Jerome Walton

Who is Jerome Walton?

Jerome O'Terrell Walton is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, California Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He batted and threw right-handed.

He graduated from Newnan High School in Newnan, and went on to attend Enterprise State Junior College. Walton was drafted in the second round of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft by the Chicago Cubs. Walton made his major league debut on April 4, 1989 as a Chicago Cub. He was named the 1989 National League Rookie of the Year, playing in 116 games, batting .293 with 24 stolen bases and a 30-game hitting streak.

In a 10-year major league career, Walton compiled a .269 batting average with 25 home runs, 132 runs batted in and 58 stolen bases, mostly in a reserve role. While early in his Cub career, Walton's fans used a "Jerome-O-Meter" to track his batting average. The gimmick was a spin-off of the "Shawon-O-Meter," used during Walton's rookie season of 1989 to track the average of Cubs shortstop Shawon Dunston.