Barry Larkin and the Baseball Hall of Fame
Yesterday we talked about Ron Santo and his overdue election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In an effort to be fair, I wanted to discuss Barry Larkin who is also being inducted this weekend in Cooperstown as well.
During his 19 year career, all with the Cincinnati Reds, Larkin hit .295 / 198 HR / 960 RBIs / 2,340 hits / 12 All-Star Game selections / 1995 NL MVP / 3 Gold Gloves.
Solid numbers, but are they Hall of Fame numbers? On paper, these numbers seem a little lower than what you would expect from a Hall of Famer. Also, Larkin scores a 0 on the Black Ink test – meaning he never led the league in any statistical category. The only way we are going to determine if he is Hall of Fame worthy is to compare him to someone who is in the Hall of Fame who played the same position. Unfortunately, the contemporary Hall of Fame shortstops who played against Larkin are some of the best shortstops of all time. It would be unfair to Larkin to compare him to Cal Ripkin, Jr., Ozzie Smith or Robin Yount. Ripkin is in a league by himself, Ozzie is arguably the greatest defensive shortstop of all time and Robin Yount was a completely different player who played half of his career in centerfield. The only Hall of Fame shortstop you could compare Larkin to would be Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.
During his 16 years, Reese hit .269 / 126 home runs / 885 RBIs / 2,170 hits / 10 All-Star Game selections. Side-by-side, Larkin’s numbers are better in each offensive category, he was selected to two more All-Star games and he won an MVP while Reese never won one. However, as with any player during Reese’s generation, the three years that Reese was out of baseball while serving his country in World War II contributed to the lower numbers. From a defensive perspective, Larkin had a .975 FLD% while Reese had a .962 FLD%. Both players won one World Series Championship (Reese in 1955 and Larkin in 1990.
If you add up all of the evidence, Larkin is clearly a Hall of Fame. He is not the power hitting shortstop like Ernie Banks or Cal Ripkin, he is a throwback to a different generation where shortstops were defensive specialists who had a solid bat – they were complementary players, not the run producers like you see today. Luckily, Larkin’s lack of home runs and RBIs are not held against him and he was voted in for the player he was and not kept out because of the player he wasn’t.
Welcome to Cooperstown Barry!
baseballaficionado 