The Greatest Reds: #4

Should be anyway.

“Look, Ozzie did a backflip! GOld GLove!”

singlehandedly prevented a decade’s worth of Reds fans from jumping off the Roebling Bridge.

In the days of Marge and Benzinger, you could always fall back on, “Yeah, but at least we have Larkin.”

Prime rank: 11. Seems fitting.

I know the end of his career was a little contentious, but I’m proud that he only played for the Reds.

To have roughly 40 continuous years of the two best shortstops in team history. And followed up by a couple years of #13.

“To have roughly 40 continuous years of the two best shortstops in team history.”

Although I’m sure the figures don’t lie.

Agreed, this is a Larkin love-fest. I am not as high on him as some of you are. He deserves a spot in the top 10.

But I did notice on the list — Roy McMillan. Interesting career (traded to Milwaukee for Joey Jay btw) and I wonder how his numbers would stack up if overlaid against today’s talent. That guy could play short for anybody, period.

I enjoy reading the statistical comparisons but for purposes of being obstinate, I would rather you not compare defensive talent when comparing apples to oranges. A shortstop’s defense is measured far differently than that of an outfielder.

To say one is better defensively than the other has no bearing on practice.

Also on stolen bases, Robby played on a team that was made up of mashers in an era of the home run. Crosley and the teams the Reds built were not connected to stolen bases (hence, see the impact Vada Pinson had when he came up.)

I am not bashing Larkin at Robinson’s expense, but to compare them statistically doesn’t yield the data you think it should.

The games played is perhaps of value. I can’t recall Robinson being injured all that much but he was a hardnosed guy who got hit by a lot of pitches.

I don’t even think the stolen base was a priority at all in the 1950s. If you look at the old films of how the pitchers “held” runners with those long loping windups and leg kicks … it’s a wonder they didn’t get stolen blind. Few runners even bothered. Think of when Mays had 25 or so steals and was considered very efficient.

So the style of play changed and that would have had an impact on how an infielder played his position. The threat of a steal was as effective sometimes. Then again, the game changed. In the 50s, the sacrifice bunt was an art form. Now you wonder.

Yes, we do get to Bench.

But some folks are more inclined to measure these data than I am. Larkin would have excelled in any era. Robinson might have been reduced to career DH status after his first few seasons.

I got to thinking about this and who were the pitchers our favorite Reds had to face. We mention the toughest of the bunch and overlook the dozens of guys who weren’t all that tough. Pitchers who make the Hall of Fame get there because they get good hitters out.

It’s the bad pitchers that send good hitters to the Hall of Fame.

For every Sandy Koufax, there are a dozen Dallas Greens.