Japi's Blog

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	C	139	---	---	963	889	64	10	10	13	---	---	---	0.99
1991	2B	3	---	---	14	5	8	1	1	---	---	---	---	0.929
1991	OF	2	---	---	1	0	1	0	0	---	---	---	---	1
1992	2B	161	---	---	769	344	413	12	81	---	---	---	---	0.984
1993	2B	155	---	---	767	306	447	14	90	---	---	---	---	0.982
1994	2B	113	---	---	570	225	338	7	63	---	---	---	---	0.988
1995	2B	141	---	---	728	299	419	10	78	---	---	---	---	0.986
1996	2B	162	---	---	811	361	440	10	76	---	---	---	---	0.988
1997	2B	160	---	---	863	341	504	18	108	---	---	---	---	0.979
1998	2B	159	---	---	764	318	431	15	92	---	---	---	---	0.98
1999	2B	155	153	1351.1	812	370	430	12	117	---	---	---	5.33	0.985
1999	OF	6	3	25.1	7	6	1	0	0	---	---	---	2.49	1
2000	2B	100	99	852.2	471	183	282	6	57	---	---	---	4.91	0.987
2001	2B	154	152	1344.2	680	280	389	11	86	---	---	---	4.48	0.984
2002	2B	142	140	1236.2	673	313	352	8	88	---	---	---	4.84	0.988
2002	OF	1	1	9	1	1	0	0	0	---	---	---	1	1
2003	OF	150	150	1313	336	326	9	1	1	---	---	---	2.3	0.997
2004	OF	149	149	1225	263	250	4	9	0	---	---	---	1.87	0.966
2005	2B	141	141	1172.1	662	250	396	16	82	---	---	---	4.96	0.976
2006	2B	129	127	1062	559	219	334	6	80	---	---	---	4.69	0.989
2007	C	1	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.5	1
2007	2B	114	111	936.2	468	191	267	10	54	---	---	---	4.4	0.979
Career Totals		2780	---	---	13043	7169	5673	201	1174	---	---	---	---	0.985

photo courtesy of Jeff Balke

Patrick Hughes - amazing musician, inspiring individual

My wife sent me a link to a YouTube video earlier today.  It's definitely a tear-jerker, but it is completely inspirational. 

The story was originally aired on ESPN College Gameday last year (December 2, 2006)... but it's timeless.

Patrick Hughes is a young man at University of Louisville who was born blind and crippled and yet now plays the piano beautifully as well as marches (with the help of his father) in the Louisville marching band.