Former Reds’ great Larkin remains fan favorite

Hall of Fame shortstop poses for pic

People have for years been bugging former Cincinnati Moeller football star Barry Larkin for autographs and pictures, you know, but he pulled quite the surprise on a Reds fan when he asked her – Laura O’Brien – to pose for a snapshot.

Well, probably not really, if you dive into the hash tags in her post, which can be found her Twitter account @Lauralee987:

😂😂 #notreally #whataniceguy #hometownhero pic.twitter.com/egd0mTBBPV— Laura O'Brien (@Lauralee987) June 27, 2017

Larkin, the Moeller graduate (1983) who went to the University of Michigan to play football only to change his mind and play just baseball, beat out Kurt Stillwell to become the Reds’ shortstop from 1986-2004.

That worked out. The guy ended up in the baseball Hall of Fame, after all, thanks to 19 seasons spent with the Reds, for whom he had a .295 batting average, 2,340 hits, 198 home runs, 960 RBI, 379 stolen bases and 1,329 runs scored.

In Bill James’ noted Historical Baseball Abstract, he ranked the No. 6 shortstop of all time.

He's nice, too, kindly re-Tweeting O'Brien's post @@BarryLarkin.

Now a baseball analyst for ESPN, Larkin is in the Reds’ Hall of Fame as a 12-time All-Star, 1995 MVP and key component of Cincinnati’s massive upset of the Oakland A’s in the 1990 World Series.

It's no wonder O'Brien would want a photo with this guy. The dude put up serious numbers, as this metrical snapshot shows, and, again, he's nice.

His No. 11 was retired by the Reds, rightfully.

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