 Wally Joyner
Wallace Keith "Wally" Joyner (born June 16 1962 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball. He attended high school at Redan High in Stone Mountain (suburb of Atlanta) and college at Brigham Young University and played for five different major league teams in his career: the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves and Anaheim Angels. He now resides in Mapleton, Utah. Joyner has invested and appeared in movies marketed to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church), including playing "Brother Jensen" in the 2003 movie, The R.M. [1]
He credited a stint in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League (Puerto Rico's winter baseball league), playing first base for the Mayagüez Indians as fundamental in his improvement as a slugger. Then-batting coach José Manuel Morales forced him to do power weight training and modify his posture at the batting cage as to develop upper body strength. He was consequently the top hitter on Puerto Rico's winter league on the 1985-86 season.
During his rookie season in MLB with the California Angels, Joyner became a fan favorite and briefly inspired a craze called Wallyworld, a term describing the Angels' home stadium, drawn from references to Disneyland and the film National Lampoon's Vacation. Competing with the likes of Jose Canseco, in 1986, Joyner became the first rookie to be voted in by the fans to start in the All-Star Game. Representing the Angels, Joyner tied Darryl Strawberry for first place in that year's Home Run Derby.
All Star - 1996
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