Walton Extends Family Legacy With Cowboys

Donnie Walton has seen film—highlights from the decade of dominance—when Oklahoma State went to eight College World Series from 1981-1990. He’s watched the clips of Cowboy legends Pete Incaviglia and Robin Ventura in their college days.

Walton has even watched his own father, Rob, dressed in orange and black, dealing on the mound in Omaha. Impressive, sure, but Donnie still thinks he could’ve hit him.

“I think I’d get a piece of him,” the younger Walton said, laughing. “A little bit.”

Donnie is now in his fourth year as Oklahoma State’s shortstop, and his father is in his fourth year as the Cowboys’ pitching coach. Both are securely stitched into the fabric of Oklahoma State baseball—members of its past and present. Donnie’s parents met at Oklahoma State, and he has three uncles who attended the school, too.

But Donnie still has time to define his own Cowboys legacy—to star in his own highlights.

Drafted in the 23rd round by the Brewers in last June’s draft, Walton opted to return to Stillwater for his senior season, where he’s been the Cowboys’ everyday shortstop, middle-of-the-order bat and clubhouse leader. Through his first 88 at-bats this spring, the switch-hitter was batting .330/.455/.466 with a home run and 16 RBIs.

“Donnie is an all-star kid,” head coach Josh Holliday said. “He’s as good a kid as you’ll ever hope to coach in your career, as far as his humility, his work ethic. He’s sweet. He’s one of those kids, when you see him every day, he lights up the room because he just always has a great way about him—never has a bad mood, never has a bad day.

“He brings all of that every single day, so he’s an awfully valuable kid to what our program’s been built on.”

That runs in the family.

Meet the Waltons

Before coming to America, Rob Walton’s parents grew up in Scotland. Rob’s father was a professional soccer player, “a world-class player,” Walton said. But he never tried to force the sport on his son.

Rather, Rob tried every sport growing up. His first scholarship was for soccer. He received a few basketball scholarships, too. But baseball became his ultimate love. Drafted by the Rangers in the sixth round in 1982, Walton instead attended Oklahoma State, where he went 20-3, 3.74 and pitched on four College World Series teams from 1983-86. Walton went on to play in the Orioles organization for four years, but he spent the bulk of his post-college years on the Oral Roberts coaching staff, where he was head coach from 2004-12 before joining Holliday’s staff in Stillwater.

Like his father, Walton never tried to push his love for baseball on his three children. His oldest, Davis, had no interest in the game. Instead, he played football for Tulsa. Rob’s youngest, daughter Cassie, is currently playing volleyball and basketball. That leaves Donnie, the middle child, who played basketball and was a quarterback at Bishop Kelley High (Tulsa, Okla.) in addition to playing baseball.

“(Donnie) was always athletic,” Walton said. “He always had instincts, agility. He wasn’t the fastest guy or the strongest guy, but he was always in the right place at the right time and would make the key shot or the key pass or the key hit. He was always in the middle of it.”

After experimenting with those other sports, Donnie followed in Rob’s footsteps and chose to pursue baseball. Initially, he was committed to play at Oral Roberts, where Rob was still head coach. But when Holliday took over as Oklahoma State head coach in 2013 and tabbed Rob as his pitching coach, Holliday also gave Rob’s son a hard look.

“Thankfully Josh got to see me play once, and that was it,” Donnie said. “The rest is history.”

Donnie was Holliday’s very first recruit. Since then, he has blossomed into a middle infield prospect, packing on 40 pounds to his 5-foot-10, 155-pound freshman frame. Perhaps most importantly, Donnie has been able to experience the tradition of Oklahoma State baseball with his father.

“It’s really lucky,” Donnie said. “A lot of people say you can’t do that, but putting on the same uniform every day is awesome. It’s something kids dream about.”

That family dynamic can be a difficult one to handle for some teams, but the Waltons have been able to separate their father-son relationship from their coach-player relationship; although, Donnie says they’re “always cracking jokes,” too.

“He and Rob have a really cool father-son relationship of great respect for each other,” Holliday said. “They’re able to work together extremely well, which isn’t always the case for father and son, so they have a really good relationship from that standpoint.”

And Holliday should know—he also played for his father, Tom, at Oklahoma State in the late 1990s. Rob said Holliday has been there to answer any questions for Donnie, to help him navigate through the experience.

But by and large, Rob said Donnie “makes it easy” with his self-motivation and love for the game.

“I think he’s a low-maintenance kid, like his mom,” Rob said, laughing, “which is really, really good.”

Building A Legacy

Even with his tight familial connection to Oklahoma State and his appreciation for the history of the program, Donnie Walton wasn’t planning on being a Cowboy in 2016.

Before last season, Walton was set on forgoing his senior year if he was drafted in the first eight rounds in June. But last season did not go according to plan.

Hit by a pitch in the first game of the season, Walton broke the hamate bone in his hand, which set him back early and limited him to just 39 games and 135 at-bats. Walton fell to the 23rd round, and from that point, the decision to return was an easy one.

“What affected it is probably the injury I had last year to start the year off, but it happens,” Walton said. “And if that’s the worst thing in life, then I’m OK with it because talking with my family and Josh, we made a final decision that it would be best for me to come back this year. I know I’d get a lot better coming back here than I would probably in the minor leagues.”

Staying in school also allowed Walton to play a summer in the Cape Cod League, where he earned all-star game MVP honors as well as co-playoff MVP honors when he helped lead his Yarmouth-Dennis team to the league championship. Rob said he thinks Donnie grew under the tutelage of Y-D manager Scott Pickler.

“I think he’s a better player now than he was a year ago,” Rob said. “I think he’s running better. I think he’s more aware of what makes it work for him, so I thought the summer was really, really good for him where honestly, I think he’s more prepared to go into professional baseball now than he ever was.”

And, of course, Walton also gets one last shot to put the finishing touches on his own Oklahoma State legacy. Part of his decision to return, he said, was knowing what this year’s Cowboys team is capable of. Ranked No. 9 in the preseason, Oklahoma State got off to a 2-5 start but has since seemingly righted the ship as it started Big 12 Conference play with a sweep at Kansas State. It’s a group of veterans—fronted by Walton, two-way player Conor Costello and fellow senior Corey Hassel—that has its eyes on bringing the program back to the College World Series for the first time since 1999.

When it’s all said and done, how will Donnie’s tenure in orange and black compare to Rob’s?

Donnie said he thought he would win an at-bat against his dad in his prime. His dad agreed with him.

“He’s better than me,” Rob said, laughing. “There was a time when I was pretty good on the mound, but what he does I think is a lot more difficult than what I had to do.

“Pitching is obviously important, and it’s hard to do, but to play short at a high level, switch-hit, hit in the middle of the lineup, control the defense and do those things, be athletic, he’s got a lot more responsibilities than me throwing a ball 94 (mph) on the corners . . . What he’s doing is pretty impressive.”

And, maybe someday, another generation of Waltons will be watching the highlights.