Earlier this summer, Decatur’s Jordan Walker walked on to Progressive Field — home of the Cleveland Indians — to play a baseball game.
The 17-year-old from Decatur High School was selected, along with 40 other high school baseball players, by Major League Baseball and USA Baseball for the High School All-Star game — the program’s first — leading to the MLB All-Star game.
But his journey didn’t start there. To get to the major-league baseball stadium, the rising senior had to go through three weeks of workouts, skills training and character assessment with the Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) League, which identified the nation’s top 80 high-school players eligible for the 2020 MLB Draft.
“I was dreaming about (the All-Star game) the whole three weeks I was down at Bradenton, Fla., and it finally came true,” Walker said. “There’s no other experience like it.”
Walker was accompanied to Cleveland by his parents, Derek and Katrina Walker, and his grandfather Joseph Wingfield Sr., who was Walker’s first coach.
“I’ve been a baseball fan all my life, and just to imagine my child on a professional field alone, it was just mind-boggling,” Derek Walker said. “The whole time I was trying not to smile too much where get wrinkles in my face.”
It’s no surprise Walker was drawn to baseball as a kid. With a father and grandfather who loved the sport and an older brother who played, Walker came out of the womb with a love for the sport, his father said.
Even when he was young, Derek Walker said his son was stronger and faster than the other kids. As he grew, he started to play in competition with older boys. Even though he was among the younger players on his team, he began to stand out at 10 or 11.
His father said his talent solidified in his son’s sophomore year of high school as he continued to stand out on both his high school varsity and travel teams. His reputation started to garner attention from recruits, and eventually through the PDP league to the MLB High-School All-Star game, which was played the Saturday before the major league’s All-Star game.
“This is the best-of-the-best in the country, rising seniors. These are all potential draft picks,” Derek Walker said. “My goal for him was, ‘Hey! Just get a hit. Just do something; put the ball in play.’ ”
And he did. Walker was 2-for-3 with two hits he also added two RBIs, as his team, the American Team, beat the National Team.
Walker also was selected for the All-Star home run derby with six other players. His participation in the All-Star weekend earned him a spot on the USA Baseball U18 national team trials. They start Aug. 13, but before then the high-school standout has been invited to play in the Perfect Game All-American classic from Aug. 8-11 before heading to team trials.
If Walker is chosen for the U18 national team, he’ll train with the team for 10 days before traveling to Taiwan to continue training ahead of the 2019 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Baseball World Cup in South Korea. The USA national team is the four-time defending champion.
Walker still has a year of high school and has a big decision to make. If drafted in 2020, he’ll have to decide whether to honor a commitment to Duke or head to pro ball out of high school.
“It’s going to be the biggest decision I have to make as a 17-year-old,” he said. “I really haven’t tried to focus on that for right now because I don’t want to have to worry about it before I have to. Either way it goes, I’m going to be happy.”
For now, Walker is focused on getting ready for the All-American classic and the national team trials.
“I do what I always do, train how I’ve always been training, and it’s been successful,” he said.
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