WHY BARRY LARKIN DESERVES THE HALL NOD

When I was a kid, I lived in Kentucky for a very brief time. While there, we'd travel to the King's Island Amusement Park in Ohio for family trips. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even sure it was still around until I just did a search... it is... how cool. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is one thing I remember most was there were a ton of Reds fans at the park. I grew up a Yankee fan in New York and yes, I was young, but I remember the pinstripes and the players. For those couple years in Kentucky, it was like culture shock because we were New Yorkers, clearly in another world. It was the mid-70's so the Big Red Machine was huge and it was before the Yankees won in 1977 and 1978.I remember falling in love with the way Pete Rose played the game and I loved the hustle. Even at that age, you knew what winning was all about and Rose did it the best. When we moved back to New York in 1978, the Yankees were winning again, winning back to back championships and clearly, I was home again, announcing to the world that Ron Guidry, a lefty like myself, was my idol. What can I say, the Yankees were in my blood, I was over the Big Red Machine.

Which brings me to today. Barry Larkin was a terrific ballplayer and leader for the Cincinnati Reds when he played with them from 1986-2004. We here at Bleeding Yankee Blue want to congratulate him for being voted into the Hall of Fame...it's an amazing achievement and we love it. Read about it HERE. I say this because for me personally, I will always have a fondness for Cincinnati and it's team, because of those fans I saw at King's Island and because I loved Rose's determination. I'm not a fan of the Reds, I'm a fan of the New York Yankees and baseball first, then the Reds. Cincinnati is a true baseball town, just ask Paul O'Neill, and Larkin played the game better than many. He was voted in by nearly 86% of the Baseball Writers' Association of America's ballots. He has terrific numbers, provided leadership on the field and he deserves it. Bravo.

Two other ballplayers, Yankees, Bernie Williams(who received 9.6%) and Don Mattingly (who received 17.6%) were also in the running. I am a believer that Bernie Williams will one day get into the Hall of Fame. I pray that one day Donnie Baseball makes it there too. It was totally unfortunate what happened to Donnie during his career and having it cut short nearly shattered the dreams of all of us who watched a true throwback breakdown before our eyes. Donnie deserves to get voted into the Hall of Fame for his heart and leadership alone and I hope one day it happens for him. Until then though, we here at BYB do the right thing... we congratulate the other baseball greats who made it there first... guys like Barry Larkin.

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