John Vander Wal, a left-handed hitting outfielder and first baseman, starred first for Hudsonville High, then at Western Michigan University before playing for eight teams over 14 years in Major League Baseball and setting a modern record with 28 pinch hits in a single season.
At all-state player for Hudsonville, he ended up ranking third all-time in homeruns and RBI at Western and was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference selection.
In 1987 the Montreal Expos selected him in the third round of the MLB draft and he made his major league debut with the Expos in September of 1991.
He played two seasons in Montreal, then four with the Colorado Rockies before being traded to the San Diego Padres in 1998. He played in the World Series that year with the Padres and had two hits in five at-bats (New York Yankees swept the series 4-0), and also played with the Padres in 1999 before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Vander Wal had his best season with the Pirates in 2000 playing in 134 games, hitting .299 with 24 homeruns and 94 RBI.
In 2001, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants, who later traded him to the Yankees. He played part-time for the Yankees before playing for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003 and the Cincinnati Reds in 2004.
Vander Wal’s 14 seasons in the major leagues included 13 with National League clubs, most often in pinch-hitting and late-inning defensive roles. In 1372 career games he hit .261 batting average (717-for-2751) with 374 runs, 170 doubles, 18 triples, 97 home runs, 430 RBI, 38 stolen bases, 385 bases on balls, .351 on-base percentage and .441 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .987 fielding percentage playing in right and left field and at first base. In 16 postseason games, he hit .286 (6-for-21) with 2 runs, 1 double, 1 triple, 1 home run and 4 RBI.
His record 28 single-season pinch hits was set in 1995 while playing for Colorado. He had 129 pinch hits in his career, which ranks among the top totals in MLB history (sixth when inducted in 2007).
Vander Wal was inducted into the Western Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
Following his player career, he worked as an MLB scout with San Diego and Arizona before returning home to West Michigan as a coach with the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2018.