Okay, so, today I want to talk about this guy, David Walling, and his connection to the Yankees. I got really into this, and it took up a good chunk of my day. Here’s how it all went down.
It all started this morning when I stumbled upon a random baseball article mentioning the 1999 amateur draft. That year is a bit of a blur for me, but the name “David Walling” caught my eye because it sounded vaguely familiar. So, naturally, I started digging.
First, I pulled up some basic info and found out that Walling was actually a first-round pick for the New York Yankees in that draft. I mean, being picked in the first round? That’s a pretty big deal! This piqued my interest even more. He was assigned to the short-season Staten Island Yankees, which is like the baby steps for future MLB stars. And guess what? He was even named to some kind of all-star team there.
Reading through some old articles, I discovered that people were pretty hyped about him back then. I read a blurb where the Yankees compared him to Orlando Hernandez, except without the curveball, after they signed him. I thought, “Wow, they really saw something in this guy!” Apparently, he was on track to avoid being a draft bust, reaching Double-A in his first full season. That’s some serious progress!
- Dug deeper into his career stats.
- Found his birthday (November 12, 1978, in San Diego) and that he was active from 1997 to 2002.
- Discovered some transaction details, but nothing too juicy.
Then I was a little confused about a few things, there was this name “David Ankeye” from Nigeria, and he is a Centre-Forward. There was a song from Four Tet, also a powerful mechanism about the ocean. I guess they are not relative to the topic, so I just ignored them.
This whole deep dive took me a good few hours. It’s amazing how one little name can lead you down such a rabbit hole. I might not be a baseball expert, but I definitely learned a lot about David Walling and the ’99 draft today. Hope you enjoyed my little journey into baseball history!
