Who cares if Craig Biggio gets 3,000 hits?
Ben Godar
If you've watched the Houston Astros even once this season, no doubt you've seen this: Craig Biggio strides to the plate, wearing a ridiculous elbow pad and the filthiest helmet in baseball. Even filthier than Orlando Cabrera's.
As Biggio digs his back heel into the box, and the graphic tells us he’s batting .270 something, the boys in the booth invariably ponder whether or not this is a Hall of Fame player. That subject leads directly to whether or not this catcher-turned-infielder-turned-outfielder-turned-infielder will reach 3,000 hits.
And that leads me to wonder what the hell difference 3,000 hits makes.
3,000 hits, 400 home runs, 200 wins – these milestones provide a great measuring stick to look back across the eras. But as we watch a guy limping towards one of these numbers, they seem downright irrelevant.
Craig Biggio isn’t exactly limping, but if you’re waiting around for him to get 120 or so more hits, you've kind of missed the boat. Biggio went to seven straight All-Star games, ending in 1998. He won three straight Gold Gloves as a second baseman, ending in 1997. He stole 50 bases and batted .325 … in 1998.
For the last six or seven years, he's been a serviceable Major League player. No more, no less. At 40 years old, there’s nothing wrong with that. But why should his legacy be cemented or discarded in the next year, when the significant part of his career was over six years ago?
It's not called the Hall of Longevity, and big statistical totals don’t tell the tale of greatness. I for one am not a fan of inductees like Eddie Murray, in grudging acknowledgment of their statistical production.
I'm not sure if Biggio as Hall worthy or not. But his greatest assets are his all-around game and virtually unparalleled versatility. Those are things that aren’t measured by statistics, so who cares how many hits he piles on in his twilight years?
If you've watched the Houston Astros even once this season, no doubt you've seen this: Craig Biggio strides to the plate, wearing a ridiculous elbow pad and the filthiest helmet in baseball. Even filthier than Orlando Cabrera's.
As Biggio digs his back heel into the box, and the graphic tells us he’s batting .270 something, the boys in the booth invariably ponder whether or not this is a Hall of Fame player. That subject leads directly to whether or not this catcher-turned-infielder-turned-outfielder-turned-infielder will reach 3,000 hits.
And that leads me to wonder what the hell difference 3,000 hits makes.
3,000 hits, 400 home runs, 200 wins – these milestones provide a great measuring stick to look back across the eras. But as we watch a guy limping towards one of these numbers, they seem downright irrelevant.
Craig Biggio isn’t exactly limping, but if you’re waiting around for him to get 120 or so more hits, you've kind of missed the boat. Biggio went to seven straight All-Star games, ending in 1998. He won three straight Gold Gloves as a second baseman, ending in 1997. He stole 50 bases and batted .325 … in 1998.
For the last six or seven years, he's been a serviceable Major League player. No more, no less. At 40 years old, there’s nothing wrong with that. But why should his legacy be cemented or discarded in the next year, when the significant part of his career was over six years ago?
It's not called the Hall of Longevity, and big statistical totals don’t tell the tale of greatness. I for one am not a fan of inductees like Eddie Murray, in grudging acknowledgment of their statistical production.
I'm not sure if Biggio as Hall worthy or not. But his greatest assets are his all-around game and virtually unparalleled versatility. Those are things that aren’t measured by statistics, so who cares how many hits he piles on in his twilight years?
posted by Ben Godar at 11:52 AM
1 Comments:
Watching Biggio vie for 3,000 is nowhere near as painful as watching the Crime Dog limp toward 500 homers his last 2 years.
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