Considering everything Barry Larkin accomplished during his 19-year baseball career, the former Cincinnati Reds All-Star shortstop has never seen one of his jerseys retired.

That will change on Saturday night.

Larkin will become the sixth baseball player in Michigan history to have his number retired in a pre-game ceremony prior to Saturday night's 6:05 p.m. home game against rival Ohio State.

"This is certainly special," Larkin said Wednesday during a teleconference with reporters. "It's just a little sad that some of the people who were very instrumental in me coming to Michigan are not around to see this happen."

Namely Bo Schembechler.

Larkin originally came to Michigan to play football for Schembechler, who recruited both Larkin and his older brother to play for the Wolverines. Barry's brother followed his high school coach, Gerry Faust, to Notre Dame.

Once the elder Larkin ended up in South Bend, Schembechler was intent on getting the next Larkin to come to Ann Arbor.

"That was me," Larkin said.

Schembechler initially agreed to let Larkin play two sports at Michigan. But after deciding to redshirt his freshman defensive back, Larkin the shortstop - who wore No. 16 during his Michigan baseball career - decided to devote his attention to baseball once and for all.

That didn't go over well with Schembechler, who characterized baseball as a "sissy sport" and who used to heckle Larkin at practice.

Larkin still remembers having to alert the legendary football coach of his decision to focus on the sport that led to his career in the Major Leagues.

"You certainly didn't want to see the side of him when you tell him you're not going to contribute to his program," Larkin said. "He was like a bull in a china shop - I thought he was going to come across the table and absolutely kill me."

After twice earning All-America honors at Michigan and leading the Wolverines to two College World Series appearances, Larkin went on to play 19 years with the Reds, making 12 All-Star Game appearances, won three Gold Gloves and was named the National League MVP in 1995. He retired in 2004 after collecting 2,340 hits and registering a career batting average of .295.

This year, in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, Larkin picked up 51.6 percent of the vote, falling short of the 75 percent required for enshrinement. He now works as an analyst on the MLB Network.

Larkin has already been inducted into Michigan's Hall of Honor for his baseball accomplishments, but said Schembechler never admitted the Cincinnati native made the right choice in choosing the sport he did.

Larkin will join Moby Benedict (No. 1), Bill Freehan (No. 11), Jim Abbott (No. 31), Don Lund (No. 33) and Ray Fisher (No. 44) in the fraternity of retired jerseys at Michigan. Limited tickets are still available for Saturday's game and the first 250 fans will receive a Larkin T-shirt.

Michigan (25-14, 7-5 Big Ten) is in a 3-way tie for first place with Michigan State and Ohio State heading into this weekend's 3-game series.

Jeff Arnold covers sports for AnnArbor.com and can be reached at (734) 634-2554 or by email at jeffarnold@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffreyparnold.