Hall of Fame inductions
Inductees: Barry Larkin and Ron Santo
When: 1:30 p.m. today
TV: MLB Network
The Larkin File
Games: 2,180
At-bats: 7,937
Batting Average: .295
On-Base Percentage: 371
Slugging Percentage: .444
Runs: 1,329
Hits: 2,340
Doubles: 441
Triples: 76
Home Runs: 198
RBIs: 960
Stolen Bases: 379
All-Star appearances: 12
Gold Gloves: 3
Silver Sluggers: 9
Baseball immortality awaits Barry Larkin today in Cooperstown, N.Y., where the former Cincinnati Reds star will be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the greatest shortstops who ever played.
His likeness will be emblazoned in bronze, his achievements extolled to the thousands gathered on the lawn in his honor.
He will be lauded as the man who revolutionized his position as the first shortstop in baseball history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season. He was the 1995 National League MVP, the captain of the 1990 World Series champion team, a 12-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner and a nine-time Silver Slugger Award winner.
The presentation will roll on and on, detailing his 2,340 career hits, .295 lifetime average and all of the other superlatives.
It will be the most triumphant part of a crowning day that only the elitist of the elite get to experience. And as he soaks in the moment, Barry Larkin will take a deep breath before he steps to the microphone to do what he did his whole career, what he’s done his entire life.
He will spread the spotlight and share his glory, making sure the day, and specifically his speech, is not just about himself.
It’s also about all of his former teammates and coaches, front-office executives, friends, family and even the fans.
“I have been reading through (the speech) and rereading through it to make sure I acknowledge the people who were influential and important in my life,” Larkin said earlier this week.
“I was very transparent, I felt, as a player in acknowledging the reason I was successful. My success is definitely a product of the foundation that was set up for me.”
The third of five children born to Robert and Shirley Larkin, Barry learned to share the spotlight, and just about everything else, at an early age as the family’s first four siblings – Mary Robin (1962), Michael (1963), Barry (1964) and Byron (1965) – were all close in age.
“We were a wonderfully obedient Catholic family,” mused Shirley, who later in 1973 gave birth to the family’s fifth child, Stephen.
While Mary was more into music and dance growing up, Michael, Barry and Byron were all about sports. They played baseball, basketball and football from sun up to sun down, and they weren’t alone. The Larkin home on Elwynne Drive in the Cincinnati suburb of Silverton was the neighborhood gathering spot.
“Because most of the kids in the neighborhood were in our yard, there was no grass often times,” Shirley said. “One time, one of the neighbors complained to Robert, saying, 'You don’t have any grass, man. What’s going on?’ And Robert told him, 'I’m raising children, not grass.’”
Robert was an excellent athlete himself, but growing up in Meridian, Miss., during the racially tense 1940s and '50s, his opportunities were limited.
That's why he loved being a part of his sons' careers, often rushing home from his job with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to help coach in as many practices and games as he could.
He always drove a station wagon so he could help the other neighborhood kids without means get to the fields as well.
“I remember riding around in the back of that station wagon all those years,” Bryon said. “Barry always said, 'I’m going to play professional baseball one day,’ and I would say, 'I’m going to play professional basketball one day,’ and Michael would say, 'I’m going to play professional football one day.’
"We did that from the time we were 5, 6, 7 years old. It was always the plan," Byron continued. "But Barry was the only one who made it."
All three went on to star in multiple sports at Moeller High School, as did Stephen several years later.
Michael concentrated on football and went on to play at the University of Notre Dame, while Byron specialized in basketball and turned it into a Hall of Fame career at Xavier University.
Barry excelled in football and baseball.
“We knew we had something special, someone very talented,” said Mike Cameron, the longtime Moeller baseball coach who also coached defensive backs as Gerry Faust’s assistant on the football team.
“He was just so natural that sometimes you would sit there and look at him and say, 'Oh my gosh, how did he just do that?’ ” Cameron continued. “But he was always a good team player. You never once would say he was stuck on himself or had that star-itis thing. I think that all was grounded in his parents and his upbringing.”
Despite his grand plans in the back of the station wagon a decade earlier, Barry considered himself more of a football player by the time he reached high school. But he said he never considered giving up baseball.
He was intent on playing both in college, so Faust, who left Moeller after Barry’s junior year to become head coach at Notre Dame, offered Barry a football scholarship with the allowance of skipping spring ball to play baseball for the Irish.
“I had never made that offer to any other player,” Faust said.
But Barry not only said “no” to Notre Dame, he turned down the Cincinnati Reds, who drafted him in the second round of the 1982 draft.
“I remember feeling torn, simply because I felt like this was an opportunity for me to get my parents money,” Barry recalled. “I didn’t really want to go (into pro baseball). I wasn’t prepared to go. I knew that I wanted to go to college, but they were throwing money at me that the family had not seen. I remember asking my mom and dad, 'Do you guys need this money? Should I do this and give you this money?’ And they were like, 'No!’
“Once they said no, it was very easy for me to go to college, because that’s what I wanted to do,” he continued. “I wasn’t prepared to play baseball. I was prepared to play football. And I wanted to play football for the University of Michigan.”
That, of course, never happened. Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler redshirted Barry his freshman year, and Barry never ended up playing a down of football for the Wolverines, quitting the team prior to his sophomore season.
“It was the first time in my life that I had a chance to just participate in baseball, and I got a lot better and I didn’t have some of the injuries I had in football,” Larkin said. “It was tough to give that news to Bo.”
The decision didn’t sit well with Schembechler, who was known to stop by baseball practice and heckle Barry from time to time.
“Bo loved jabbing people,” said Danny Hall, the baseball head coach at Georgia Tech who was Barry’s position coach at Michigan. “But even Bo knew what Barry’s future was once he saw him play as a freshman.
“Barry was a star right away, but he was raw,” Hall continued. “He had a good arm, but his hands and his feet weren’t as good. Once we started working with him, he picked it up right away because he was such a hard worker. He started at shortstop from Day 1.”
The decision to give up football was the first big turning point in Barry's career, and the second came two years later when he earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 1984.
"I was a sophomore, and most of the guys on that team were juniors," he said.
“I remember not getting the opportunity to play, and that really fueled my fire because I felt like I wasn’t playing because I was younger, not because I wasn’t better than who was out there. I wasn’t playing because someone was not allowing me to have an opportunity, and I remember that being the point in my life where I said I just have to be better than everybody else. I think that’s when it really kind of clicked for me, and I really turned it on after that.”
Larkin led Michigan to the College World Series his junior year, and a few weeks later, the Reds drafted him with their first-round pick. This time, he signed and began a career that would forever change the shortstop position.
Gene Bennett, the scout who signed Barry, recalled a conversation he had with Reds general manager Bob Howsam the night before that 1985 draft. The team had just wrapped up its pre-draft meetings, and while they had Barry near the top of their draft board, he wasn’t their No. 1 choice.
“I stopped at the water fountain on the way out to my car,” Bennett said. “Mr. Howsam came up to me and said, 'Gene, I know you really like that Barry Larkin kid, and Davey (Concepcion) is getting some age on him. How long do you think before Larkin could play in the major leagues?’
"I looked at my watch and smiled," Bennett continued. "Mr. Howsam said, 'Are you telling me he could play in the big leagues right now?' And I said, 'That's exactly what I'm telling you.' "
The next day the team drafted Barry with the No. 4 pick overall.
That was June 1985. By August of 1986, he was making his major league debut.
Among those on Barry’s long list of thanks today will be Concepcion and Buddy Bell.
“How much they welcomed me and accepted me and helped me early in my career, I think that had a lot to do with the type of person and player and teammate I was,” Barry said. “These guys were so willing to give their time, although they were very well aware that the writing was on the wall that I eventually was going to take over. They were willing to help me. I always thought that was special.”
Players who came to the Reds well after Barry was established as one of the game’s greats told similar tales of the way Barry welcomed them. They remember him as many of the fans do, as someone who played the game with class and dignity, and was always willing to help those around him.
“I got traded the day before Opening Day and didn’t know a soul in the clubhouse,” said Sean Casey, who played with Larkin for seven seasons, from 1998-2004. “Barry was the first person to come over and welcome me, and I’ll always remember that. He was really good friends with Dave Burba, who they traded for me, but he made sure to come up to me and tell me how glad he was that I was there. Whether he meant it or not, I don’t know. But just him saying it made me feel great.”
Added Aaron Boone, who played with Barry from 1997-2003, “He took me under his wing right away. I already knew him a little bit because when I was coming up my brother (Bret) was his double-play partner. But Barry was the guy who really showed me the way. We struck up a really good friendship, and I’ll be forever grateful to him. It was a thrill getting to play next to him.”
On Sept. 27, 1988, in the final home game of the season, the Boone brothers teamed with Barry and Stephen Larkin to make up the Reds infield. It was the only major league game of Stephen’s career, with him going 1-for-3 to finish with a higher lifetime average of .333 than his big brother’s .295.
Barry played all 19 seasons in a Cincinnati uniform, transforming shortstop from simply a defensive position to an offensive weapon. Along with fellow Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., he set the stage for the new breed of powerful shortstops such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and so many others.
Barry said playing in his hometown his whole career was an "overwhelmingly positive experience."
“It was a special relationship,” he said. “It meant a lot to me. In retrospect, it means more now than it did when I was playing. When I was playing, it was about winning championships or having a chance to play in postseason and win.
“If we weren’t winning in Cincinnati, if we didn’t have opportunities to win, I don’t know if I would have stayed there,” he added. “I’m very happy that I stayed there. There were so many things that happened that really turned out great, and I’m very proud of the fact that I stayed there. The comfort of having my mom and dad there with my dad coming to every single ballgame. I knew if I left, he wouldn’t be able to do that. I didn’t want to take that away from him.”
Now Barry is the proud father sitting in the stands with his wife, Lisa, watching their son, DeShane, embark on his basketball career at the University of Miami. Their oldest child, Brielle, is pursuing a career as a makeup artist, and the youngest, Cymber, is a lacrosse star and budding musician who will sing the national anthem at today’s Hall of Fame ceremony.
Barry said he will be “nervous as heck” for his daughter’s performance this afternoon.
Meanwhile Byron said he knows the day will be one of the most memorable and special ones in the family’s history, but in some regards it will be just another day in which he beams with pride in his older brother.
“I’m more proud of the way he’s handled all of his success with humility and dignity than I am with the success itself,” Byron said. “His kids grew up with everything they could ever want, but you would never know it because of his influence on them to be humble and grateful, and to know they’re blessed.
“He’s achieved everything he has because he’s a great person,” Byron continued. “He’s the best person you could ever meet, and I’m just so proud of the man that he is.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or Jay.Morrison@coxinc.com.
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