Years later Walters found himself reporting on something far more important than sandlot baseball. His investigative reporting and initial efforts contributed to the Pioneer Press winning a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the academic fraud in the Gophers basketball program in 1999.
That was serious stuff, but Walters recognizes that much of what he writes isn’t all that important. Not compared with real life and the world’s problems. Yet he is grateful for a career that placed him in the company of so many interesting people including athletes he admires like Joe Mauer and Brett Favre, and also his own newspaper colleagues.
Among the characters he’s known is Don Riley whose popular sports column “carried the St. Paul newspaper for 40 years,” according to Walters. Riley wrote a colorful, controversial column and he was as interesting away from the typewriter as he was in front of it. “Everything you heard about him is generally true,” Walters said.
Riley wasn’t good at recalling names, even those of his newspaper colleagues. “I worked next to Don Riley for 15 years,” Walters said. “I was either Ace or Tiger. I don’t know that he really knew my name.
“One day he (Riley) got on an elevator and was going down from the sixth floor of the newspaper (building). The elevator stopped on the fourth floor and two people got on. They both knew Riley but he didn’t know their names, and they didn’t know each other.
“So the elevator proceeded down. These guys said, ‘Hi, Don.’ … Riley, feeling compelled to respond, said to them, ‘Hi, Ace. Hi, Tiger.’ Then as the elevator went down, he said, ‘Ace, meet Tiger. Tiger meet Ace.’ ”
Walters laughed, as he so often does, when telling that story and others. Recognizing humor is a Walters’ habit and it helps him relax as does an occasional glass of wine and conversation with his wife, Dr. Paula Kelly, a local pediatrician. The family also includes three children.
Next month Walters turns 63. He loves his work and will continue his career for awhile. “If I could write my column until 70 I would be thrilled because it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
That’s not to say he won’t write longer. And why not? He’s got all those “birdies” to help him.