Wally Joyner

Wallace Keith "Wally" Joyner (born June 16, 1962) is a retired Major League Baseball player. He played for four major league teams during a 16-year career, most notably for the California Angels, for whom he was an All-Star. He was a member of the pennant-winning 1998 San Diego Padres. He is currently the hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers.

Early life and career

Joyner attended Redan High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. He attended college at Brigham Young University.

He credited a stint with the Mayagüez Indians of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League as fundamental in his improvement as a slugger. Then-batting coach José Manuel Morales forced him to do power weight training and modify his posture at the batting cage as to develop upper body strength. He was consequently the top hitter on Puerto Rico's winter league on the 1985–86 season, winning the Triple Crown (.356, 14 HR, 48 RBI) in 54 games.

California Angels

During his rookie season in MLB with the California Angels, Joyner became a fan favorite and briefly inspired a sensation in which Anaheim Stadium was dubbed "Wally World". The film National Lampoon's Vacation had featured a fictional theme park by that name, and the Angels' proximity to Disneyland may also have helped inspire the moniker. Additionally, ESPN announcer Chris Berman famously called him Wally "Absorbine" Joyner, a nickname that stuck.