Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

Barry Larkin is taking it all in, having had his brothers Mike and Byron join him Saturday morning in the Baseball Hall of Famers' golf outing ('Lark & Co.' were 22-under par).

At Larkin's Saturday afternoon press conference, he told some Gerry Faust stories. He even regaled some national baseball writers with an anecdote about the loosely structured boyhood tumbling competitions in a park, where Silverton and Kennedy Heights squared off (the scribes had no idea what he was talking about).

It has served to give Larkin's Induction Weekend a distinctly Cincinnati flavor - even moreso than in 2000, when the Big Red Machiners Sparky Anderson and Tony Perez went in, as did 19th century Reds second baseman Bid McPhee. Also, Reds announcer Marty Brennaman won the Ford Frick award.

Twelve years ago, it was a Reds' descent on Cooperstown.

This year, it's more of a Cincinnati descent.

Figuratively, it's as though three-ways, "please?" and end-of-summer fireworks have infused Central New York with southwest Ohio rhythms.

Some Reds fans have criticized Larkin as not "enough Cincinnati." They say he was too much of a clubhouse lawyer, that he never should have ripped the captain's "C" off his jersey, and that he and fellow Cincinnatian Ken Griffey Jr. never should have undercut former Reds manager Jack McKeon.

But that wasn't the Larkin of Saturday.

The Moeller High graduate has lived in Florida for quite awhile now, but this weekend he's been very at ease in his Cincinnati skin.

The mountain he will climb Sunday is a lot taller than Mount Adams.

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