He quickly won the starting shortstop role for the Reds and enjoyed a long run of strong seasons with the team.

Larkin retired after the 2004 season and worked in a front-office position for the Washington Nationals for several years until he joined ESPN as a baseball analyst.

He was selected to the Major League All-Star Game twelve times, and was one of the pivotal players on the 1990 Reds' World Series championship team.

[5] After arriving in the majors, Larkin battled fellow prospect Kurt Stillwell for the starting shortstop spot before establishing himself as the starter in 1987.

[4] Larkin batted .353 in the 1990 World Series to help lead the Reds to a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics.

He said he was likely to leave the team when his contract expired the next year, but he was encouraged when the Reds acquired pitchers Tim Belcher and Greg Swindell in the offseason.

[1] In 1993, he won the Roberto Clemente Award,[4] which recognizes players who display sportsmanship, community service and on-field ability.

[7] In 1995, Larkin finished sixth in batting (.319) and second in stolen bases (51) to win the National League's MVP award, the first by a shortstop since Maury Wills in 1962.

[4] In 1996, Larkin hit a career-high 33 home runs and stole 36 bases, becoming the first shortstop in Major League history to join the 30–30 club.

Larkin was named the Reds' captain before the 1997 season, making him the first player to hold the honor since Dave Concepción's retirement.

[9] On September 27, 1998, Barry, his brother Stephen Larkin, second baseman Bret Boone, and third baseman Aaron Boone all played the infield at the same time for the last game of the 1998 season, making it the first time in MLB history that an infield was composed entirely of two pairs of brothers.

[11] Also in 1999, Larkin served as a pre-game analyst for NBC's coverage of the World Series alongside host Hannah Storm.

[16] During the 2002 season, Larkin played in 145 games but hit for the lowest batting average (.245) since his first full year in the major leagues.

Though he did not miss many games, Larkin dealt with injuries to his rib cage, hamstring, shoulder, neck and toe.

[17] During strained contract negotiations with Reds COO John Allen in late 2003, Larkin almost left the team.

Larkin had hoped to work for the Reds, but USA Today reported that his 2003 contract disagreement with Allen eliminated that opportunity.

[23] On July 20, 2008, the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum inducted Larkin, César Gerónimo, August "Garry" Herrmann, and Joey Jay.

Crowd chants of "Barry Larkin" and "Hall of Fame" often caused the anchors to have to talk very loud to be heard.

[citation needed] Larkin was coincidentally in Cincinnati for Baseball Tonight on the day of the 2011 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

[citation needed] In November 2013, Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski confirmed that the organization had intended to interview Larkin for its open managerial position.

"[35] On February 16, 2021, it was announced that Larkin joined the Reds' television broadcast team on Fox Sports Ohio.

In this function, he has traveled to Colombia, Ecuador, India, Lithuania, Taiwan, where he worked with to conduct baseball clinics and events that reached more than 2,200 youth from underserved areas.

In so doing, Larkin helped contribute to SportsUnited's mission to reach out to youth populations in order to promote growth and a stable democratic government.