The Pecan Park Eagle

Craig Biggio
Houston Astros
1988-2007

How soon we forget. How important it is we do not.

There isn’t a great player anywhere n the history of baseball that didn’t have to start somewhere with a hint of potential for good things to come, even it was only beating out hundreds of other candidates for the only contract issued to all of the 300 young men who showed up for a tryout in some backwater  bird scout’s country field. Heck! – Grover Cleveland Alexander had been working as a telephone lineman near his home town of Elba, Nebraska when he signed with the 1909 Galesburg Boosters of the Class D Illinois-Missouri League after manager Ed Wagner discovered “Old Pete” at the age of 22 as a result of a barnstorming game his club lost to a pick-up nine of Elbans at their home field because of the pitching mastery of a future Hall of Famer. Alexander rewarded manager/scout Walker by going 15-8 with a 1.36 ERA for Galesburg in 1909.

That is, at least, the way the coming of Alexander was portrayed in the 1952 film, “The Winning Team,” starring Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander. The truth may vary somewhat, as it often does in these baseball biographic movies that Hollywood cranked out during the Post-World War II years, but even a superficial examination of the facts on Alexander’s first minor league season seems to match up pretty well to the movie version. Even if there is some variance from reality, the story still serves as a model for how much luck and circumstance played into the signing of talent back during the slow mobility and primitive electronic communications era that the early 20th century business of this world had at its disposal. Talent was of utmost importance, even then, but it still didn’t matter much unless a potential player could manage to put himself in the right place at the right time for discovery, as old Pete did, in some way, once upon a time.

Twenty-seven years ago, in a slightly improved 1987 world of television, satellite communication, and jet airplane travel, contact between supply and demand aspects of all business ventures, including sports, was way better, but it still was not what it continues to grow and become at warp speed under the booming digital explosion of Internet possibilities that have come upon us in great waves of change in how we live our lives and change in our views of the world since the dawn of the 21st century.

Organized baseball was no exception to the rule.

On June 2, 1987, with the 22nd pick in the 1st round of the 1987 amateur player draft, the Houston Astros selected Craig Biggio of Seton Hall as their first choice. The Astros had scouted the small-framed catcher and found it impossible to pass him by, based upon both his batting record and his hustling athletic style of play. His potential for playing other positions, especially on the infield, was also obvious, but it was his bat that could not be ignored.

In 55 games for Seton Hall during the 1987 spring college baseball season, Biggio batted .407 and scored an amazingly high total of 97 runs. He also bashed  14 home runs and drove in 58 RBI on the college season, while chalking up 30 stolen bases in 32 attempts.  As a catcher, Biggio threw out only 11 of 40 base runners, but the Astros recognized his quick mechanics – and they recognized that all stolen bases are not the fault of the catcher. Craig Biggio was their man – in an era which made his club’s awareness of all the possibilities that came with this pick.

In a season for celebrating the coming of age and era of Jose Altuve, our next great Houston second baseman, we also want to make sure that we also remember the greatest player to date in Astro history, Mr. Craig Biggio, our near future first great All Astros Hall of Fame Member.

Thank you, Craig, for all the ways you make us proud of what you’ve done for this community, both on and off the field. And thank you too, Houston Astros, for keeping Craig Biggio a career man in the organization, and one with a possible future role to play as manager.

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THE PECAN PARK EAGLE DAILY MLB BATTING CROWN EYE:

The Eagle Eye on Jose Altuve’s pursuit of the 2014 American League and MLB batting average championships will continue daily through the balance of the season. For now, it’s a two-man race between Altuve and Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers. Should that change, so will our reporting format. – Bill McCurdy

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