Just a tribute reminder on another day of saluting Mr. Biggio: Do you remember what MMP looked like before the Astros hung all the sponsorship signs? This is how the park appeared on the day that Craig Biggio collected his 3,000th hit in 2007.
With 24 hours to go before the 2013 Hall of Fame induction results are announced, some polls of “talking voters” show Craig Biggio leading, but in the “close, but no cigar” range near the required 75% approval. If that holds, we may be looking at a rare year in which there are no recently active inductees. If it works out that way, I will hold to the position I took of two days ago – to be among those who are disappointed, but not surprised.
In the meanwhile, those of us fans who care about the HOF vote are left to think about all the things that our man Biggio did to carve his name into the company of the greatest ball players in baseball history.
I’m speaking of one category today. Just look at his career doubles tally. Friend and SABR colleague Mark Wernick reminded me of it in his comment upon the first Biggio article I wrote two days ago. That is, to state, the position of Craig Biggio on the most career doubles list. Pay attention to this current list from Baseball Almanac and where Craig Biggio is located on the list of the 100 Greatest MLB Doubles Hitters of All Time. – And please note the identities of those keeping company with Mr. Biggio near the top of the chart.
Some Brief Notes:
Of the seven players at the top of the list who have garnered a minimum of 650 career doubles, Craig Biggio is 5th from the top of the list with 668.
Craig Biggio had more career doubles than any other man who played primarily as a second baseman. WIth 746 doubles in 2nd place, Pete Rose had more career doubles than Biggio, but Pete played far fewer games at second base than he did in the outfield and elsewhere.
Look at the bold-type names of active players on the list. There isn’t anyone there now that’s a “probable” on catching and passing Craig Biggio any time soon, if ever.
Look who else lives in this rarefied company. Former Astro Carlos Lee is No. 81 on the list with 469 doubles.
It’s probably no accident that Biggio was thrown out on his 3,000th hit trying to stretch a single into a double. How appropriately sweet the safe-sign would have been under those circumstances on that special night at Minute Maid Park in 2007.
Enjoy perusing the list. And one more time: Good Luck, Tomorrow, Craig Biggio!
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 8, 2013 at 2:45 pm |
Thanks for the plug, Bill, but I think that was Peter Denman, although I’ve taken ample note of Biggio’s doubles totals on other occasions. I’m almost equally dazzled by Biggio’s career HBP totals – second all-time and only two behind # 1 Hughie Jennings. Or call him # 1 amongst modern era players (post-1900). There’s a hilarious quote about his accomplishment from The Onion in the in the following piece I cut and pasted from The Hardball Times; associated URL also follows:
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2. Craig Biggio, 285 HBP
Biggio is the modern leader of getting hit by pitches. At the plate, he was a gutsy, competitive hitter. He had a strong, but not spectacular, batting average, and he could hit for power and made the most of his opportunities on the basepaths. His .281 career BA may not seem HOF-worthy, but combined with a decent amount of walks and HBP, his .362 career OBP was very good.
In his peak years, Biggio could be counted on to score well over 100 runs, made easier with guys like Jeff Bagwell, Luis Gonzalez and Lance Berkman hitting behind him. He also had power, leading the league in doubles three times, including 51 in 1998. He was good for 30-40 a year, even hitting 40 at age 39 in 2005.
Biggio would get 15-20 HRs a year, hitting as many as 26 in 2005. He averaged 20 steals a season but had as many as 50 in 1998 (at age 32) and 47 in 1997. He found ways to help his team win, and the HBP was one of them.
He led the league in HBP five times, the most being in 1997, when he was hit 31 times. Most of his HBP came in the middle of his career. In his first full six seasons, he was hit a total of 35 times, pretty much equal to his one-season mark in 1997. In 1995, he got hit 22 times, and it started a trend.
For his next 11 seasons he was hit an average of 21 times, which seemed to roughly coincide with the Astros’ rush of success over those years. Between 1997 and 2005, they made six playoff appearances, including winning a pennant and making it to the NLCS twice. Did Biggio’s getting plunked frequently play a role in this? Let the reader decide.
Biggio’s HBP rate would perhaps be higher, but in his last two seasons, he either would avoid the inside of the plate or pitchers pitched away from him. In 2006 he was hit only nine times, while in 2007 only three. Another respected baseball journal, The Onion, had some fun with this:
“You guys perpetuated this by comparing me to Hughie day in and day out,” said a chain-smoking Biggio, showing reporters from over 50 media outlets the bundles of hate mail he has received from baseball fans.
“Listen to these people: ‘Quit now before you break the hearts of fans everywhere, Craig.’ ‘Hey Craig Bitch, I’ll kill you and your family if you break the record.’ ‘Jennings did it without an arm guard.’ Do you think they had even heard of this guy before you people had my countdown on the front page every day? Jesus Christ!”
“More than anything, I just want to be hit by three more pitches so all of this will go away,” said Biggio, who claims he has not slept in weeks and has developed multiple stomach ulcers. “Now I know why Don Baylor quit at 267.”
It will be an interesting conversation to see if Biggio makes it in the Hall next year. But even if he doesn’t, his old arm guard has a cherished place.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-top-10-career-hit-batters-the-method-to-the-madness/
January 8, 2013 at 4:51 pm |
My apologies to Peter Denman, but thank you, Mark Wernick. What a wonderful walk down Biggio’s fabled HBP lane.