Biggio misses Hall of Fame election by just two votes
HOUSTON -- Unfortunately for Craig Biggio, the National Baseball Hall of Fame does not round up.
Biggio, who was the face of the Astros for two decades and is arguably the greatest player to wear a Houston uniform, fell just shy of being elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in voting released Wednesday.
Biggio appeared on 74.8 percent of the ballots of the voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, short of the 75 percent needed to get elected. Teammate Jeff Bagwell appeared on 54.3 percent of the ballots, which is a drop from the 59.6 he received last year in his third time on the ballot.
Biggio missed the 75 percent cutoff point of 429 by two votes, tying Nellie Fox in 1985 and Pie Traynor in 1947 for the smallest margin in balloting history. Traynor was elected in 1948. Fox was in his last year on the ballot and was subsequently elected by the Veterans Committee in 1997.
The BBWAA elected former Braves pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine and former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas, all of whom will be inducted July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Biggio, 48, certainly had Hall of Fame credentials, led by his club-record 3,060 hits. But numbers aside, Biggio was known as a hard-nosed player who ran out every ground ball and had a deep desire to win. And along with longtime teammates Bagwell and Lance Berkman, he helped turn Houston into a raucous baseball town in the 1990s.
A first-round Draft pick out of Seton Hall in 1987, Biggio quickly blossomed into an All-Star catcher before being moved to second base in 1992, where he became a superstar. He was among the best players in the game in the mid-to-late 1990s and helped the Astros win four division titles in a five-year span (1997-99, 2001).
When the Astros signed Jeff Kent prior to the 2003 season, Biggio played in the outfield for two seasons before finishing his career back at second base. He wound up hitting 291 home runs, with 1,175 RBIs, 414 stolen bases and a .281 average.
Biggio ranks 21st all-time in hits, and he has more doubles (668) than any right-handed hitter in Major League history. He's 15th all-time in runs scored (1,844), 10th in plate appearances (12,504) and first in hit by pitch (285) in the modern era.
Biggio became the 27th player in Major League history to reach the 3,000-hit plateau with a seventh-inning single against Colorado's Aaron Cook on June 28, 2007 at Minute Maid Park. Biggio's No. 7 was retired by the Astros in 2008.
Bagwell, 45, last appeared in an Astros uniform during the 2005 World Series, the crowning achievement in a career that included the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1991 and the club's only NL Most Valuable Player Award three years later.
Bagwell paired up with Biggio for 15 seasons as charter members of the Killer B's and led the franchise from cellar-dwellers to multiple division champions, from the Astrodome to Minute Maid Park. He helped rejuvenate baseball in Houston.
Bagwell made four All-Star Game appearances, had 2,314 hits, 449 home runs, 1,529 RBIs and six trips to the playoffs. He was forced to retire after a degenerative shoulder condition made it impossible for him to throw a baseball and nearly impossible to swing a bat.
Bagwell drove in at least 100 runs in all but one season from 1996-2003, and slipped to 27 homers and 89 RBIs in 2004, though he hit .286 with two homers and eight RBIs in the playoffs. Led by Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman, Carlos Beltran, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, the star-studded Astros came within a game of the World Series.
The pain from his arthritic right shoulder forced Bagwell to undergo capsular release surgery on his shoulder in May 2005, and caused him to miss 115 games. He returned for the final few weeks of the regular season and served in a pinch-hit role because of the difficulty he had throwing a ball.
When the Astros beat the Cardinals in Game 6 of the 2005 National League Championship Series to clinch a spot in their first World Series, the image of long-suffering teammates Bagwell and Biggio hugging in the dugout was one of the most memorable moments of the season.
Bagwell served as designated hitter in the first two games of the World Series against the White Sox and wound up going 1-for-8 in the Series in which the Astros were swept. He came to Spring Training in 2006 hoping to prove his shoulder had healed enough to allow him to play, but wound up going on the disabled list before the regular season started and ultimately decided to retire later that year at age 38.
Brian McTaggart is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, . Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Post a Comment for "Biggio misses Hall of Fame election by just two votes"