Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Barry Larkin

The National Card Show afforded me an opportunity to add five Hall of Famers to my baseball collection, and a couple others who should be enshrined sooner, rather than later.  For a good deal on Saturday, I added Barry Larkin as my 125th Hall of Famer.

The ball is JSA authenticated and is a William White ONL baseball.  The dealer gave me $5 off the price, which is decent enough, I guess.  I have been wanting to knock Larkin off of my list for some time now, even though, in my humble opinion, I don't feel as if he is a surefire Hall of Famer.  That being said, however, there are guys who aren't in that I believe should be, but others could have an argument against them.  It creates a good field for debate, though.

Larkin (b. 1964) played in the majors from 1986 to 2004 for the Cincinnati Reds.  He had 2,340 hits, 198 home runs and a career average of .295.  He was an All Star 12 times, won the NL MVP in 1995 and won the World Series in 1990 with the Reds.  He was also a 9-time Silver Slugger Award winner and a 3-time Gold Glove Award winner.

Larkin making the Hall of Fame as a shortstop, I guess paves the way for someone like Omar Vizquel to get in.  I just don't feel as if Larkin has the stats, but compared to other shortstops not named Cal, he probably does measure up.