Barry Larkin

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again
There's new grass on the field
--John Fogerty

This weekend the Reds are honoring the 1990 team that went thru the regular season 'wire to wire' in first place and swept the heavily favored Oakland A's in the World Series.

Central to that team was shortstop and future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin. Larkin was the table setter, hitting .301 while fielding .967 at SS across 158 regular season games.

Since we played baseball together in high school, my memories of BL precede his MLB career. I recall an early season game as a senior playing right field. The freshman team was playing on a diamond on the other end of the field. I remember looking over and seeing Larkin playing CF for the frosh. This, of course, didn't last long. Next year he was starting on the varsity at SS while batting near the top of the order.

A decade later he would lead the Reds to a world championship.