"On any athlete's path to sporting immortality, there are twists and turns, forks in the road that if the other one had been taken would have resulted in vastly different outcomes. For the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, shortstop Barry Larkin, two such moments stand out in memory.

The first life-altering crossroad occurred during Larkin's first year at the University of Michigan. Projected by recruiters as a two-sport athlete, legendary football coach Bo Schembechler decided to do him a favour and redshirted the young freshman, allowing Larkin to focus on baseball. He never returned to the gridiron and believes playing football would have prevented him from being where he is today as the 297th member of the Hall, the 112th player elected in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA)."