Barry Larkin Elected Into Baseball Hall Of Fame

Cincinnati Reds great Barry Larkin was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame earlier today by the Baseball Writers of America.

Larkin's enshrinement is well deserved. he  was a 12 time all-star, a nine time silver slugger winner as well as golden glove winnner on 3 seperate occasions.

Larkin played 19 seasons for the Reds and batted .295 with 2,340 hits, including 441 doubles, 76 triples and 198 home runs. He drove in 960 runs, scored 1,329, stole 379 bases and had more walks (939) than strikeouts (817). Larkin became the first shortstop to join the 30-30 club when he had 33 home runs and 36 steals in 1996. He was voted the National League Most Valuable Player in 1995 by the BBWAA and hit .353 in the Reds' World Series sweep of the Oakland Athletics in 1990.

Larkin was the only player who received the required  75% of the votes. He actually received 86.4 %. The rest of the votes are as followed:

Jack Morris 382 (66.7%), Jeff Bagwell 321 (56.0%), Lee Smith 290 (50.6%), Tim Raines 279 (48.7%), Edgar Martinez 209 (36.5%), Alan Trammell 211 (36.8%), Fred McGriff 137 (23.9%), Larry Walker 131 (22.9%), Mark McGwire 112 (19.5%), Don Mattingly 102 (17.8%), Dale Murphy 83 (14.5%), Rafael Palmeiro 72 (12.6%), Bernie Williams 55 (9.6%), Juan Gonzalez 23 (4.0%), Vinny Castilla 6 (1.0%), Tim Salmon 5 (0.9%), Bill Mueller 4 (0.7%), Brad Radke 2 (0.3%), Javy Lopez 1 (0.2%), Eric Young 1 (0.2%).

I know it's a long shot, but I would love to see Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly in the Hall one day.

Larkin will officially be enshrined on July 22 in Cooperstown. Also being honored that day will be Ron Santo who was voted in by the Golden Era Committee