Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Salt Lake City — University of Miami point guard and NBA draft prospect Shane Larkin is the son of former Reds captain and baseball Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin.
Instead of playing out his summers with America's pastime, Larkin spent his youth traveling the country in basketball tournaments.
His game polished, matured and grew, until he grew no more. Larkin topped out at 5-feet-11-inches. A perfect size for a major league shortstop. Tall enough to rob hits from deep in the hole, but not so encumbered by gawkiness that it robbed athleticism.
Coach was like, 'Whoever taught you how to hit doesn't know what they're talking about.'
–Shane Larkin, son of Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin
Except that Larkin didn't try to excel at baseball, heck, he barely gave it a batter's chance against an Aroldis Chapman fastball.
"YMCA, I'm like eight-years-old and I'm playing coach pitch. Pete Rose and Tony Perez taught me how to hit," Larkin said.
This begins like a beautiful baseball beginning. Schooled in the fine arts of baseball mastery by two of the greatest hitters of all-time. Rose has more hits than anyone in baseball history and Perez is widely acknowledged as one of the great clutch hitters. A pair of championships from the Big-Red Machine cement their legacy.
"Tony has like a bat swing," Larkin said. More like a conductor gently ramping-up the percussion section before he unleashes its fury.
"And Pete lifted his foot." A crucial timing mechanism used to find that tenth-of-a-second window of hitting success.
"So I'm doing that as an eight-year-old, doing my thing and the coach was like, 'Whoever taught you how to hit doesn't know what they're talking about. So, just forget that and do what I tell you to do.'" Larkin recalled.
Editors note: Don't even get me started on the world class arrogance of this coach. #DontYouKnowWhoMyFatherIs
Larkin listened to his coach, dropped his Hall-of-Fame mechanics, and was "unsuccessful" the rest of the season.
"That was my last year of organized baseball, ever," Larkin said.
Removing a child's batting emulation is worse than spilling the Santa beans.
Although NBA GM's are grateful for this little league coach, I can't help but mourn for what could have been.
Or maybe I'm happy. I'm certainly conflicted.
We wonder what Karl Malone would have been like on the gridiron. Well, his son K.J. signed with LSU to play football.
How would Ken Griffey, Jr.'s grace and athleticism translate as a wide-receiver. Well, his son Trey is a wideout for the Arizona Wildcats.
After watching hundreds of Barry Larkin's games, I'm excited to see how Shane Larkin translates, at the highest level, to the basketball court.
Although, I would have loved seeing Shane skating around the infield and using his 44 inch vertical to snatch sure-fire base-hits away from batters.
I guess, there's always a coach to blame.
