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Albert Bluford Walker
Brooklyn Dodgers
Catcher
Born: May 16, 1926, Lenoir, NC
Signed: Signed by the Chicago Cubs as an amateur free agent before 1944 season
Major League Teams: Chicago Cubs 1948-51; Brooklyn Dodgers 1951-57; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958
Died: December 12, 1992, Morganton, NC (age 66)
Rube Walker was a back-up catcher for 11 big league seasons and then a long-time pitching coach for another 21 big league seasons. Walker came up with the Cubs and the 79 games he played in as a rookie in 1948 were his career high. He'd start 50 games behind the plate for the Cubs in 1950, again a high water mark. Walker was included in a blockbuster eight-player deal with the Dodgers in June 1951, heading to Brooklyn along with Andy Pafko (#312) and Wayne Terwilliger (#73). He'd serve as Roy Campanella's (#101) back-up from 1951 to 1957, and Walker was behind the plate in the 1951 National League tie-breaker series when Bobby Thomson (#257) hit his Shot Heard 'Round the World to send the rival Giants to the World Series. The Dodgers went to four World Series with Walker on the roster, but his only postseason action came as a pinch-hitter during the 1956 series against the Yankees.
Walker transitioned to a coaching role during his final season with the Dodgers in 1958. In 608 games, he batted .227 with 35 home runs and 192 RBIs. Walker was a minor league manager between 1959 and 1964, and then a long-time pitching coach for the Senators (1965-67), Mets (1968-81) and Braves (1982-84). He won a World Series ring with the Mets in 1969, and was a trusted advisor to Hall of Famers Gil Hodges (#145), Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra (#110) and Joe Torre.
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| December 12, 2003 - My family at the Buena Tavern |
December 25, 2003 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards) - Card #251
My Dad/Santa brought me nine cards for our set for Christmas in 2003, with all but one of the cards coming from his dealer of choice, Kit Young Cards in San Diego. The Brooklyn Dodgers team card (#166) was the lone non-Kit Young Cards addition, as that card came from TemDee in Turnersville, New Jersey. It was a strange mix of commons from Kit Young Cards, with no semi-star or star card to balance out the lot. We were admittedly in a lull collecting the set, with only 18 cards added during all of 2003 and only six cards added, as Christmas presents, in 2004.
Pictures from the Christmas of 2003 show us opening gifts at my Mom's house on December 26th, which has since become a tradition for us. So while the official set records indicate these nine cards were added on December 25th, it was most likely a day later I opened the cards while in Millville.
The Card / Dodgers Team Set
Walker never appeared in a Bowman set and had an impressive run of Topps set appearances between 1952 and 1958. The bigger photo is the same used on Walker's 1954 and 1955 Topps cards. That's likely him sliding into a Giants' infielder, as Walker wore #10 with the Dodgers during his entire run with the club. The back of the card highlights his minor league success and his strong throwing arm. Topps reprinted the card in its 1995 Topps Archives Brooklyn Dodgers box set.
1956 Season
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First Mainstream Card: 1952 Topps #319
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9): 1952-58, 1973-74
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2005 Topps Dem Bums #DB-RW
48 - Walker non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/13/25.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
The Trading Card Database
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Order Collected: #297 Bob Skinner - Pittsburgh Pirates / #334 Bob Miller - Philadelphia Phillies
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