Former Reds farmhand, 100, finally gets called up

Only in baseball…

The 100-year-old rookie shortstop could still nail a runner at first.

“My arm’s in good shape,” Len Kahny said, firing an imaginary rocket across a make-believe baseball diamond. “But,” he added as he pulled himself up in his wheelchair, “my legs are shot.”

He looked down and slapped his century-old thighs. Then, he gazed in silence at a photo of him in a thick, wool Reds uniform from spring training of 1936.

The home team is honoring him for passing the 100-year-mark with box seats to Saturday’s game and birthday greetings on the scoreboard.

“I don’t expect a bash at the ball park,” Kahny said. “It’s Johnny Bench’s night.”

“That’s OK,” Kahny said. “Bench had a much better career than me. I was just lucky to play the game. Today, I’m lucky to get around.”

...The Reds signed him, he surmised, “to have a hometown kid on the team. But they never called me up. I never had my rookie season.”

He knows why.

“The truth is, I just wasn’t good enough.”