10 hours ago
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Epic of Craig Biggio
Here is an article (posted on Slate) that Bill James wrote about Craig Biggio in his new book. (Also see Biggio's wikipedia page.) I don't entirely agree with the essay but I mostly do, and I am posting it here because it states very eloquently why Biggio is my favorite baseball player of recent years and possibly my favorite of all time. (It turns out that he was James's favorite player for a while too, which I don't know though I was well aware of James's work in pointing out just how great Biggio truly was in his prime.) Biggio retired after last year and was hanging on for the last couple of years (though, unlike James, I am not bothered by the fact that he played a little too long so that he could make it to 3000 hits and get some long-overdue recognition for his career), but the thing I really like about him was that while he was never the flashiest player, he is one of the players who best exemplified getting the most out of what he had through obscenely hard work, an excellent attitude, and even sometimes with a smattering of sheer determination. (And he got dirty just about every single game! What represents a gritty baseball player more than that?) These are things I respect in all walks of life, and this is why Biggio was my favorite player for so long. (The whole idea of rooting for the undiscovered gem didn't hurt either.)
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5 comments:
Beeedge is my favorite MLB player of all time, no doubt.
His attitude was always right.
He's the only player EVER to win a Gold Glove at Catcher AND another field position.
No matter how he hit the ball (home run, pop up to short, grounder to third, etc) he sprinted as hard as he could. That's why he's 5th all-time in doubles (and 1st all-time for righties).
If I ever have a son, Craig Biggio will be his role model. Probably the greatest compliment I ever got as a baseball player was that an opponent in an adult league told me I reminded him of Biggio.
Oops, I had my stats crossed. He's the only player to appear as an All-Star as both Catcher and 2B. Gold Gloves were all at 2B.
My other favorite stat about him is that he may be the last player to play his entire career (put a minimum # seasons on that) with the same team.
Wait, we agree completely. Holy crap! Has that ever happened before? (I know we've sometimes mostly agreed.)
I think there will be other players who play their entire career with one team (with a some nontrivial minimum number of seasons). Back in the day, people said the same thing about Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, et all. It looks like Chipper Jones may make it, and so might John Smoltz. (Note that I'm counting Smoltz even though he was drafted by the Tigers. I think it matches the spirit of the endeavor.)
Here I was thinking Mason's favorite player was Juan Pierre. There goes my illusion of knowing him well. ;)
I heard a rumor (probably via some article on either espn or si) that Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux might all retire the same year (posited as ~1-2 years in the future). That'd be pretty cool. Speaking of those three, if I had to pick a favorite player, it would probably be Smoltz or Maddux, but I don't have as good a reason to back up why that'd be the case. (Haven't really thought about it, which is weird).
Juan Pierre is my current favorite target, of course, though I'd rather live in an alternate world in which he were not on my team and I had no reason to slam him all the time.
I saw a link to the article you have in mind, though I didn't read it. Certainly it could happen and it would be nice to see them all go into the Hall of Fame the same year. However, Smoltz probably won't get in on the first ballot (though he probably will get in eventually), so I don't think we'll be able to see that.
Maddux is one of my favorites as well. I like Smoltz and Glavine, but not in the same way.
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