Craig Biggo
Posted by Andy on July 24, 2007
A bit of breaking news as MLB.com reports that Craig Biggio is retiring at the end of the season.
Chris had a nice post on Biggio when he got his 3000th hit.
Biggio is one of my all-time favorite players. Although his numbers have been down in the last 6 years, for his first 13 full seasons, he was quite a consistent player. Some bits and pieces about Biggio:
- He was an All-Star both as a catcher and as a 2B.
- He extended his career and his value by also learning to play the outfield, with over 300 games played in LF and CF.
- He played in 40 post-season games, including the 4 World Series games in 2005.
- He needs 3 hit-by-pitches to break the all-time record. Although this conjures up images of Bad News Bears, his aggressiveness at the plate and willingness to play through pain can not be ignored.
- He ranks in the top 50 all-time for a number of offensive categories: doubles (6th), total bases (31st), hits (24th), runs (14th), games (21st), HBP (2nd), and a few others.
Personally, I don't understand why there is a debate about whether he's a Hall of Famer. How could the guy with the 14th most runs scored ever not be in the Hall of Fame?
July 24th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
If I may suggest a subject...
I was just playing with PI. I searched for home runs hit with 3-0 counts. There are about a handful of these each year. Not that rare.
What is very rare, however, is what Chase Utley of the Phillies did to Matt Belisle of the Reds. He got two home runs on 3-0 counts from the same pitcher in the same game.
So far, searching one year at a time, I have yet to find any other examples of this.
--Jon
October 1st, 2007 at 7:44 am
[...] well to Craig Biggio, a heck of a player who I hope next tips his cap at Cooperstown in 2013. I have sung Biggio’s praises before so I’ll just mention it’s amazing how much he reminds me of Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount. [...]