Barry Larkin meets African penguin chick that Cincinnati Zoo named after him

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden tweeted Monday that it was so thrilled to introduce National Baseball Hall of Famer and Bally Sports Ohio broadcaster Barry Larkin to Larkin, the African penguin chick the bird team named after the former Reds great last week.

On Larkin's birthday (April 28), the zoo announced that it selected Larkin as the name for its six-week-old African penguin.

"There are several Cincinnati Reds fans on the bird team, including me, and I actually lived in the same neighborhood as the Larkins when I was a kid," said Cincinnati Zoo bird team leader Rickey Kinley, per the zoo's website. "Our little chick was two weeks old when the City of Cincinnati renamed a street after Barry Larkin, and that gave me the idea to give the penguin his name too."

Larkin tweeted Monday afternoon that he was thankful to Kinley and the zoo's staff for introducing him to "little Larkin":

Larkin also thanked the zoo's communications director, Michelle Curley, for giving him a tour of the best zoo he's ever visited, and tweeted a photo of "Little Larkin" with his big sisters (Larkin's daughters), Cymber and Brielle.

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