If there has ever been a moment of a “complete lapse of
judgment” in any of these New Era Cap posts today has certainly become the day
to show it. Actually, I really shouldn’t be so hard on myself. After all, this
is actually the first Cincinnati Reds cap I purchased.
It was some time during the summer of 2010 when I strolled into
the Lids at Valley River Center in Eugene, Oregon to buy this and a few other
caps merely off of a whim. See, I hadn’t quite hatched the plan to purchase all
of the game-worn Major League Baseball caps just yet. At this point in time I
was still in the “one cap for every team” phase. With the Reds I wasn’t
particularly picky. The Lids store in question happened to have all three
styles from the last few years available and I simply picked out the one that
looked the best on my noggin. The winner of the mix? This lucky fella which
served as the Reds’ home and road alternate cap from 1999-2000, served
full-time as the home cap from 1999-2006 and the team’s road and alternate cap
from 2003-present. Actually, it’s a really complicated mess of years and uniform
combos which make it really difficult to give a straight answer; so, for the
sake of argument, this cap has been used by the Reds since 1999 and is still
being used today.
What’s really interesting about this cap is that it ushered
in one of the more dramatic changes in any teams’ cap design. Yes, I realize
that to most the cap looks virtually identical to their other caps since the
1970s, but I say you’re not looking hard enough. For example, this cap
introduced the black bill, which is a pretty significant change when
considering that the Reds’ hats were completely red with the exception of their
1993-1998 pinstripe home caps, which I can’t find anywhere. But the most
important feature, the one that has caused bits of grief for some Reds fans, is
the shadow added to the “C” logo.
Personally, I don’t mind it. From an art perspective it
gives the logo a bit more depth; however, from a fan perspective I can how this
could be considered frivolous.
Now, keeping in mind with what I said earlier about only making
this my one Reds cap purchase it will help explain why I chose the numbers I
did for this cap. With almost all of my other caps I’ve done a great job of
keeping the stats, dates and people within the timeframe of when the cap was
used on the field; however, based on those standards I totally blew this time
around. But, I did it all for the sake of the two most important figures (to
me) in Reds history who had the greatest impact on my youth years.
#11- 1990 was a weird year for me. I was seven-years-old, in
first grade and playing my second year of T-ball… as a member of the Reds. When
the season started I didn’t think much of it, nor did I really know how much
getting the jersey with the #11 on the back was going to impact the next decade
of my life.
I realize that saying you were one of the best players on
your T-ball team is incredibly silly, but it was true. Aside from being able to
hit a ball that doesn’t move with ease, I was actually a phenomenal defensive
threat. Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous this sounds, but how many
seven-year-olds do you know of that were capable of pulling off not one, but
TWO unassisted triple plays. Oooooohhhhh you don’t know of any? Exactly, now
you do. Granted, in both cases the only reason I was able to pull them off is
because the kids on the other team forgot that you’re supposed to go back to
the base when a pop fly has been caught, but at the same time I looked pretty
good for knowing what I could pull off at such a young age. And like I said,
not once, but twice. Only one other time in my life have I been privy to such
defensive awareness from someone so young. So yah, the next time you look at
that photo of the freckled kid above, just know that behind those eyes is a
Gold Glover waiting to embarrass your team.
Enough reminiscing about my “glory days,” Barry Larkin has
always been one of my favorite/most hated baseball figures in my life. For
those of you who don’t know, I’m a life-long Oakland Athletics fan. That bit of
information alone should fill in all the gaps, but I’m not one to leave empty
details. Larkin, like Pete Rose, was born and raised in Cincinnati
and attended Archbishop
Moeller High
School where he was a second round draft pick of
the Reds as an outfielder. Rather than sign on the dotted line, Larkin passed on their offer and decided to
go to college instead. For college, Larkin grew the largest set of balls the
state of Ohio had ever seen as he opted to
enroll at the University
of Michigan.
He's wearing an extra special cup made of gold.
The funny
thing about this move is that Larkin was originally set to play football under
Bo Schembechler in 1982. Larkin never saw one play on the
field for the Wolverines in football, and it was by chance later that year,
Schembechler allowed Larkin to pursue baseball. Good thing he did as Larkin
ended up becoming a two-time All-American (1984-1985), led the Wolverines to
two College World Series berths, won the 1983 Big-10 Tournament MVP, was the
1984 and 1985 Big-10 Player of the Year and even played on the 1984 US Olympic baseball team. Oh, and he also graduated like a boss. Despite “missing his
window” right out of high school the Reds came crawling back and took Larkin
with the fourth overall pick in the 1985 Major League Baseball amateur draft.
Larkin played in a total of 175 games in
the minor leagues for the AA Vermont Reds (72) and Denver Zephyrs (103) from
1985-1986 before making his MLB debut on August 13, 1986. Larkin only played in
41 games that season but still hit .283 with three home runs, 19 RBI and eight
stolen bases. His performance managed to get him one percent of the vote for
the National League Rookie of the Year award in what is arguably one of the
best campaigns in MLB history as that year also featured the debuts of Will
Clark, Kevin Mitchell, Robby Thompson, Todd Worrell (who won), John Kruk and
Barry Bonds. Crazy! What many may not remember about Larkin is that he was a
platoon shortstop for the first two years of his career as another prospect,
Kurt Stillwell, had been called up exactly two months earlier. Luckily for
Larkin the Reds front office saw the potential in him and ended up trading
Stillwell to the Kansas City Royals at the end of the 1987 season. In 1988
Larkin played in 151 games and had 588 at-bats. Why is this significant? Well,
Larkin only struck out 24 times that
season, the least in the Majors that season. In fact, the most Larkin ever
struck out during a season was 69 times in 1998, a year in which he won the
eighth of his nine total Silver Slugger awards.
For 19 years (1986-2004) Larkin was a
regular fixture of the Reds lineup. He made 12 All-Star Game appearances, 11 of
which came between 1988 and 2000 and won three Gold Gloves from 1994-1996. Keep
in mind, Larkin was still battling St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Ozzie
Smith for these spots and awards most of the time. Larkin maintained a .295
batting average throughout his career, had 2340 hits, 960 RBI, 198 home runs
and stole 379 bases. The best statistical season of his career came in 1995
when he went .319/15/66 with 51 stolen bases and his second Gold Glove which
were good enough for him to take home the National League MVP award that
season. Only five other times in his career would Larkin finish in the top-25
for the NL MVP. What’s even more interesting is that in 1996 Larkin finished 12th
for the award despite hitting .298 and becoming the first shortstop to ever hit
30 or more home runs (33) and steal 30 or more bases (36) in a season.
After his retirement in 2004, Larkin was hired as a special
assistant to the general manager in the Washington Nationals organization. In
2008, he signed with the MLB Network as a studio analyst. In 2011 he moved to ESPN
to serve as a Baseball Tonight analyst. Larkin received great applause
from Reds fans when he helped host Baseball Tonight's on-the-road coverage of
Sunday Night Baseball at GABP on July 24, 2011. Crowd chants of "Barry
Larkin" and "Hall of Fame" often caused the anchors to have to
talk very loud to be heard. Larkin was coincidentally in Cincinnati for Baseball Tonight on the day of
the 2011 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. He was the bench coach for the United States at the 2009 World Baseball Classic
and managed the United States'
second-round game against Puerto Rico when U.S. manager Davey Johnson left to
attend his stepson's wedding. On July 20, 2008, the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame
and Museum inducted Larkin, César Gerónimo, August "Garry" Herrmann,
and Joey Jay. In 2012, he was invited by the Brazilian Baseball Federation to
manage their national team in the qualifiers for the World Baseball classic.
Surprisingly Brazil beat the
home country Panama
qualifying for the first time ever for the event and played in Japan. They
were originally scheduled to play in Puerto Rico, but because of the huge
Japanese baseball influence in Brazil
they made the switch and the team played Cuba
and China
besides the home country. The team went winless in its WBC debut and was
eliminated after the first round. One thing to be noted is that Larkin speaks Spanish and Portuguese. Yes, the man is a legend.
In 2010, his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame,
Larkin was not elected, garnering 51.6 percent of the vote (75 percent is needed
for election). In 2011, he received 62.1 percent of the vote, the highest of
non-inducted players and third overall. In 2012, his third year of eligibility,
Larkin was voted into the Hall of Fame with 86.4 percent of the vote along with
Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo. He was the eighth Reds player and 24th
shortstop inducted to the Hall of Fame. On August 25, 2012 his number 11 was
retired in an official ceremony at Great
American Ball
Park.
#17- I can’t remember where I heard this story or from whom,
but somebody I know once asked former Reds pitcher and “Nasty Boy” Rob Dibble
who the craziest person from the early 1990s Reds team was. The person who
asked had originally assumed the answer was going to be Dibble or fellow “Nasty
Boy” Tom Browning. Nope! “Chris Sabo was the craziest motherf---er I’ve ever
met” was the quote I was told via hearsay from Dibble. Either way, growing up
he was my brother Adam’s favorite player.
Sabo brew up in Detroit and
attended Detroit Central Catholic
High School. In 1980 Sabo
was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 30th round of the amateur
draft, but elected to go to college as opposed to signing out of high school.
His college, the University
of Michigan. From
1980-1983 Sabo played baseball for the Wolverines, two of those years alongside
his future Reds teammate from above. When his college career came to an end the
Reds came calling, selecting him with their second round pick in 1983.
Sabo’s minor league journey started in Class-A with the
Cedar Rapids Reds before he spent his next two season with the AA Vermont Reds
as he corrected his swing mechanics. Sabo spent 1986 in Denver
with the AAA Zephyrs before moving to Nashville
with the Sounds in 1987 as the Reds switched their AAA affiliate. That season
Sabo was batting .292 with seven home runs, 53 RBI and 23 stolen bases and more
than likely would have still been stuck in the minors had it not been for an
injury to Reds’ starting third baseman Buddy Bell before the 1988 season
started. As a result Sabo was named the starting third baseman for the Reds
that season.
Spuds, as he was called by manager Pete Rose because of the
Bud Light Spuds MacKenzie advertisements, played in 137 games his first season
and hit .271 with 11 home runs, 44 RBI, 146 total hits and 46 stolen bases. His
campaign was good enough to land him his first of three trips to the All-Star
Game and he even edged out Chicago Cubs legend Mark Grace for the NL Rookie of
the Year award that season. Not too shabby of a first year, especially for a guy
who looks like the MLB version of Kurt Rambis.
1989 proved to be a pretty rough year for Sabo, but he
bounced back in 1990 and 1991 where he made the All-Star team his final two
times and cracked the top-20 for the NL MVP each of those years. His best season
coming in 1991 where he hit career highs in average (.301), triples (3), hits
(175), home runs (26), RBI (88) and OPS (.859). Unfortunately for Sabo, he only
managed to produce one more solid year in 1993 before he bounced around to the
Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Cardinals and back to the Reds where he
retired in 1996 amidst to a bit of controversy. In July of that season, Sabo
shattered his bat which was filled with cork. As a result of the incident, Sabo
received a seven-game suspension. Sabo maintains that he had never corked a bat
in his life. He claimed that the bat in question belonged to another player
(whom he would not name). He argued that his performance that season (3 home
runs in 52 games) was hardly "an endorsement of the cork industry."
Sabo was inducted in the Cincinnati Reds Hall Of Fame, along
with Pedro Borbón and Tony Mullane on July 17, 2010. The Cincinnati Reds gave
away Chris Sabo bobblehead dolls to fans in attendance that evening.
Now, you’re probably all wondering why or how I could forget
to mention the fact that both Larkin and Sabo were members of the 1990 World
Series team. Well, as I mentioned earlier, 1990 was kind of a dark time for me
being on the Reds for T-ball and being an A’s fan all-around. Like 1988 with
the Los Angeles Dodgers, I tend to just gloss over the fact that those two
World Series actually took place. I mean, c’mon!!! The A’s should have won
easily like in 1989, but instead got smoked by two of the most rag-tag teams ever assembled.
It was hell to watch, even at ages five and seven.
What’s truly remarkable about the 1990 World Series team is
that Larkin and Sabo hardly get mentioned for their performances. Most of the
talk always comes back around to MVP Jose Rijo, Dibble and Browning; however,
even though Rijo did pitch and amazing series with two wins, a 0.913 WHIP and
0.59 ERA, Larkin played in all four games and had the third-best batting
average of the Series (.353) along with six hits, a double, a triple, two walks
and one RBI. Billy Hatcher and Eric Davis put up great offensive numbers as
well, but no one mashed as well as Sabo did with his two home runs in Game 3
along with his .563 average and five RBI for the series. You don’t get pawned
off as the star player for the Series only to not get named MVP for coming up
huge. Right?
To make matters worse the Reds sweep ended in Oakland which marked the
second time I’ve ever cried at the end of a baseball game. The first time I’ll
get to later. You know, after reliving these dark times I’m glad I screwed up on
marking up this cap. :P
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