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John (Henry) Vander Wal (born April 29, 1966) is a former American Major League Baseball player, a left-handed hitter who played outfield and first base for eight different teams over 14 seasons. He is one of the best pinch hitters in major-league history.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Vander Wal grew up in Hudsonville, Michigan, attended Western Michigan University and was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the third round of the 1987 amateur draft.

Vander Wal made his Major League debut with the Expos on September 6, 1991, and finished his first season with 13 hits in 61 at bats for a .213 batting average.

Vander Wal played two more seasons in Montreal before moving on to the Colorado Rockies in 1994, where he would spend all of four seasons and part of another, although he never recorded more than 151 at bats or appeared in 105 games in any of those seasons. On August 31, 1998 he was traded to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later, and he went on to appear in the World Series with the Padres, recording two hits in five at bats.

Vander Wal spent 1999 in San Diego before moving on to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2000 trade that brought Al Martin to the Padres. While playing for the Pirates, he posted his best season, appearing in 134 games, and batting .299 with 24 home runs and 94 runs batted in. In 2001, Vander Wal was traded to the San Francisco Giants, who later traded him to the New York Yankees for Jay Witasick. Vander Wal was a part-time performer for the Yankees in 2002, before moving on to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003, and the Cincinnati Reds in 2004, where he recorded just 6 hits in 51 at bats for a .118 average.

Vander Wal holds the modern Major League Baseball single-season record for pinch hits, with 28 in 1995 while playing for the Colorado Rockies.^[1] In his career, Vander Wal contributed 129 pinch hits, which is one of the highest totals of the modern era, behind Lenny Harris' 212.

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis

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