Jordan Walker announces his arrival in walk-off Home Run Derby win: ‘You don’t boo nobodies’.nam

PHILADELPHIA — It was, in a way, a storybook ending. One that had been several years in the making.

Needing an improbable late push to beat Kyle Schwarber, Jordan Walker did just that. He went and launched six consecutive homers into the night — enough to take home the 2026 Home Run Derby championship.

The St. Louis outfielder did it on a warm Monday evening at Citizens Bank Park, Schwarber’s home ballpark, which was packed with Philadelphia faithful. He did it in front of his family, who watched in custom gear. And he did it, his dad said afterward, by putting up “video game” numbers.

“I mean, that’s not even real,” Walker’s father, Derek said. “That’s not even something that you could craft, right? Nobody would believe it.

“It was just unbelievable.”

To get those video game numbers, Walker had to shut out a hostile Philadelphia crowd.

From the beginning of the event’s introductions through the final round, 43,863 fans in attendance relentlessly booed the opposition, hoping to will either Schwarber or Bryce Harper to derby glory.

Each successful “out” was cheered, and not even the time-honored derby tweens in the outfield were safe from heckling.

Walker, however, had other things in mind.

“I was once told you don’t boo nobodies,” Walker said afterward, “so it feels pretty good.”

The 24-year-old first-time All-Star was flanked by an assortment of family members, including his father, mother and grandmother, all of whom wore customized jerseys, a tradition that has roots with the family matriarch, Normarene Merritt.

“(That) kind of started with me,” she told The Athletic. “I had some made when they were in high school.”

Hers carried the words “Jordan’s Dearee,” embroidered on the back. There were also “Jordan’s Dad” and “Jordan’s Mom.” All came complete with an autograph and the date of Walker’s debut, March 30, 2023.

They watched the derby unfold on Monday night, and they never stopped believing.

“I knew it was possible,” Merritt said. “I wish he wouldn’t try my heart. I wish he had done it in the 15 (swings), but I didn’t give up when he had to go into the bonus round.

“‘Cause whatever he does — I’ve noticed this — if he’s gonna do it twice, he’s gonna learn something from the first time he did it. If he has to do it three times, he’s gonna learn something from the first and second time.”

Using an “Iron Man”-themed bat, Walker outlasted the likes of New York Yankees slugger Ben Rice, Chicago White Sox rookie phenom Munetaka Murakami and Harper, a previous derby champion in 2018.

In doing so, Walker became the first Cardinal to win the competition.

Earlier in the day, Walker told reporters that it hadn’t quite sunk in that there were people wearing his All-Star jersey.

“As a kid, I grew up watching this, and now I’m here, so it just means the world to me,” he said.

The former first-round pick is in the midst of a career year — one that followed three straight below-average seasons, including a demotion to Triple A in 2024, which put his long-term future with St. Louis into question.

“Everybody knows the story up to this point from two years or so ago,” Derek Walker said. “He’s like, ‘Adversity, I eat for breakfast.’”

Walker has long always dreamed of competing in the Home Run Derby. As a child growing up, he said, his “favorite thing to do playing baseball was to hit home runs.”

“When a competition is dedicated to doing it,” Walker said, “I’m going to have fun doing it.”

Walker’s dream derby came in a season in which he leads the National League in average bat speed and ranks at or near the top in every major batted ball category, finally making good on the promise that followed his being drafted by the Cardinals in 2020 with the No. 21 overall pick out of Decatur (Ga.) High School.

“He’s dealt with so much that I feel like he could deal with this type of pressure much better than probably anybody else in that stadium,” Derek Walker said.

All along the way, the Walkers have stood by Jordan, jerseys on their backs, belief in their hearts.

“When times get tough, they always have my back,” Jordan said. “I can’t ask for more than that.”

If there were any doubts, they weren’t coming from inside his circle.

“I learned at a very young age that it was a calling,” Merritt said.

And so, as dejected Philadelphia fans filtered out of Citizens Bank Park, the Walkers celebrated.

They beamed with pride as Jordan was adorned with this year’s rendition of the Home Run Derby chain. They flooded into the interview room as Jordan, and his derby pitcher, Kleininger Teran, spoke of how they made magic happen in a stadium that has seen its fair share of it.

They posed for pictures and held court with anyone who wanted to listen.

“I don’t care what else he didn’t do,” Merritt said. “If you said baseball, he produced. I knew that he wanted it, and to this day think it is his path.”

For the first time since 2014, MLB, in partnership with Netflix, the Home Run Derby’s new streaming partner, brought back the original swing-based format that made the event so endearing to fans.

Instead of relying on timed rounds, participants were limited to a set number of swings; 20 in the first round and 15 in each of the second and third rounds.

Each swing counted against the total no matter the result, with hitters able to continue swinging if they connected for a home run on their final hack until the ball didn’t leave the park, a situation Walker found himself in for the finale.

Tiebreakers of distance (first round) and three-swing swing-offs (second and final rounds) were brought over but neither were needed.

In the first round on Monday night, Walker set the tone, matching Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras’ 13 home runs, the most in any round by a participant.

His fortune? A semifinal matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays’ Junior Caminero, last year’s runner-up.

“When I matched up with him, I was like, ‘All right, we’ve got some work to do, for sure,’” Walker said.

But Caminero faltered over his 15 swings and Walker needed just six homers to move on to the final, where Schwarber, MLB’s home run leader, eventually met him.

Schwarber, who barely squeaked out of the first round, went first. He walked away with an adoring Philadelphia crowd and 11 longballs, forcing Walker to match him. Which set the stage for those video game numbers, an epic ending and a family, full of belief, ready to celebrate.

“My one thought was to stay fluid,” Walker said. “Can’t swing too hard, I’ll miss the ball. And that was it.”