The torch is passed
Felipe Lopez fulfilling Larkin's prediction with outstanding play

By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer

The afternoon sun pressed through frosted glass and dispersed into the musty visitor's clubhouse at Jack Russell Stadium.

Seated beside a rickety wood and wire locker, the aging Reds shortstop mused about the onset of his athletic mortality.

"It's time for someone to come along," Barry Larkin said that spring training day in 2003. "And it's time for me to have a hand in passing the torch."

The handoff would take more than two years to complete - and there were obstacles to negotiate along the way - but it was worth the effort for Larkin and apprentice Felipe Lopez.

"Even when people were talking about Ray Olmedo and Anderson Machado, I always said Felipe was the next one," Larkin said last week. "He's just got that ability, which he has now harnessed."

A remarkable Reds shortstop lineage that traces to Roy McMillan in the early 1950s - and includes Leo Cardenas, Dave Concepcion and Larkin - remains in capable hands.

Though Lopez did not become the Reds' full-time starter at the position until mid-May, a monster first half that could lead to the finest offensive season by any Reds shortstop landed the 25-year-old on the National League All-Star team for the first time.

"I never thought about this happening," Lopez said. "It just happens. I don't think about this stuff at the beginning of the season.

"I didn't even know if I was going to start this season."

The emergence of Lopez has been a bright spot during an otherwise dismal first half for the Reds, who are 18 games under .500 and last in the NL Central.

"He's got some of the best tools in baseball. We've always known that," first baseman Sean Casey said. "Now he's starting to prove it. He's playing with a lot of confidence and it's fun to watch."
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