Seeing the Houston Astros finally win a World Series championship is the ultimate bucket list item, but watching life-time Astro Craig Biggio inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is at least one tick off the list for most fans.
Fans knew this time was coming from the day Biggio retired. It was just a matter of when. “When” happened on Sunday and it was a magical day for a very humble and deserving player.
Watching clips of Biggio baby faced and hustling was a reminder of the great days when he was leading by example and showing other players that playing a game for a living was a privilege not given to all mortals. His friend and former teammate, Detroit manager Brad Ausmus did a solid job of describing his all out hustle on every grounder to the mound and what a great athlete he was to shift from All Star catcher to All Star second baseman and solid outfielder. It was even fun to hear Ausmus chide Biggio for trying to impossibly stretch his 3000th hit into a signature double. Biggio was great, but yes he had his flaws.
One of the things that always tied Craig Biggio closely to the fans was the fact that he was not a JJ Watt, 6’8″ 280 pound super human. Sure, the fans love JJ, but more like a Norse god, not like the normal everyman that Bidge represented. Biggio was a great athlete, but he looked like the guy next door, the guy who runs the local hardware store, the guy who used to deliver your papers when he was a kid (which he did).
Craig Biggio gave a Hall of Fame acceptance speech that was a grand slam. This was not the baseball cliche riddled interview blurbs he would give after games during his career. This was heartfelt and warm and reaching and a piece of his soul. His most emotional moment was talking about his late parents and what they meant to him and what they did for him and how much he missed them this day. One of the most poignant moments though, was seeing the tears welling up in tough Matt Galante‘s eyes as Biggio singled him out for making him the second baseman who earned the Hall of Fame.
There were many wonderful moments of thanks from his beginnings of baseball all the way through to his current days of coaching the St. Thomas High School baseball team. He revealed that the impetus for his dedication to the Sunshine Kids was seeing what leukemia did to a family he threw newspapers to back on Long Island. His tributes to his two sons and daughter were touching and his tribute to his wife Patty was the type of moment that makes all husbands think hard about what their wives mean to them. For those who keep wondering whether Craig will one day become the Astros’ manager, this portion of the speech and the many sacrifices that Patty made to keep the family afloat during Craig’s eight months of absences each season, may have answered that question.
Craig Biggio thanked the fans of Houston. He thanked baseball itself for what it did for him. All we can say is the thanks are all ours.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
131 responses to ““BGO”: One for the Astros’ fans’ bucket list”
McHugh continues to get the most support on the staff. Have to love the contributions from all over the lineup. Go ‘Stros!
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Good job by the BP tonight
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Tied for 1st place baby!
I know it’s still a bit early, but AJ *has* to get some serious looks at manager of the year consideration.
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I think the Astros lineup did a good job tonight. I will be happy with 10 more Astros runs tomorrow night.
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Attendance was 24,000 tonight. That’s embarrassing. At least the Astros showed up!
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I’m just up late and speculating, because I can’t sleep.
Luhnow says Lowrie might be back before the end of the weekend and Saturday is August 1st. Does the following make sense?
Singleton is still on the team because his name may be on some lists of trades and it would not look good to send him down. So, either he gets traded by midnight on Friday night and Lowrie gets the call Saturday.
OR
Singleton doesn’t get traded and he gets sent down Saturday and Lowrie comes back.
That is my only explanation for Singleton being here and hardly playing.
Now maybe he plays 1B against Richards tomorrow. But that sure seems like a mismatch. He’s 0-6 against Richards with 4 Ks.
Castro is pretty bad against Richards, but Conger’s never faced him. Correa’s never faced him.
Carter has fared well as has Altuve and Rasmus against Richards. So has Lowrie, dang it!
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I know that he was only 1 for 4 with 2 Ks, but Carter’s 2 run bomb to the bullpen in right center was huge.
Correa continues to hit so maturely – whacking that ball the other way including what has to be his third (at least) opposite field homer. Conger continues to show good offense and the inability to throw anyone out. JFSF shows flashes of what made the Astros so dangerous when he was getting on ahead of Altuve.
Great way to start the biggest series of the year so far.
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Tonight is a big game as they are facing the Angels best pitcher. If the Astros can get the win tonight it sets up for a sweep on Thursday with Kazmir starting.
Also, I am traveling on business today and tonight so I want to thank ESPN for picking up the game. I can now watch it in my hotel room, which I wouldn’t have been able to if not picked up by ESPN. I love watching my Astros!
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The twitter feed over at http://www.astrosdaily.Com is going *bananas*!!! You ought to see the different senerio’s they are talking about on trades luhnow is working on!!
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mlbtraderumors.com are intimating (I think that is a word) that the Phillies may be leaning towards only working out the best deal with teams that are not on Hamels’ no-trade list. My assumption here is that they could still get blown away by someone like the Astros, but that they would have to be over the top enough to make it worth their while to hassle with Hamels.
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He will fit in perfectly with the Rangers. In two years they will be the Phillies of the AL.
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I feel like Amaro is blowing this and will have to take a lesser offer or wait until the winter. I’m fine with not acquiring Hamels at too steap a price. I want Springer back in the lineup and no trade can make that happen soon enough…just don’t want to panic.
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Wow love it just finished reading the 140 posts LOL. Last year at this time I would be reading 12. I’m not sure the Astros do anything, dance with who ya brung. Now that’s some Southern from here in Colorado.
With Lowrie coming back and Springer late August, maybe that’s their idea of adding proven Talent. If they do add some one, will be frosting on the cake.
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Did anyone notice that Robertson of the Angels tried to take out Altuve after Altuve had touched the bag for the third out and then stepped out of the way at the end of the top of the eighth? Robertson slid inside the bag, rather than outside because that was the side Altuve had taken to avoid any contact. Altuve then turned back to Robertson and said something to him and continued to scold him as he turned toward the Astros dugout.
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op – I absolutely saw that and it was absolutely intentional on Robertson’s part, because it was right in front of him and there was no way what he was doing was going to keep Altuve from making the play, but it could have broken a leg or blown out a knee. Dirty playing.
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Is that the same Robertson who as of today is now back in AAA?
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Hank Conger is a fighter. Memo to opposing pitchers – you might want to rethink hitting two of our batters in the same inning – and if you still think it’s a good idea, you might at least want to rethink having Hammering Hank Conger be one of the guys you decide to hit.
Jose Altuve has decided that driving in runs is even more fun than being driven in. He has also decided that the base paths are for running in – not waiting around for someone else to pick him up.
The bull pen was nails. Really sharp, really hard nails. Coffin-sealing nails. “Sorry, Wanna try again tomorrow night, Sucker?” nails. I like that.
Evan Gattis is a triple-hitting machine. With him, first comes the thunder, then comes the lightning.
Carlos Correa is an alien from an advanced planetary system. One day soon he will declare the War of the Worlds to be ‘on’ – the War of the Worlds Series, that is.
Chris Carter is . . . well, he is what he is. Last night we saw the occasional pitcher’s mistake actually hit his bat in mid-swing. Boom – bullpen ball! Of course, we also saw Chris flail through his obligatory two strikeouts per game and saw him leave 2 more men on base. At least this time his ‘Heh, heh – looky there what happens when you make a mistake and hit my bat’ bullpen shot came with a hit-batsman on and at a critical time in the game. So, Miguel Cabrera he isn’t. Evan Gattis he isn’t. Mighty Casey he isn’t. But at least he broke his latest extended 0-fer at a good time for the team, so cudos and Gatorade showers to you for that, Chris.
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