Biggio - leadership, selflessness, sacrifice
Craig Alan Biggio, my favorite Houston Astro (Major League Baseball Team) and one of the most amazing ball-players I have seen play the game of baseball.
Craig was born on December 14, 1965 in Smithtown, New York... less than 5 hours from Cooperstown, New York where he will eventually be immortalized at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
I've been attending baseball games since I was very young. My father used to take me to games in Venezuela to watch our favorite passtime (Yes, baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport!).
I used to watch my team, Los Leones de Caracas (Caracas Lions), battle against Navegantes del Magallenes, Cardenales de Lara, Tigres de Aragua, Aguilas del Zulia and Tiburones de La Guaira. Venezuela's league has added some teams since that time... but that's the old-school group of teams!
My Leones had a mix of Venezuelan players (some Venezuelan major-leaguers) and American Major League players - usually young (up and coming) players trying to hone their skills in Venezuela's Winter Ball League. Some names from the past who have played in Venezuela include: Rod Carew, Dave Parker, Pete Rose, Cecil Fielder, Andre Dawson, Ken Forsch and many more.
Every Venezuelan player who has been a major leaguer started their career in the Venezuelan League.... including Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio, current White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, shortstop David Concepcion (member of Cincy's Big Red Machine), magical shortstop Omar Vizquel.
So... with that, I wanted to set the table that I have seen and enjoyed a lot of baseball. I've watched great players and others that I'd like to forget. I've enjoyed fantastic playoff runs and heart-breaking seasons. Through many of these years, there was a constant and his name is Craig Biggio.
My favorite baseball player of all time is Craig Biggio.
He played his career with the same team, played the game the right way (run out every ball, play hard every minute) and generously gave his time and money to his favorite charity, The Sunshine Kids.
Biggio ended his career with 668 doubles (5th on the Major Leagues all-time) so it was PERFECT that his final hit was a double to complete an amazing career spanning three decades (from 1988 to 2007). Here are his hitting and fielding statistics (from www.Astros.com) :
| Hitting Stats: | ||||||||||||||||
| SEASON | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | BB | SO | SB | CS | OBP | SLG | AVG |
| 1988 | 50 | 123 | 14 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 43 | 7 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 0.254 | 0.35 | 0.211 |
| 1989 | 134 | 443 | 64 | 114 | 21 | 2 | 13 | 60 | 178 | 49 | 64 | 21 | 3 | 0.336 | 0.402 | 0.257 |
| 1990 | 150 | 555 | 53 | 153 | 24 | 2 | 4 | 42 | 193 | 53 | 79 | 25 | 11 | 0.342 | 0.348 | 0.276 |
| 1991 | 149 | 546 | 79 | 161 | 23 | 4 | 4 | 46 | 204 | 53 | 71 | 19 | 6 | 0.358 | 0.374 | 0.295 |
| 1992 | 162 | 613 | 96 | 170 | 32 | 3 | 6 | 39 | 226 | 94 | 95 | 38 | 15 | 0.378 | 0.369 | 0.277 |
| 1993 | 155 | 610 | 98 | 175 | 41 | 5 | 21 | 64 | 289 | 77 | 93 | 15 | 17 | 0.373 | 0.474 | 0.287 |
| 1994 | 114 | 437 | 88 | 139 | 44 | 5 | 6 | 56 | 211 | 62 | 58 | 39 | 4 | 0.411 | 0.483 | 0.318 |
| 1995 | 141 | 553 | 123 | 167 | 30 | 2 | 22 | 77 | 267 | 80 | 85 | 33 | 8 | 0.406 | 0.483 | 0.302 |
| 1996 | 162 | 605 | 113 | 174 | 24 | 4 | 15 | 75 | 251 | 75 | 72 | 25 | 7 | 0.386 | 0.415 | 0.288 |
| 1997 | 162 | 619 | 146 | 191 | 37 | 8 | 22 | 81 | 310 | 84 | 107 | 47 | 10 | 0.415 | 0.501 | 0.309 |
| 1998 | 160 | 646 | 123 | 210 | 51 | 2 | 20 | 88 | 325 | 64 | 113 | 50 | 8 | 0.403 | 0.503 | 0.325 |
| 1999 | 160 | 639 | 123 | 188 | 56 | 0 | 16 | 73 | 292 | 88 | 107 | 28 | 14 | 0.386 | 0.457 | 0.294 |
| 2000 | 101 | 377 | 67 | 101 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 35 | 148 | 61 | 73 | 12 | 2 | 0.388 | 0.393 | 0.268 |
| 2001 | 155 | 617 | 118 | 180 | 35 | 3 | 20 | 70 | 281 | 66 | 100 | 7 | 4 | 0.382 | 0.455 | 0.292 |
| 2002 | 145 | 577 | 96 | 146 | 36 | 3 | 15 | 58 | 233 | 50 | 111 | 16 | 2 | 0.33 | 0.404 | 0.253 |
| 2003 | 153 | 628 | 102 | 166 | 44 | 2 | 15 | 62 | 259 | 57 | 116 | 8 | 4 | 0.35 | 0.412 | 0.264 |
| 2004 | 156 | 633 | 100 | 178 | 47 | 0 | 24 | 63 | 297 | 40 | 94 | 7 | 2 | 0.337 | 0.469 | 0.281 |
| 2005 | 155 | 590 | 94 | 156 | 40 | 1 | 26 | 69 | 276 | 37 | 90 | 11 | 1 | 0.325 | 0.468 | 0.264 |
| 2006 | 145 | 548 | 79 | 135 | 33 | 0 | 21 | 62 | 231 | 40 | 84 | 3 | 2 | 0.306 | 0.422 | 0.246 |
| 2007 | 141 | 517 | 68 | 130 | 31 | 3 | 10 | 50 | 197 | 23 | 112 | 4 | 3 | 0.285 | 0.381 | 0.251 |
| Career Totals | 2850 | 10876 | 1844 | 3060 | 668 | 55 | 291 | 1175 | 4711 | 1160 | 1753 | 414 | 124 | 0.363 | 0.433 | 0.281 |
| Fielding Stats: | ||||||||||||||
| SEASON | POS | G | GS | INN | TC | PO | A | E | DP | PB | SB | CS | RF | FPCT |
| 1988 | C | 50 | --- | --- | 323 | 292 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 3 | --- | --- | --- | 0.991 |
| 1989 | C | 125 | --- | --- | 792 | 728 | 56 | 8 | 6 | 9 | --- | --- | --- | 0.99 |
| 1989 | OF | 5 | --- | --- | 15 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | --- | --- | --- | --- | 0.933 |
| 1990 | C | 113 | --- | --- | 609 | 546 | 54 | 9 | 4 | 7 | --- | --- | --- | 0.985 |
| 1990 | OF | 50 | --- | --- | 121 | 111 | 6 | 4 | 0 | --- | --- | --- | --- | 0.967 |
| 1991 |