A 16-year-old Bryce Harper hit a 502-footer, but Norristown’s Christian Walker won their home run derby. Now they meet in the NLCS.

Scott Walker found a local field to throw batting practice to his son in the afternoon Florida sun, hoping to keep his swing fresh after advancing earlier that morning to the final round of a teenage home run derby.

The event — the International Power Showcase — gathered the nation’s premier high school sluggers in January of 2009 at the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Christian Walker, then a senior at Norristown’s Kennedy-Kenrick High, was joined by Division I talent and a handful of future big-leaguers. But there was one kid at the showcase who everyone came to see.

“It was basically Bryce Harper’s tournament to win,” said Tommy Joseph, who competed as a 17-year-old from Arizona and later played for the Phillies. “Everyone else just got to have a front-row seat.”

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And that’s why Scott Walker fired fastballs at his son. The steel mill worker from Norristown — “A crazy baseball dad,” Christian Walker said — didn’t travel 1,000 miles to be starstruck. Harper hit 11 homers in his first round, including a 502-foot shot that crashed into the back wall of the stadium. The legend — it was said that Harper could throw faster than 100 mph and hit a 570-foot homer in high school — was real.

But the kid from Norristown — “I didn’t even know who he was,” Joseph said — didn’t flinch. Walker topped Harper in the championship round. His dad’s BP tosses worked and they traveled home with a championship plaque.

His son returning home to face Harper and the Phillies in the National League Championship Series would have been a dream for Scott Walker, who died nine months before his son moved in 2017 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he blossomed into one of baseball’s top first baseman. Walker led the D’backs with 33 homers this season, had a .497 slugging percentage, and could win his second straight Gold Glove Award.

Walker’s father identified at an early age that his son had a shot. He was right. Christian Walker shared this baseball dream with his dad and now clings to the memories they shared, like the time his dad tossed him fastballs while they waited to face Harper.

“This would have been everything to him,” said Tom Sergio, who coached Kennedy-Kenrick before the school closed in 2010. “He spent Christian’s entire young career just grooming Christian, taking him to all the right showcases, putting him in front of all the right people. Keeping him on track, keeping him practicing, keeping him working hard, and basically preparing him for what he’s doing now.”

Walker, 32, grew up a Phillies fan, remembers his dad catching a batting-practice home run by Dante Bichette at Veterans Stadium, and used a picture of the 2008 World Series clincher as the background of his cell phone during high school. He loved Ryan Howard and had buddies who skipped school for the Broad Street parade.

And now he returns home, four wins shy of reaching the World Series, living out a childhood dream. His dad is with him.

“I think about him constantly,” Walker said. “Just in general in my career over the last handful of years and getting this opportunity, I spent a good amount of time in the minor leagues, and the big league success was unclear for a while. I do think about him constantly. I think he would love this more than anybody.”

“Just another layer of motivation, another layer of digging deep and just making it all worth it. I know he is proud looking down and all that. It’s cool to be back in the area. I think my family feels that. It’s cool to share this moment with them.”

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Walker was drafted in 2012′s fourth round after winning two national championships at South Carolina but had to pass through three organizations before getting to Arizona. He was waived three times in one month. He debuted in the majors in 2014 with Baltimore but wasn’t a regular for five more years. Walker paid his dues on his road to the top. And his dad laid the foundation.

“We’d get done with practice or a game and the team would go their separate way and I’d be driving home,” Sergio said. “I’d be driving by some back-alley, simple baseball field and Christian would be getting ground balls from his dad or BP from his dad. Scott saw something special in him.

“They both worked extremely hard at a time when they didn’t have to. At a time when he could’ve just been having fun and chasing girls. They were off at some patch of dirt, patch of grass, anywhere in the county, getting extra work in.”

Each participant in the derby was given 10 outs with a wooden bat and 15 outs with an aluminum bat. Harper didn’t homer once before making 10 outs with his wooden bat and started slow with his aluminum bat. He nearly skipped out on the event because the hitters teed off on pitching machines before he decided to fly to Florida. And now he was flopping.

Harper stepped out of the box, nodded to his father in the crowd, and went back to work.

“He got back in the box and it was a completely different possessed, relentless, competitive person got back into the box,” said Brian Domenico, who organized the event. “It was like ‘Screwing around is over now.’ It was wild.”

The other participants were all on the field watching — “When you get the list, you find where your name is at and then you go find where Bryce was hitting,” Joseph said — and now they were getting the show they came for. All that was left was for Harper to do was win a championship round that featured Walker and other future big-leaguers Bo Bichette and Randal Grichuk. Walker’s swing was primed.

“That was super cool,” Walker said. “That was one of the first times getting recognized for me on more of a national level. Most of it was because of the hype around Harp. Him and I have been competing against each other for a while. I feel like we were always somehow crossing paths in travel tournaments and stuff, and then the home run derby. So we’ve been in some similar circles for a while now. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Any time I can compete against a guy like Bryce and challenge myself against the best talent there is, it’s an opportunity.”

The Walkers left Florida with their championship, having knocked off the player who everyone expected to win. Five months later, Harper made the cover of Sports Illustrated and blasted as fast to the majors as the 502-foot homer that left his bat.

Walker had to wait his turn. But he found his place in Arizona, became the player his dad knew he would, and returns home to face Harper again. This, Walker said, would have been “the peak” for his dad. It would have been another memory for them to share like that home run derby in Florida. And it is the dad’s lesson that he still carries with him.

“What he gave me is ‘What’s the next thing?’” Walker said. “In a good way, ‘Yeah, cool. Let’s appreciate it. I’m proud of you. Look at what your hard work has done. But what’s next? We’re still going up to the field tomorrow at 3 o’clock and we’re going to take our swings and field our grounders. I definitely still have that.”

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