten. My 15 minutes of fame would have wiped out a whole lifetime of hard work. If I had stepped on the plate, I would have just been a rich famous guy. No one would ever have asked why I did it if I hit a homer. Now people will always have to ask why I did what I did, and you'll be there to tell them."