Mobile Site You Are Here > Home > Encyclopedia of Players > B Listing > Wally Backman Statistics and History

News: Features: PI Batting Order Position Tool »post

Wally Backman

Walter Wayne Backman

Positions: Second Baseman and Third Baseman
Bats: Both, Throws: Right
Height: 5' 9", Weight: 160 lb.

Born: September 22, 1959 in Hillsboro, OR
High School: Aloha (Beaverton, OR)
Drafted by the New York Mets in the 1st round (16th pick) of the 1977 amateur draft. (All Transactions)
Debut: September 2, 1980
Teams (by GP): Mets/Phillies/Pirates/Twins/Mariners 1980-1993
Agents: Terry Bross, previously: Dick Moss [*]
Final Game: May 14, 1993
About biographical information

View team uniforms at Dressed to the Nines a Baseball Hall of Fame on-line exhibit / Report an error

Let people know you like this site. Sponsor this page for $35. Your message will replace this ad.

Fan EloRater

Fine Details · Last Updated Feb 10, 2012, 1:00PM

All-Time Rank (among Batters): #1365. Ron Oester… #1366. Marty Cordova… #1367. Rip Radcliff… #1368. WALLY BACKMAN… #1369. Jack McCarthy… #1370. Eddie Waitkus… #1371. Albie Pearson…

All-Time Rank (among Batters): #1365. Ron Oester… #1366. Marty Cordova… #1367. Rip Radcliff… #1368. WALLY BACKMAN… #1369. Jack McCarthy… #1370. Eddie Waitkus… #1371. Albie Pearson…

Standard Batting

More Stats

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos
1977	17	NYM-min	A-	69	287	255	44	83	10	2	6	30	20	7	28	53	.325	.393	.451	.844		115		1	2	1		LFA · NYPL
1978	18	NYM-min	A	132	581	494	86	149	19	9	3	38	42	17	74	99	.302	.397	.395	.791		195		5	6	2		LBG · CARL
1979	19	NYM-min	AA	110	448	404	63	114	11	5	2	19	23	5	35	50	.282	.346	.349	.695		141		5	3	1		JAC · TL
1980	20	NYM-min	AAA	125	498	400	53	117	15	5	1	51	11	7	87	67	.293	.415	.363	.778		145		0	7	4		TID · IL
1980	20	NYM	NL	27	110	93	12	30	1	1	0	9	2	3	11	14	.323	.396	.355	.751	115	33	3	1	4	1	1	4/6
1981	21	NYM-min	AAA	21	70	59	6	9	3	1	0	6	2	2	10	8	.153	.275	.237	.513		14		0	1	0	1	TID · IL
1981	21	NYM	NL	26	42	36	5	10	2	0	0	0	1	0	4	7	.278	.350	.333	.683	97	12	0	0	2	0	0	4/5
1982	22	NYM	NL	96	312	261	37	71	13	2	3	22	8	7	49	47	.272	.387	.372	.759	115	97	6	0	2	0	1	4/56
1983	23	NYM-min	AAA	101	431	361	69	114	11	3	1	28	37	15	68	47	.316	.422	.371	.793		134		0	0	2	2	TID · IL
1983	23	NYM	NL	26	45	42	6	7	0	1	0	3	0	0	2	8	.167	.205	.214	.419	17	9	2	0	1	0	0	4/5
1984	24	NYM	NL	128	499	436	68	122	19	2	1	26	32	9	56	63	.280	.360	.339	.700	99	148	13	0	5	2	2	*4/6
1985	25	NYM	NL	145	574	520	77	142	24	5	1	38	30	12	36	72	.273	.320	.344	.664	87	179	3	1	14	3	1	*4/6
1986	26	NYM	NL	124	440	387	67	124	18	2	1	27	13	7	36	32	.320	.376	.385	.761	113	149	3	0	14	3	1	*4
1987	27	NYM	NL	94	335	300	43	75	6	1	1	23	11	3	25	43	.250	.307	.287	.593	62	86	5	0	9	1	0	4
1988	28	NYM	NL	99	347	294	44	89	12	0	0	17	9	5	41	49	.303	.388	.344	.731	117	101	6	1	9	2	1	4
1989	29	MIN	AL	87	337	299	33	69	9	2	1	26	1	1	32	45	.231	.306	.284	.591	63	85	4	1	4	1	0	4
1990	30	PIT	NL	104	361	315	62	92	21	3	2	28	6	3	42	53	.292	.374	.397	.771	117	125	5	1	0	3	1	54
1991	31	PHI	NL	94	220	185	20	45	12	0	0	15	3	2	30	30	.243	.344	.308	.652	86	57	2	0	2	3	0	45
1992	32	PHI	NL	42	55	48	6	13	1	0	0	6	1	0	6	9	.271	.352	.292	.644	85	14	3	0	1	0	1	4/5
1993	33	SEA	AL	10	31	29	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8	.138	.167	.138	.305	-17	4	0	0	1	0	0	/54
14 Seasons				1102	3708	3245	482	893	138	19	10	240	117	52	371	480	.275	.349	.339	.687	94	1099	55	5	68	19	9
162 Game Avg.				162	545	477	71	131	20	3	1	35	17	8	55	71	.275	.349	.339	.687	94	162	8	1	10	3	1

NYM (9 yrs)				765	2704	2369	359	670	95	14	7	165	106	46	260	335	.283	.353	.344	.696	97	814	41	3	60	12	7
PHI (2 yrs)				136	275	233	26	58	13	0	0	21	4	2	36	39	.249	.346	.305	.650	86	71	5	0	3	3	1
MIN (1 yr)				87	337	299	33	69	9	2	1	26	1	1	32	45	.231	.306	.284	.591	63	85	4	1	4	1	0
PIT (1 yr)				104	361	315	62	92	21	3	2	28	6	3	42	53	.292	.374	.397	.771	117	125	5	1	0	3	1
SEA (1 yr)				10	31	29	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8	.138	.167	.138	.305	-17	4	0	0	1	0	0

NL (12 yrs)				1005	3340	2917	447	820	129	17	9	214	116	51	338	427	.281	.355	.346	.701	98	1010	51	4	63	18	9
AL (2 yrs)				97	368	328	35	73	9	2	1	26	1	1	33	53	.223	.295	.271	.566	56	89	4	1	5	1	0

Player Value--Batters

WAR: 8+ MVP, 5+ A-S, 2+ Strtr, 0-2 Sub, < 0 Repl.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	Rbat	Rbaser	Rroe	Rdp	Rfield	Rpos	Rrep	RAR	WAR	oRAR	oWAR	dWAR	Salary	Pos
1980	20	NYM	NL	110	3	-1	-1	1	-6	1	3	0	0.1	6	0.7	-0.6	$	4/6
1981	21	NYM	NL	42	-1	1	1	0	-0	0	1	1	0.1	2	0.2	-0.1	$	4/5
1982	22	NYM	NL	312	8	-2	-1	0	-6	2	10	10	1.1	17	1.8	-0.7	$	4/56
1983	23	NYM	NL	45	-4	0	-1	0	-2	0	1	-6	-0.6	-4	-0.4	-0.2	$	4/5
1984	24	NYM	NL	499	1	3	-4	-2	-10	4	16	7	0.7	18	1.9	-1.2	$93,000	*4/6
1985	25	NYM	NL	574	-8	0	2	3	-0	4	18	19	1.9	19	2.0	-0.1	$200,000	*4/6
1986	26	NYM	NL	440	11	0	-3	3	3	3	14	31	3.2	28	2.9	0.3	$325,000	*4
1987	27	NYM	NL	335	-14	1	4	1	-0	2	10	4	0.4	4	0.4	0.0	$550,000	4
1988	28	NYM	NL	347	11	-3	0	0	4	3	11	26	2.7	22	2.4	0.3	$650,000	4
1989	29	MIN	AL	337	-14	0	-1	1	-7	2	11	-8	-0.9	-1	-0.1	-0.8	$750,000	4
1990	30	PIT	NL	361	9	-1	-1	1	-8	1	10	11	1.2	19	2.0	-0.8	$400,000	54
1991	31	PHI	NL	220	-2	-2	0	0	-0	0	6	2	0.2	2	0.2	0.0	$650,000	45
1992	32	PHI	NL	55	-1	0	0	-1	1	0	2	1	0.0	0	0.0	0.0	$650,000	4/5
1993	33	SEA	AL	31	-5	0	2	0	1	0	1	-1	-0.1	-2	-0.2	0.1	$	/54
14 Seasons				3708	-6	-4	-3	7	-33	22	114	97	10.0	130	13.8	-3.8	$4,268,000

NYM (9 yrs)				2704	7	-1	-3	6	-19	19	84	92	9.6	112	11.9	-2.3	$1,818,000
PHI (2 yrs)				275	-3	-2	0	-1	1	0	8	3	0.2	2	0.2	0.0	$1,300,000
MIN (1 yr)				337	-14	0	-1	1	-7	2	11	-8	-0.9	-1	-0.1	-0.8	$750,000
PIT (1 yr)				361	9	-1	-1	1	-8	1	10	11	1.2	19	2.0	-0.8	$400,000
SEA (1 yr)				31	-5	0	2	0	1	0	1	-1	-0.1	-2	-0.2	0.1	$

Postseason Batting

Postseason Gamelog

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Series	Opp	Rslt	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
1986	26	NYM	NL	NLCS	HOU	W	6	23	21	5	5	0	0	0	2	1	0	2	4	.238	.304	.238	.542	5	0	0	0	0	1
1986	26	NYM	NL	WS	BOS	W	6	22	18	4	6	0	0	0	1	1	1	3	2	.333	.429	.333	.762	6	0	0	1	0	0

1988	28	NYM	NL	NLCS	LAD	L	7	26	22	2	6	1	0	0	2	1	0	2	5	.273	.333	.318	.652	7	0	0	2	0	0

1990	30	PIT	NL	NLCS	CIN	L	3	8	7	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	.143	.250	.286	.536	2	0	0	0	0	0
3 Seasons (4 Series)							22	79	68	12	18	2	0	0	5	4	1	8	14	.265	.342	.294	.636	20	0	0	3	0	1
3 NLCS							16	57	50	8	12	2	0	0	4	3	0	5	12	.240	.309	.280	.589	14	0	0	2	0	1
1 WS							6	22	18	4	6	0	0	0	1	1	1	3	2	.333	.429	.333	.762	6	0	0	1	0	0

Standard Fielding

More Stats

Adv Fielding w/ run summary

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	Rtot	Rtot/yr	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	Awards
1980	NYM	NL	20	2B	20				91	48	43	0	7	1.000	-5			4.55	.980		5.49
1980	NYM	NL	20	SS	8				27	14	12	1	4	.963	-1			3.25	.966		5.03
1981	NYM	NL	21	2B	11				37	14	21	2	2	.946	-0			3.18	.982		5.54
1981	NYM	NL	21	3B	1				0	0	0	0	0		0			0.00			2.80
1982	NYM	NL	22	2B	88				385	169	202	14	30	.964	-5			4.22	.978		5.43
1982	NYM	NL	22	3B	6				13	4	7	2	0	.846	-2			1.83	.951		2.78
1982	NYM	NL	22	SS	1				0	0	0	0	0		-0			0.00			5.00
1983	NYM	NL	23	2B	14				23	11	12	0	2	1.000	-1			1.64	.978		5.31
1983	NYM	NL	23	3B	2				10	5	3	2	0	.800	-1			4.00	.949		2.70
1984	NYM	NL	24	2B	115				522	218	294	10	72	.981	-11			4.45	.979		5.39
1984	NYM	NL	24	SS	8				17	5	12	0	1	1.000	0			2.13	.965		4.86
1985	NYM	NL	25	2B	140				649	272	370	7	76	.989	-0			4.59	.982		5.47
1985	NYM	NL	25	SS	1				1	1	0	0	0	1.000	-0			1.00	.960		4.90
1986	NYM	NL	26	2B	113				493	186	290	17	56	.966	3			4.21	.980		5.22
1987	NYM	NL	27	2B	87				347	131	210	6	44	.983	-0			3.92	.982		5.16
1988	NYM	NL	28	2B	92				351	128	219	4	36	.989	4			3.77	.980		5.23
1989	MIN	AL	29	2B	84				339	146	187	6	37	.982	-7			3.96	.981		5.18
1990	PIT	NL	30	3B	71				150	34	104	12	5	.920	-8			1.94	.947		2.71
1990	PIT	NL	30	2B	15				54	22	32	0	5	1.000	-0			3.60	.983		4.98
1991	PHI	NL	31	2B	36				104	50	52	2	12	.981	-1			2.83	.982		5.12
1991	PHI	NL	31	3B	20				33	4	27	2	1	.939	1			1.55	.950		2.73
1992	PHI	NL	32	2B	10				31	10	20	1	4	.968	1			3.00	.981		5.18
1992	PHI	NL	32	3B	2				0	0	0	0	0		0			0.00			2.65
1993	SEA	AL	33	3B	9				21	4	14	3	0	.857	1			2.00	.951		2.66
1993	SEA	AL	33	2B	1				1	0	1	0	0	1.000	0			1.00	.980		5.10
	14 Seasons			2B	826				3427	1405	1953	69	383	.980	-23			4.07	.980		5.30
	7 Seasons			3B	111				227	51	155	21	6	.907	-8			1.86	.948		2.71
	4 Seasons			SS	18				45	20	24	1	5	.978	-1			2.44	.965		4.94
	14 Seasons			TOT	955				3699	1476	2132	91	394	.975	-33			3.78	.978		4.99
Lg				Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	Rtot	Rtot/yr	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	Awards

Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.

View Complete Notes on Fielding Data

Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.

Pre-1950 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
From 1950 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1950 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1919 on.
Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1950 to 1973 and complete from then on.
Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1919) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1950 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Sacrifice Hits s c a p y 1985 NL 14 (1st) 1986 NL 14 (3rd)	Caught Stealing s c a p y 1985 NL 12 (8th)	Errors Committed as 2B s c a p y 1982 NL 14 (5th) 1986 NL 17 (4th)	Range Factor/9Inn as 2B† s c a p y 1982 NL 5.70 (3rd)
Fielding % as 2B s c a p y 1985 NL .989 (1st) 1988 NL .989 (1st) Career .980 (98th)	Youngest s c a p y 1980 NL born 1959-09-22 (4th)

Hall Of Fame Statistics

Player rank in (·)

Hall of Fame Monitor	Batting - 8 (1244), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards	Batting - 17 (970), Average HOFer ≈ 50

Similarity Scores

Explanation of Similarity Scores

Similar Batters

Compare Stats to Similars

Most Similar by Ages

Hold mouse over #'s to see names

Jose Lind (976) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Felix Millan (979) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Felix Millan (975) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Burgess Whitehead (961) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Ted Sizemore (957) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Johnny Temple (965) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Johnny Temple (961) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Marty Barrett (944) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Eddie Kasko (948) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
Eddie Kasko (950) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C

* - Signifies Hall of Famer

Transactions

June 7, 1977: Drafted by the New York Mets in the 1st round (16th pick) of the 1977 amateur draft.
December 7, 1988: Traded by the New York Mets with Mike Santiago (minors) to the Minnesota Twins for Jeff Bumgarner (minors), Steve Gasser (minors) and Toby Nivens (minors).
November 13, 1989: Granted Free Agency.
January 31, 1990: Signed as a Free Agent with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
November 5, 1990: Granted Free Agency.
January 10, 1991: Signed as a Free Agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.
November 5, 1992: Granted Free Agency.
January 25, 1993: Signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves.
April 1, 1993: Released by the Atlanta Braves.
April 5, 1993: Signed as a Free Agent with the Seattle Mariners.
May 17, 1993: Released by the Seattle Mariners.

The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. We attempt to update transactions throughout the season.

Salaries

Salaries may not be complete (especially pre-1985) and may not include some earned bonuses

Year	Age	Team	Salary	Sources	Notes
1984	24	New York Mets	$93,000	1/4/85 TSN
1985	25	New York Mets	$200,000	Scully, Business of MLB, p. 163
1986	26	New York Mets	$325,000	G. Scully, Business of MLB, p. 163	Arbitration loss; $425,000 request
1987	27	New York Mets	$550,000	1987 USA Today survey
1988	28	New York Mets	$650,000	USA Today, 4/1/88
1989	29	Minnesota Twins	$750,000	1989 USA Today survey
1990	30	Pittsburgh Pirates	$400,000*
1991	31	Philadelphia Phillies	$650,000	1991 USA Today
1992	32	Philadelphia Phillies	$650,000	4/2/92 USA Today

Career to date (may be incomplete)			$4,268,000

Disputed Salaries
*1990 - $600,000 - 11/21/90 NYT -

Salary Data (about) courtesy Doug Pappas, and the Society for American Baseball Research.
Salaries for mid-season call-ups or traded players may not be shown.

Other Resources & Links

Error? Compare Search SABR's Baseball Index Other Links@google.com Baseball Library Baseball-Almanac.com Retrosheet The Baseball Cube The Baseball Page WhatIfSports: Wally Backman

Viewed 30,774 times through February 10, 2012.
Name and misspellings: Walter Wally walt walter Wayne bachman Backman

Player Page Tricks and Tips

Sum any set of rows by clicking anywhere (not red or blue) on the first and last rows of your selection. We will then compute the totals for the player between and including those two seasons.
Default Setting for this feature: Turn On / Turn Off
Summation of season totals only works for the initial case when the table is in year order. On a sorted table the results may get a bit goofy.

HIGHLIGHTING: Adding a range or series of player's career seasons or career game numbers (like '#1972:batting_standard', '#1970-1980-sum:batting_standard', or '#1998,1999,2001,2002,sum:pitching_standard') onto the end of a player page url causes the seasons to the highlighted and summed. After changing address bar, reload the page to see highlighting. This will work even in links e-mailed to others. Note that for tables with multiple pages the first table is the default. If you want to create a sum for a table other than the first one, select the rows and after the summation window appears click on "permanent link" link.

The play-by-play information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet.

Automatic Player Linking / Statistical Sharing Tool / Basic Player Linking / Data Coverage

See Front Page for time of last update

Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet.

Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball.

Total Zone Rating and Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith of BaseballProjection.com.

Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of 24-7 Baseball.

Player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Many thanks to him. We have only selected seasons (players who debuted before 1960) for which we believe the image has reverted into the public domain. We will quickly remove any images for which that can be shown to not be the case.Please let us know if you are aware of any such images on this site.

Play Index Loading Photos from the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.

A Sports Reference Site: About Baseball Reference | Found a bug or have a suggestion?
Privacy Statement | Conditions & Terms of Service | Use of Data

Part of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group.