How I regret living in Michigan and not being able to attend the August 17 Houston Astros home game.
That afternoon, before their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the 'Stros will retire the number of Astros legend Craig Biggio.
The Number 7 jersey of Biggio's will join the other retirees: #5 (Jeff Bagwell, who hit .297 with 449 home runs and 1,529 RBIs in a brilliant career that was cut short by shoulder injuries); #24 (Jimmy "Toy Cannon" Winn); #25 (Jose Cruz, a four-time Astros MVP who it over .300 six times in his career and currently serves as Houston's first-base coach); #32 (the late Jim Umbricht, who returned to playing for Houston after cancer surgery); #33 (Mike Scott, whose split-fingered fastball earned him Houston's last Cy Young Award and helped him come ever so close to propelling the Astros to the 1986 World Series); #34 (Nolan Ryan, do you really need to know why?); #40 (Don Wilson, who threw two no-hitters for the Astros and holds the club record for 18 strikeouts in a game); #42 (Jackie Robinson, MLB's first African-American player whose number was retired league-wide in 1997); and #49 (Larry Dierker, who won 137 games in his 13 years in Houston and still holds many Astros pitching records).
Last year in his final season, Biggio became the first Astro to record his 3,000th career hit. Ok, so it was a single that he unsuccessfully tried to stretch into a double...maybe some of that old, carbon-dated pine tar on his helmet clouded his thoughts.
Biggio, one of those rare players who spent his entire career with the same team (at one time, the Colorado Rockies were even offering Biggio more money to leave Houston), spent 20 seasons in Houston. He finished his career with 3,061 hits, 668 doubles, 291 home runs, 1,175 RBIs and a .281 lifetime batting average.
Not bad for a guy who many thought batted using his big brother's batting helmet. Biggio also started his career as a catcher, moved to second base, then to the outfield and then back to second base. I look forward to the day that both his and Bagwell's plaques are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
668 doubles, 291 home runs, 1,175 runs batted in and a .281 career batting average.
Keywords: Astros, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Jose Cruz, Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan
