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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2009 > February > 04
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Concepcion or Larkin? Take your pick
An intriguing question was posed on Mark Schlemmer’s WONE radio talk show in Dayton this week: Davey Concepcion or Barry Larkin?
Listeners were asked to choose which former Cincinnati Reds shortstop they would pick for their team.
Schlemmer asked me and I said, “I’ll give you the first pick and I’ll take the other guy.” It’s that close.
If somebody threatened to force-feed me a peanut butter cookie made from Peanut Corporation of America peanuts, I’d say: Larkin.
Defensively, they’re a wash. Both played 19 seasons. Larkin’s fielding percentage was .975 and Concepcion’s was .971, with Larkin winning three Gold Gloves and Concepcion five.
The difference is offense. Larkin was a force while Concepcion was a snug-fitting piece on the Big Red Machine. While Larkin’s career average was .295 and Concepcion’s was .267, interestingly enough, Larkin drove in 960 runs, only four more than Concepcion.
Larkin hit 198 homers and won nine Silver Slugger Awards. Concepcion hit 101 homers and won two Silver Slugger Awards. Larkin wins the on-base average contest .371 to .322. Larkin was on 12 All-Star teams to nine for Concepcion.
Both played their entire careers in Cincinnati, although late in his career Larkin had to veto a trade to the Mets to stay. And I believe Larkin and Concepcion are the only two players ever to wear a captain’s ‘C’ on their Cincinnati uniforms.
My solution? Larkin at shortstop and Concepcion at third, where he played during his last days in Cincinnati.
Or maybe I’d put Larkin at third and Concepcion at short. Wouldn’t matter either way.
I do remember that when Larkin was coming up through the system - real, real fast (only 175 games in the minors), Kurt Stillwell was another shortstop in the system.
There was discussion about moving Larkin to second base so Stillwell could play shortstop. That didn’t happen and Stillwell eventually was traded.
How fortuitous was THAT move - leaving Larkin at shortstop?
There are those who remember the time Larkin was in a snit about something and ripped the captain’s ‘C’ off his chest. It didn’t last long and blew over and was one of the few times Larkin was not the perfect citizen.
And there was the time when his contract was about to expire and CEO-at-the-time John Allen didn’t want to re-sign him. GM Jim Bowden traded him to the Mets, but Larkin invoked his no-trade clause and said no.
Then he went over Allen’s head to owner Carl Lindner and got himself a $27 million deal.
Lindner loved Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. Once Lindner drove his $200,000 Bentley convertible to a game. Larkin and Griffey asked to take it out for a spin and Lindner tossed them the keys.
Before they returned it, they removed all of Lindner’s cassette tapes and replaced them with rap and hip-hop tapes.
And speaking of cars, when Larkin retired, he bought a new Mercedes for clubhouse attendant Rick Stowe.
Concepcion had trouble gaining clubhouse attention from the media because of the presence of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster and Ken Griffey Sr.
And he loved attention. In the mid-70s, when clothes were garish, Concepcion went beyond garish, purchasing and brown and tan suit in large plaid. With it, he wore a dark brown velour bow tie.
When he boarded the team bus in the outfit, Rose burst out laughing and said, “When did we trade for Bozo the Clown?” He did look like a dressed-up Bozo and for the rest of the year that was his nickname, “Bozo.”
One time Concepcion felt he was wronged by the media and when he was approached after a game, he said, “I’m not talking to you guys.”
So we all ignored him. And ignored him and ignored him. Nobody tried to talk to him.
He always called me Mack-Coy and after about three weeks, I was walking past his locker and he said, “Hey, Mack-Coy, I talk to you guys now.”
I said, “OK, Davey.” And we cruelly ignored him for another week before we approached him again. He never refused to talk again.
When it comes to shortstops, though, both should have their pictures emblazoned in the grass behind their position in Great American Ballpark. That was 38 straight years of unbelievable shortstopping for the Reds.
Which one would you take?
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