CINCINNATI–Barry Larkin has had a better year than the richest Fortune 500 company. In January, it was announced that he had been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Then he attended a press conference in New York making it official. In July, he was inducted into the Hall in Cooperstown. And Saturday his No. 11 Cincinnati Reds number is scheduled to be retired at the Great American Ball Park before a game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
It was as if the one-time Reds star blew out all of the candles on his cake and all of the wishes came true. Friday night, shortly before the first game of a three-game series between his old team and the Cardinals, their closest, but distance pursuer n the National League Central, Larkin reflected on it all. Then he waved to the fans in the stands.
Larkin, now 48, spent his entire 19-year career playing shortstop for the Reds, for whom he was a 12-time All-Star. His lifetime average was .295 and the last time he had a year this good was 1995 when he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award.
Former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin wipes away a tear at his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in July. Larkin’s No. 11 jersey is being retired by the Reds this weekend. Credit CBSnews.com
Larkin wasn’t going to pretend that having his jersey number retired by the Reds–even if he was able to play his whole career in the city where he grew up–was as meaningful as being enshrined at Cooperstown. But this is pretty special to him, too, and it kind of is the icing on the cake for him as the honors piled up in 2012.
“I think it’s appropriate that it’s the last piece of the celebration,” said Larkin, who was late to his own Friday press conference because he got caught in pre-game traffic after leaving his mother’s house. “This brings it all close to home.”
Larkin said he started out wearing No. 11 at Moeller High School, but when he enrolled at the University of Michigan he couldn’t keep the same digits. At that school, Bill Freehan, later of the Detroit Tigers, had worn 11 with distinction and it was retired. When Larkin signed with the Reds he was just happy to be with his hometown club, so he wasn’t going to make any requests. At that time Kurt Stillwell owned No. 14. When the Reds made Larkin the shortstop and parted ways with Stillwell, Larkin claimed 11 and kept it.
The Reds have other retired jersey numbers, including No. 5 for Johnny Bench, No. 8 for Joe Morgan, No. 20 for Frank Robinson, and No. 24 for Tony Perez, but Larkin said when he was playing and he saw the honorees on home ballpark walls, he never thought he would be among them.
“I didn’t think about it,” Larkin said. “That was the legacy and tradition of Cincinnati Reds baseball. I certainly idolized a lot of the guys up there. It wasn’t what could possibly happen in the future. We just wanted to win games.”
Larkin was joined at the game Friday by some of his closest friends from past Reds teams, Dave Parker, Rob Dibble, and Eric Davis. Davis and Larkin are so tight that Davis spoke as part of the ceremony in Cooperstown. Dibble and Larkin shared living quarters when they were young. And Parker predicted very quickly that Larkin would take Davey Concepcion’s shortstop job away.
“Just watching him for a couple of weeks I could see he was something special,” Parker said Friday. “The way he caught the ball, the way he threw the ball. His speed.”
Dibble, one of the “Nasty Boys” relievers on the strong Cincinnati teams that Larkin captained, said he wanted to be here for Larkin this weekend.
“He’s family,” Dibble said. “I consider him to be one of my brothers. We all lived it together.”
Larkin said he is starting to work in “baseball development,” has ties to the game in Brazil, and said he has been offered the job to become manager of the Brazilian National Team. Speaking of family, Larkin’s daughter, Cymber, sang the National Anthem Friday night at the Great American Ball Park, as she did in Cooperstown. Larkin said she’s got a following in Brazil already and it sounds as if he is poised to develop one.
“I will not get stagnant,” Larkin said.
After seeing most of his post-playing-days dreams come true, Larkin did not directly answer a question about what he wants for Christmas. Maybe it’s because instead of being a 12-day deal, Christmas has been an eight-month-long phenomenon for him in 2012.