Walter Miller Thornton (February 18, 1875 – July 14, 1960) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1895 through 1898 for the Chicago Colts / Orphans. A skilled athlete who excelled in baseball, Thornton pitched Snohomish, Washington, to the state's amateur championship in 1893. In the spring of 1895, two Cornell College graduates who owned the Snohomish Tribune arranged a scholarship for Thornton to attend Cornell. He dominated the college competition and was invited to a tryout with the Chicago Colts (later the Chicago Cubs) National League baseball team. He made his major league debut on July 1, 1895, while still enrolled at Cornell.