Barry Larkin Quotations

What people don't realize is that professionals are sensational because of the fundamentals. The sensationalism has taken over the professionalism.

If you can prove a guy did cheat, then I don't believe he belongs. I don't believe that there are any guys that did cheat, in that respect, that are in the Hall of Fame. So I think opening up the doors to guys that admittedly cheated or are proven that they did cheat, it kills the integrity of what the Hall of Fame stands for.

I did enjoy football, but the injury factor for me, you know, I had so many issues. I don't know how long my career would've been.

I'm glad that I just played baseball, because I'm sure I had a much longer baseball career than I would've had a football career. I did miss football, but I didn't miss some of the injuries from football.

The stance I took was there is no room for racial bias anywhere in sports. I believe that was basically all I said about it. Certainly I was cast as an abolitionist. Death threats came. Hate mail came.

I have a love for Shea Stadium and its fans. I had so much fun with the fans. Yeah, they booed me. I was like, 'I know, I know.'

I see it as a responsibility of mine to teach others.

I think every player wants to be acknowledged for what they have done. I think every player eligible for the Hall Of Fame feels that the ultimate validation is enshrinement.

I love boxing. I like to see the strategizing. Watching the warriors go to work. I like that struggle, going out there and fighting.

I wanted to go to college and play football.

I remember playing on pretty much an all-minority youth team and going to some of the tournaments north of Cincinnati and not being able to stay with host families where all the other teams were staying with host families.

My message to a lot of guys is, if you like school and you like education, baseball is gonna be there, and you can get some of the same great competition in college that you do in the low minor leagues.

He's just put it all together. He's a fantastically talented, strong, gifted athlete. But with all those characteristics sometimes comes absent-mindedness and lack of attention to detail. Those are some of the things we can't have as shortstops. So that's what we worked on. Everything else has kind of blossomed.

We worked really hard and we worked a lot on the fundamentals of the game and making the basic plays. With special athletes, sometimes that fundamental play gets lost. I know when I first came up, the ball I had the most trouble with was the ball hit right at me, because I assumed I could make that routine play.

You better hit the yellow! I want to see you hit one into the lights.

That guy's really good when he's healthy. That's what I think. I mean, he's really, really good when he's healthy.