Podcast Kiss of Death (from January)
The high & mighty baseball Hall of Fame voters for some unknown reason decided they needed to make Craig Biggio sweat one more year. Any of us who watched Craig Biggio knows he sweat MORE than enough over his 2 decades in the majors.
Shouldn’t he be the PERFECT example of what to do to get in the Hall, among this golden age of cheaters & liars? Here’s a guy with no trail of cheating, not even a whisper, unless being friends with Ken Caminiti counts.
Let me just remind you of his numbers. There are 17 2nd baseman in the Hall. Among just those guys, Biggio has the 3rd most hits, 3rd most homeruns & most runs scored. In the history of baseball, 2 players had 50 doubles & 50 steals in a season, Hall of Famer Tris Speaker was the other guy.
In the history of baseball, he’s 5th in doubles (more than Hank Aaron), 14th in runs scored, 21st in hits. He’s the only player ever to have 3000 hits, 600 doubles, 400 steals and 250 home runs. He is one of four infielders ever to have a 20-homer, 50-steal season.
Was he just an offensive guy? No, he had 4 gold gloves. He played 3 of the most difficult positions in baseball: catcher, 2nd base & centerfield. He did it because he was asked not because he wanted to, but you never heard him complain.
It may mean nothing on a plaque but the guy was incredible in his community & was the perfect example for every little kid. ‘How hard do you play, kid? Watch #7 in the Astro uniform. That’s how hard.’
If you wrote down the traits of the perfect ballplayer, the perfect teammate, the perfect Hall of Famer, it may not be Biggio but it’d be awfully close. The reason for not electing him by your typical old guy voter last year is that he wasn’t good enough to be elected on the 1st ballot. My question is… if Craig Biggio can’t get elected 1st ballot, what IS good enough?
-Robert Land
