High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Walter John Hriniak (born May 22, 1943, at Natick, Massachusetts) is a former catcher in American Major League Baseball who — despite a very brief MLB playing career and a batting average of only .253 — became one of the most prominent batting coaches in the game during the last two decades of the 20th century. As a player, he stood 5`11" (180 cm) tall, weighed 178 pounds (80.7 kg), batted left-handed and threw right-handed.