This week's Illustration Friday prompt immediately conjured in my mind a famous baseball player named Barry. No, no, not that scandal-ridden newly-crowned home run king...
Barry Larkin was a mainstay of my Reds fandom for as long as I can remember. This Cincinnati native started playing for the Reds when I was 3 and retired as I began my last year of college (a devastating wake-up-and-become-an-adult-because-things-are-changing-fast moment).
[In a similar moment, I discovered today that not only has Reading Rainbow gone off the air, but it ran from the year I was born to the year I graduated from college. Talk about formative!]
Not only was Larkin a brilliant defensive shortstop (3 Gold Gloves) and one of the best-hitting (9 Silver Sluggers) shortstops of his day --a day before the likes of Jeter, A-Rod, and Tejada-- but in 1997 he was named captain of the oldest professional franchise in baseball. We miss you, Barry!
Nice drawing!
ReplyDeleteguess he came after rose, bench and concepion, sound like he had quite the career. nice tribute to him
ReplyDeletezizzlebug,
ReplyDeleteit looks like you have lots of fans, judging by the number of comments you've gotten on these lovely illustrations. :) i was thinking of barry larkin last night when the tornado siren went off... ahhh, wonderful childhood memories.
-tu hermanita