Craig Biggio turns 44 years old today.

A true baseball star, Biggio shined during his 20 seasons with the Houston Astros.  And while he was never classified as the best player in the game, and at times not even the best player on his own team, Craig Biggio may end up being a first ballot Hall of Famer!!

A member of the 3,000 hits club, a 7-time All-star, a 5-time Gold Glove winner, and a 4-time Silver Slugger winner, Biggio’s all-around game made him a a fan favorite and hero in the Houston area for 20 years.

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was scooping up his rookie cards – it’s hard to believe that he is now 44 years old.

Happy Birthday Mr. Biggio!!

I cannot believe that I held out this long and didn’t rip these open immediately after buying them.

I have enjoyed giving packs of  these cards out as giveaways for some of the contests I have held during the baseball season.

And now I have 4 more to rip through and my box will be complete!!!

And away we go…

So, it is far too often that news involving the New York Yankees is blown way out of proportion.  A clubhouse tiff becomes fodder for pundits nationwide, a decent starting pitcher gets higher name recognition than a better pitcher on 75% of the other MLB rosters, or a promising prospect is incessantly hyped as “The Next Big Thing”.

It’s all so ponderous and predictable that it can sometimes be easy to tune out when there is news out of the Bronx that is worthy of our attention.

And, Derek Jeter’s pursuit of the Yankees all-time hits record is just that. 

Derek Jeter

Now, I’m not about to deify Jeter – he’s a great shortstop who rose to prominence in an era of great shortstops, many of whom (Miguel Tejada and current teammate Alex Rodriguez, for example) have been exposed as partial frauds, at best.  We hold our breath on Jeter, and hope that he never ends up on a positive test list.

But making the relatively safe assumption that he is clean, establishing an all-time record for a franchise as storied as the Yankees simply must be recognized. 

Jeter is three hits shy of tying Lou Gehrig’s franchise record of 2,721, although he missed a chance to make up some of that ground in yesterday’s doubleheader with the Tampa Bay Rays.  Even while pulling an 0-8, his first back-to-back hitless games in almost two months, Jeter remains a candidate to catch fire at any moment and end the anticipation that has put all eyes on the captain of the club with the best record in baseball.

MLB.com provides some great perspective on the milestone with statistical analysis of the Yankees’ hitting history to go along with a chart of the all-time team-by-team hit leaders.  Those numbers, through games of September 6th, look like this:
 
Tigers – Ty Cobb 3,900
Cardinals – Stan Musial 3,630
Braves – Hank Aaron 3,600
Red Sox – Carl Yastrzemski 3,419
Reds  – Pete Rose 3,358
Giants  – Willie Mays 3,187
Orioles – Cal Ripken Jr. 3,184
Royals – George Brett 3,154
Brewers/Pilots – Robin Yount 3,142
Padres – Tony Gwynn 3,141
Astros – Craig Biggio 3,060
Pirates – Roberto Clemente 3,000
Cubs – Cap Anson 2,995
Twins/Senators – Sam Rice 2,889
Dodgers – Zack Wheat 2,804
White Sox – Luke Appling 2,749
Yankees – Lou Gehrig 2,721
Angels – Garret Anderson 2,368
Mariners – Edgar Martinez 2,247
Phillies – Mike Schmidt 2,234
Rockies – Todd Helton 2,110
Indians – Napoleon Lajoie 2,046
Athletics – Bert Campaneris 1,882
Rangers/Senators – Ivan Rodriguez 1,734
Nationals/Expos – Tim Wallach 1,694
Blue Jays – Tony Fernandez 1,583
Mets – Ed Kranepool 1,418
Diamondbacks – Luis Gonzalez 1,337
Marlins – Luis Castillo 1,273
Rays – Carl Crawford 1,270

Note that these are not representative of total hits by player by career, but rather those that came while wearing the uniform of the franchise in question.

And while it is surprising, though not shocking, to note that no player in Yankee history has managed 3,000 hits during his Yankee tenure, it is rather hard to believe that not one of the 27 players who eventually reached 3,000 hits during their careers started out in the Yankee organization. 

Jeter is not leaving the Yankees for the foreseeable future and at his age (35), one would have to believe that he will end that streak as he is likely to reach the vaunted number sometime early in the 2011 season.

Appreciate him for what he is – a steady performer at one of the toughest positions on the diamond who has shined brightly in the glare of constant attention.  Four-time World Series Champion has a nice ring to it too.

And for a little perspective on the degree of difficulty of “making it” in New York, New York, just take a look back at that list and note that Ed Kranepool, the all-time hits leader during the nearly 50-year history of the crosstown Mets, sits at a number not even halfway to the magical 3,000.  And that’s why they are once and forever the Amazin’ Mets. 

As for Jeter and the Yankees, hold your nose a little if you must as you absorb the media’s obsession with all things Yankees.  But don’t let it detract from another huge accomplishment in a fantastic, Hall-of-Fame career.

Wear it on your sleeve. Get it?

In honour of the Berkman HR milestone (Tejada and Pudge are rent-a-players and their milestones don’t count in the Astros annals), we got to thinking of what an Astros team made up of the best players at each position would look like. Each player at their apex. This is what we came up with, mostly to piss people off. To be clear – this isn’t a “who had the best career” team. This is an “at their peak, who was the best player at each position” team. Although someone will envitably put “omg nolan ryan had a btr career noob” in the comments section. To that person – you know who had an even better career than Nolan Ryan? This player. Here goes:

Starting Pitcher:

1986 Mike Scott. Cy Young Season, 18 wins, 2.22 ERA, 275 IP, 306 K, 0.923 WHIP. Voted NLCS MVP (won two games) even though the Astros lost to the Mets, which was the first time a player from a losing team won the award.

Scott in ‘86 was thought to be absolutely unhittable. The Mets considered game 6 of the NLCS to be their elimination game, because there is no way they could have beat Scott in Game 7. Respect, son.

Unfortunately, rumor is Scott didn’t take care of his body or arm the way that (for example) Nolan Ryan did, and he faded pretty fast. This shouldn’t matter when looking at a player at the top of his game, but I think the fade has caused the current generation to either a) undervalue his career or b) think he is Michael Scott. He’s not. He did rock some  saucy hair back in the day, which is pretty awesome.

Catcher:

1991 Craig Biggio. Perhaps this is a bit cheap, but Biggio played both catcher and second base in 1991, and this way we can get a better “second second baseman” on the team than take the best “second catcher” available. Plus we found a picture of him in catcher’s gear (see left), which is more evidence than we usually compile.

Biggio was the first player in MLB history to be an All Star at both second and catcher. Anyway, in 1991 he played some catcher and hit .295 with 79 runs. Not his best year, but his best year when he played catcher, which opens the door for another second baseman.

For a lot of younger (30 or under) Astros fans, Biggio is probably the player they most identify with the Astros. Many people make the argument that Biggio is the Greatest Astro Ever, and if you consider the entire body of work, it makes a lot of sense. If you look at “best one season”, then another Killer B comes to mind…

First Base:

1994 Jeff Bagwell. MVP of the strike-shortened season. .368 Batting Average, .750 Slugging, 1.2 OPS, and over 100 RBIs and Runs each in only 110 games. An absolute monster that season, as well as many others. Maybe the only Astros position player to strike fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers. Not that the ‘Stros haven’t had good players, but I’m not sure who else would be considered “fear-inducing”. Bags actually benefited by the ‘94 strike because he broke his hand right before the strike began. His MVP season also happened during a very unique streak – he broke his left hand in 3 consecutive years (‘93, ‘94, ‘95), to set a franchise record.*

*Unconfirmed as a record, although I’m sure it is true. The old record was held by “Brittile” Al Montgomery, who broke his arm in ‘45, ‘46, and ‘52.** Poor Brittle Al couldn’t put together breaks in consecutive years, though. He couldn’t catch a break. Get it?

**I just totally made that up, but I hope at least one person went to the google before reading this. I’m sure someone (Pipez?) will throw a hissy fit in the comments section below.

Second Base:

1966 Joe Morgan. All Star, hit .285 with .410 on base percentage in his second season. His best seasons came with the Reds, of course, but that ain’t Astros baseball, you know what I’m sayin? He was traded from the Astros because (in part) manager Harry Walker thought he was a troublemaker. On a related note, Harry Walker is not on our short list for best ever Astros manager.

Although the only thing kids know about Joe Morgan these days is his crazy defense of old-school baseball, as a player he is a Hall of Famer, multiple MVP-er, and great all-around player. Bill James says he is the best second baseman of all-time.

I found color pictures, but the black-and-white just looks too old school not to use.

Short Stop:

1983 Dickie Thon. Before we get into his stats, let me just say that googling “Dickie Thon” at work is the worst idea ever. OMG. .286 batting average, 57 extra base hits, 81 runs/79 RBIs, All Star, 7th in MVP voting.

Besides his offensive statistical worthiness (a relative term, relative to Adam Everett), he rocked one awesome mustache and filled out the best jerseys ever quite well. Did you know that there is a Dicky Thon fan club? It has two posts and everything.

If Fourth and Fifty existed during the Dickie Thon area, you could expect to put up with “headlines” like “Astros win thanks to Thon Th-Th-Th THON!” Every day. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’d call the blog “Dickie’s Thon”. Don’t steal that – when Rex fires me (next week?) I’m starting a blog under that name.

And don’t be the guy who buys that domain name just to extort some money from me. You’re not Rayner Noble, are you?

Third Base:

1970 Doug Rader. You might think it it crazy to not have Ken Caminiti here, but check the stats, bro! Cammy’s best seasons came with the Padres. In 1970, Rader won his first of five consecutive Gold Gloves, scored 90 runs, and knocked in 87 RBIs. Perhaps not the best stat line of all-time, but it will do. When he won the Gold Glove in 1970, he was the first Astro to ever do so.

Rader was nicknamed The Red Rooster, as you can see from the Fleer card to your left, which is merit enough to put him on this list. He also has the look and feel of a man who doesn’t shy away from a bar fight. Astroland.net has an overview of his career in pretty sweet font.

You know who else is nicknamed the Red Rooster? JIMMY!

Outfield:

1983 Jose Cruz. 189 hits, .318 batting average, sixth in MVP voting, 85 runs/92 RBIs. Some old-schoolers still think of Cruz as the quintessential Astro (I think Biggio, but then again in 1983 I probably should have had a better appreciation for Jose Cruz – I guess I was an uppity little four year old). Cruz’s nickname was Cheo, which I think and hope means something revolutionary, like “the voice of the people is the voice of God”. It is possible and probable that Cheo doesn’t mean anything, but let me have my socialist fun. Che(0) was the most popular Puerto Rican player not named Roberto Clemente. In recent years, they were both passed in notoriety by The Little Unit, Danny Almonte. That has to go down as the worst nickname in the history of nicknames. I hope you notice our trend of phallic/homoerotic nicknames. I’m not cussing these days, so I need some sort of a blog vice.

Joe Morgan said he was one of the best baseball players he’d ever seen. Don’t hold this against Cheo. Cheo had totally awesome hair and probably did very well with the ladies, as you can tell from this picture. Here is a short article for all you kids who only know the son. The father was better. Much better.

1972 Cesar Cedeno. 179 hits, .330 batting average, .921 OPS, All Star, sixth in MVP voting, Gold Glove, 103 runs, 82 RBIs, 55 stolen bases. “The next Willie Mays” started off his career with a bang but then forgot to save the drama for his mamma. Here is an interesting and brief version of his perils. It involves 19 year old mistresses and guns and more mistresses and cars and abuse and other stuff. Holy crap! If this happened today Outside the Lines would be called Outside of Cesar Cedeno’s House. Rachel Nichols and Legal Analyst Roger Cossak would camp out on Cedeno’s front porch and report daily to a concerned-looking Stu Scott.

In any case, several of the greatest seasons of any Astro, ever. During some of the greatest Astros uniform seasons, ever. Fantastic combination. One of the first “five tool” players. As opposed to the “two tool” writers at FaF, our tools being smarm and pop culture references.

2001 Lance Berkman / 2006 Bam Margera. 191 hits, 55 doubles (?!?!), 34 HRs, 126 RBIs, 110 runs, .331 batting average, 1.05 OPS, Al Star, 5th in MVP voting behind a bunch of roiders. And the most important stat – 485 face slaps of his father Phil on national television.

Berkman gets extra points for being gregarious and having an “everyman” quality. I don’t know why we care if athletes are down-to-earth, but we do.

I’m sure some people may argue for The Toy Cannon Jimmy Winn. Who would you take off the list, internet gangtsa?

Middle/Late Reliever:

2002 Octavio Dotel. Dominant. 97 IP, 118K to 27 BB, 20 earned runs the entire season, 1.85 ERA, 0.873 WHIP.

Dotel lead all relievers in strikeouts that season. It makes me remember how dominant our bullpen was – in 2003, we had Dotel, Lidge, and Wagner. Holy crap that was dominant. He might get my vote for most underrated Astro ever.

What was the deal with the ‘Stros pumping out incredible relievers one after another? Did we deplete our farm system because the Karma police made us take a breather after the D, L, W combo?

Closer:

1999 Billy Wagner. All Star, 4th in Cy Young voting, 39 saves, 74 innings, 13 earned runs, 124 strikeouts to 23 walks, only gave up 13 earned runs the entire season. 1.57 ERA, 0.777 WHIP. His strikeout per 9 inning ratio was the highest of all time for pitchers with more than 50 innings. As we know from Moneyball, strikeouts are better than not strikeouts. Most importantly, he was the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year. You know who isn’t Rolaids Relief Man of the Year? Whomever made those 99 cent tacos at Jack n’ the Box. Stick with 2 tacos and you’re ok. 4 is borderline. Don’t ever go above 5 – trust me on this.

Did you know that Wagner was originally a righty but switched to lefty as a youth because he kept breaking his right arm? Man’s game, son.

Manager:

1972 Salty Parker. Undefeated in ‘72. Check the stats, bro. Annualize that and the Astros are 162-0. PWND.

Pictures from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,and here.

It was a 'stunning trade,' and he does have 'Star Power'

Last night, Randy Johnson got his 300th major league W. I’ll only skirt around a conversation on the relative silliness of the Win stat, made all the more prominent as RJ watched his Giants reliever teammates try not to give up two runs before the Giants gave up another run even if they eventually went on to win the game, &tc. &tc. Point is, Johnson has pitched remarkably well for a remarkable number of years, and if the Win stat shows anything, it’s how frequently a starting pitcher gives his team an opportunity to win, that his dominance extended over so many innings with such consistency that it took his hitter-teammates a little less to wrap up the ballgame.

The MLB Network spent a good hour going over the dips and swerves of The Big Unit’s career, including a Nolan Ryan training video that all but gave the Ryan Express (and some bio-mechanics dude) credit for the 6′10 lefty’s Hall of Fame creds. They flashed a lot of video, jumping from early Randy Johnson to late, with flickering ballcaps changing from Expos to Giants to Dbacks to Yankees to Mariners. And I was able to take a small bit of glee from one of the hats that showed up in the cavalcade: those beautiful 1998 navy blue and gold-starred Astros hats, perched on the head of the Big Unit for one shining half of a year.

‘98 would be a good year for the Astros team-wise. With stars like Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Moises Alou–along with lesser knowns like the meteoric Jose Lima, Billy Wagner, Carl Everett and the majestically mustachioed Derek Bell–it was just one of those years where the stars would align for a pretty good run.

Team aside, though, the real spark of that season came with Randy Johnson. He was an American Leaguer, so what I knew of him was mostly second-hand, via highlights and national media coverage. I had not, for example, watched him pitch a whole game or considered with any depth his arsenal or technique. What I found when I went to see him play in the Astrodome was an improbably tall and rangy dude, so imposing that the peak of his cap seemed to brush the cieling of the Dome. Pushing the high 90s on the radar gun, and breaking his slider (which I just learned is called Mr. Snappy) that dove across the plate, when he pitched a game it was an event–you could see from the nosebleeds why his pitches were effective, how dominant he was.

He went 10-1 in Houston, with a 1.28 ERA. In 84+ innings, he struck out 116 batters. In the playoffs, where I watched him pitch while wedged into the high-high seats behind home plate with 55,000 other awestruck Astro fans, he hit an RBI single up the middle, which was something like watching a 200-foot crane fling a bowling ball over Buffalo Bayou.

If a star baseball player is one whose presence elevates a fan’s awareness of the game and expands the parameters of what seems possible, then Randy Johnson is a star baseball player. That he’s done it for so long is unthinkable.

In the final pitches of the game last night, there was a camera shot that captured RJ and his son. As the son, brace-faced and mop-headed, struggled to contain his excitement, the Big Unit continued to scowl out onto the field. In a postgame interview, he mentioned that it was nice to get the win, but that there was a lot more work ahead. On nights like those, it bears looking behind a little, too.

Quick, name me one of the last five players to win the Roberto Clemente Award.  Bet you could not do it.  Edgar Martinez, John Smoltz, Carlos Delgado, Craig Biggio and Albert Pujols.  Why is this significant?  I bet you can name the pitcher who earned a six game suspension this week for losing it on a Gatorade cooler, the guy who was suspended fifty games for testing positive for a female fertility drug, and the player who last year charged up to the broadcast booth to attack an announcer who he felt had disrespected him on the air.  This trio of course consists of Carlos Zambrano, Manny Ramirez and Milton Bradley.    

In today’s media driven sports world, the malcontents and divas of baseball get way too much air time (I have not even mentioned Roger Clemens, A-Rod, Elijah Dukes, Brett Myers and a slew of other players making headlines for all the wrong reasons), while good guys like Melvin Mora, who distributes baseball equipment in his native Venezuela, fly under the radar.  In fact, if you type “MLB players charity work” into Google, three of the first six results are about Dukes being suspended by the Nationals. 

I am not trying to be hypocritical here, because I will admit I get a good chuckle when I hear about the latest shenanigans of guys like Bradley and Ron Artest.  However, this does not mean there is not enough web space to also recognize guys like Jack Wilson, who has been nominated by the Pirates for the Roberto Clemente award four years running for his work in the Pittsburgh community.

The Picture Speaks For Itself

Everyone knows about Clemente’s charitable work for earthquake victims in his home country of Nicaragua, so why not Mora for his work in South America?  I certainly hope it would not take his death in a plane crash to get a little publicity.  In today’s world where negative role models like T.O, Jon and Kate, and Amy Winehouse (I cannot name one of her songs but for some reason know who she is) dominate the headlines, take some time to recognize athletes who are making a positive contribution to the world.

The one where I start this early and finish late.  Know what I’m sayin’?

Look at me, steroid free!

Look, let’s get this out of the way.  I trust zero baseball players.  None.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nil.

That has to be close to a consensus among the average fan.  Unless you’re looking at “Sport” (big “S”) through rose colored glasses we’re all skeptical of the professional athlete – even amateur athlete – at this point.  That’s just the way it is. LSD is out.  Steroids are in.  Your favorite player is probably on drugs.

Unfortunately that’s a safe thing to say these days.  Some of you are reading this and saying, “there’s absopositively no way that Craig Biggio took steroids.”  Do you know that for sure?  Do you really really know that for sure?  I don’t.  Because, like I said before, I don’t trust baseball players anymore (plus, I heard that Biggio was one of the biggest dicks in the clubhouse [no homo]).

So, is it any surprise that Manny Ramirez has come up as testing positive for a banned substance?  No, not really.  Even if it is a female fertility drug?  Actually, that even less of surprise than if it has been steroids or HGH or LSD.  Only Manny would test positive for a female fertility drug [Ed. Note - Fourth and Fifty has not done any research to prove whether or not other players have tested positive for this drug, but that only adds to the allure of reading further].

My only rationalization is that Manny’s favorite movie is Mr. Mom and really, REALLY wanted to have a baby of his own.  In fact, I’m willing to accept this as his validation of choice.  After all, he is a resident of California.  Who the hell knows how they justify things over on the Left Coast these days?  Just don’t try to implicate him with cheating when he was with the Red Sox.  I just don’t think I could handle that.

[Ed. Note - Lord, please help us if they ever find out that Albert Pujols has taken steroids.  As an Astros fan this seems like an odd request, but if the media ever finds that A-Puj (pronounced Apu) has taken performance enhancing drugs then baseball will cease to exist.]

After the jump are your Houston sports (completely unrelated to steroids and HGH and any other performance enhancing drug) updates:

TEXANS – Darius Walker – who we talked about here – has decided to sign with the Denver Broncos which finally make the relationship between the Broncos and Texans inclusive.  Actually, I take that back.  This move just makes the love between Denver and Houston even more incestuous than it already was.  When does the wife-swapping start?

ROCKETS – Game three is tonight (8:30 Central Time) in Houston.  Derek Fischer has been suspended for the game, meaning, the back court of the Rockets (which should have been at an advantage already) should be able to dictate the game.  Earlier this week I refused to pick on the game due to a refusal to jinx the home team.  I stand by that.  However, I still believe that the refs should preemptively tee-up Kobe Bryant before the game for being a complete and utter dick-head.  (If you’re going to call it in the fourth quarter you may as well call it in the first [or before]).

ASTROS – At least the Astros made it interesting in the ninth inning before The Big Puma folded for the last out.  Does scoring three runs in the final inning equate to “making it interesting?”  No?  Then, never mind I said anything at all.  Final score, eight to five.  Three runs in the final inning usually means a win, but not when you’re down six.  Funny how logic works sometimes.

AEROS – HOUSTON BRIGHT SPOT ALERT!!!!  The Aeros are now up three to one in the series against the Admirals.  Seventeen people clicked that link on Fourth and Fifty before I even posted this.  That’s how excited Houston fans are about the Aeros!  Houston is one win away from the finals after their 2-0 shut-out of the team from Milwaukee.

HOUSTON COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES - For those of you that know people that are graduating this week, here are the schedules with their speaking arrangements.  For those of you that no longer have friends that are under/grad/law/MBA/MLA/MLS/PhD/Anything else friends, congrats on not having to come up with another $50 gift and/or bar tab to make it through the night.

- S. Rex, Professional Blogger

[Picture from Feeling Dodger Blue - no word on if they have this photo legally or not]

What do former Major League Baseball stars Craig Biggio, Cecil Fielder and Dale Murphy have in common?

All threw and batted right-handed but wrote left-handed. See below’s picture of Dale Murphy…

‘The 40/40 Club’ – 1980’s – Card #11

Craig Biggio – 1989 Donruss

It could be argued that there was no more versatile player in the big leagues that debuted during the 1980’s than Craig Biggio.  Debuting as a catcher and spending 4 seasons in that role Biggio was than transitioned to second base for the next 11 years.  In those 11 years, Biggio excelled and captured 4 Gold Glove awards for his defensive excellence at second base.  Then at the age of 37 and in his 16th season in the majors Biggio was made into an outfielder, a position he would fill for 2 years before returning to second base for 3 more seasons before his retirement in 2007.

Equally as impressive as his defense was Biggio’s offense.  Extremely versatile at the plate, Biggio offered the combination of speed and power that is rarely found in a second baseman.  Biggio has 291 career home runs and 414 stolen bases.  While never leading the league in either category during his 20-season career, Biggio’s consistency in both aspects of the game made him a constant offensive threat.  Biggio’s career batting average is .281.  And with 3,060 career hits, his well-rounded offensive game gave opposing teams nightmares during each at-bat.  Biggio has also scored 1,844 runs and is responsible for driving in 1,175.

In addition to his 4 Gold Glove awards, Craig Biggio is a 7-time All-star and a 5-time winner of the Silver Slugger award. 

Biggio only made it to 1 World Series championship.  In 2005, his Astros were swept by the Chicago White Sox.  In those 4 games, Biggio batted .222 while collecting just 4 hits, scoring 3 runs, and driving in 1 run. 

The one where Reginald Blackstone takes offense to the N word.

I feel pretty / Oh so pretty

The Academy Awards, The Oscars, The “Gay Super Bowl” (if you’re feeling snarky), were on last night.  I didn’t watch it.  Seriously.  I’m not pulling one over on you.  I just bring it up because I wanted to be pseudo-inflammatory by calling it the “Gay Super Bowl” (see, I found another excuse to write it) and because I want to see if Reginald Blackstone will take offense to it and attempt to stab me in the neck with a set of darts.

We here at FaF are men of principles, morals, and superheroes against racial injustice.  You start dropping N bombs and we start dropping A bombs.  You know what I’m sayin’?  You want to pick a fight about it?  We will hold our darts in our hand menacingly.  We haven’t been to prison, but we’ve seen enough prison movies to understand the virtues of a shank.  Especially Reginald.  Do not F with this man.

Up ahead are your Houston sporting updates:

Texans:  According to Gary Belichick Kubiak, the long term success of Houston’s defense is going to rely on Mario Williams playing literally* every position.  Now I’m not sure if this means that MD Anderson has mastered cloning techniques or if Kubiak has become the Emperor, but either way I’m pretty excited about it.

Rockets:  Maybe it was Tracy that just couldn’t figure out how to beat teams the Rockets were supposed to.  Must of been all that mammy jammy on the rims of foreign opponents that made it happen.  Either way, the Rockets (dare I say it) are finding a bit of a stride without T-Mac (GET IT?! because of his KNEE?! HA!!!).  Rockets rip the Bobcats 99-78 for 4 wins in a row.

Astros:  Craig Biggio really likes getting hit by pitches.  He figures that High School baseball probably enlists more wild pitchers without the velocity of the majors and plans to get hit by a few more.  I knew that Biggio was a smart one.  Except that whole “I like getting hit” thing.  That’s a little weird…  Or maybe he’s just getting ready for his first game as head coach for St. Thomas.  If they were smart they would have him play though.  I hear he’s pretty good.

Cougars:  After a bit of a slip-up at Marshall this past week the Cougars held off UCF.  Barely.  By 5.  That’s “barely,” right?  Keep on chuggin’, Houston.  The March promised land is just a simple victory against Memphis away.  If Texas can beat#2  Oklahoma by giving someone a concussion can’t we take some notes?  Lace up those kicks extra tight Aubrey.  We’ve got some faces to stomp.  And UH split games against K-State.  College Classic is up ahead this weekend?

Owls:  Awwwww.  Isn’t that cute?  The Owls felt reeeeeeeeeeeeally bad about SMU only having one conference win and gave them another on Saturday.  Ya’ll are really nice.  Really.  You even made them “earn” it by trying to come back in the second half.  Cute.

- Septimus Rex

* = Not Literally (Story Here)

Photo Credit [Mark J. Terrill: AP]

I know a lot of people really give Upper Deck a lot of crap when it comes to redemptions but they have never failed me yet and I’ve never had to wait a ridiculously long time to get a card. When I broke my case of 2006 Ultimate Collection, I was pissed when I saw that I pulled a redemption. But then I saw that the expiration date was the end of 2009 so I was still in luck. I logged on to UD’s site and keyed in the code and today the FedEx man dropped off this…

Yeah, that’s a big picture but the card is that cool and it deserved to be gigantic. This Ultimate Ensembles Signatures is numbered #6/50 and features signatures of Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, and Lance Berkman….otherwise known as “The Killer B’s”.

I love the look of the card because all the signatures are clean and crisp. I’ve seen a lot of instances where the signatures on these small stickers are too scrunched in there and they look bad. But check out Berkman’s signature. He has a very busy signature but it is very clear.

I’m really happy with this card and would absolutely LOVE to keep it….but I don’t think I’ll be able to. Since I got hammered on the case, I’m likely not keeping a single card from it. This will likely be the most valuable card from the case and would go a long way to helping me recoup the funds I wasted.

If you’re interested in the card, let me know. I would much rather avoid ebay and the huge fees there if I can.

This is obviously Nolan Ryan’s autobiography-
How amazing is the cover?!?! The Ryan Express in a tuxedo and a baseball cap.

Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott were my idols during my early childhood (eventually Craig Biggio became one as well)
I have autographs from all three of those but I have only met Craig Biggio…
I am still holding onto the hope that one day I will meet Nolan Ryan and/or Mike Scott and all will be well in the universe!
I would still consider naming my first born child Nolan Ryan just because that would guarantee that my kid is totally awesome and popular.

I don’t really know that many people that are “into” baseball
(except for Robb Zipp and maybe some random hardcore scene acquaintances)
So now that I am no longer friends with Michelle (my old best friend and bascially my game buddy)-
its going to be a weird baseball season for me.

I think I might start going to baseball games by myself like I go to the movies by myself.
At first the idea of that is kinda terrifying but after contemplation it doesn’t seem that bothersome.

When I go to the games with my dad-
sometimes we don’t speak for several innings so it’s like I am there alone anyway… but the beer is free.

Oh and this will also be the season in which I will inevitably take Bastian to his very first major league baseball game.
It will be glorious!

This week we set a new record for posts involving the day of the week in the title! How awesome is that? Not to mention the most times we have used “Bert Blyleven” or “Crag Biggio” as a tag. So here is to baseball and days of the week in the title of a posts.

Moving on, at this past weekend’s blogger party I was told that people enjoy reading the Friday links; this got me really excited. So excited in fact, I am going to include a picture in this week’s batch. How about that?

• If you thought that last week’s post about bacon vodka was going to be the last of our bacon fetish you are all wrong. Now a bakery in Colorado is putting bacon in cupcakes. Someone needs to e-mail Fat Bob’s right away and tell them that this is a pretty friggen awesome idea and they could use a dessert item.
• Turns out the Vick’s Vapor Rub is not so good for clearing up the sinuses after all. On a somewhat related note, I once dated a girl who became really, really turned on by Vick’s Vapor Rub. She used to ask me to rub it on her chest, she said it got her real hot. That always confused me; I figured with the mentholated cooling action that it would cool her down, if nothing else. Shows what I know.
• Wait, What? The banker on Deal or No Deal is not actually a banker! That’s it, I am done with that show. Coincidently enough, that is going to be a very easy feat to accomplish considering I never watched the show to begin with.
• You know what the hardest part about breaking up is? Getting all of your stuff back. This husband is going to have an especially difficult time, you know, since he gave his wife his kidney.
• Former MLB journeyman Doug Glanville, from time to time, writes from the New York Times. His piece this week is especially interesting.
• And last but not least, yesterday we told you about how Talkin_Proud and I sponsored our first baseball-reference page. We called to you, our well read, readers to guess whose page we sponsored. Coming in with the right answer 15 minutes after we posted it was, Porky. We didn’t mention it at the time, but for knowing that we chose the former Buffalo Bison, Pittsburgh Pirate, and Minnesota Twin, Tom Prince, we are going to pick up the tab on sponsoring any player that he would like on baseball-reference, with a cost under $20, of course. Nice job Porky, let us know who it is going to be.

That is it for us this week, for Tom Prince and Talkin_Proud, this is Tedd Getman signing off, good night and good drinking.

Jim rice ALWAYS made sure to wear his swim goggles.

Congratulations to Jim Rice, who this week was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 15th and last year of eligibility. He thereby wriggled free from his title as “The Susan Lucci of my generation’s potential hall-of-famers.” (Someone else has surely made this joke, right?) With his election, an annual rite of winter has ended.

You see, every winter for the last decade or so, Evil has read assorted sportswriters’ Hall of Fame picks/predictions . . . and within each of them, a breakdown of (a) Jim Rice’s qualifications for the Hall of Fame vs. (b) his chances of ever getting in. Now that’s over, leaving the Evil with a bittersweet taste. Though Evil’s awareness of Jim Rice’s career is based solely on such articles—Rice played before Evil cared a whit about baseball—it’s odd to see something you’ve counted on so long end so abruptly.

But it begs the question: what does make a hall-of-famer? Apparently what hurt Rice was the proliferation of new-fangled baseball statistics since the beginning of the ‘90s . . . things like OPS+, DVOA, VORP, and other words that sound like Batman sound effects. Turns out, judged by the statistics we care about now, Rice wasn’t so hot.

And the Evil wonders: who the hell cares?

It has never seemed that complicated to the Evil, because to him, hall-of-famitude isn’t a matter of numbers, but of a gut feeling. You know a hall-of-famer when you see one. (Like, for instance, when you’re reading this blog.)

Simple test: for a period of a decade, when this player came to the plate, walked onto the court, or lined up on the field, did you feel a gut-wrenching sense of dread or a jolt of elation (depending on whether he played for your team or your opponent)?

If yes, then you’ve got yourself a hall-of-famer. If no, then you don’t.

As for Jim Rice, the statistical assault on his career seems to have been counterbalanced by the fact that everyone who ever watched or played with him knew he was a hall-of-famer. His job was to step up to the plate and try to knock in runs, nothing more, nothing less. Opposing players were terrified of seeing him come to the plate. And his peak lasted a dozen years. Good enough for the Evil.

Thus, here’s a representative but by not means exhaustive list of current or recently retired baseball players whom Evil knows are hall-of-famers: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Piazza, Ken Griffey, Jr.

Close but not quite, part 1—great, but didn’t inspire terror and/or awe: Chipper Jones, Bernie Williams, Trevor Hoffman, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio.

Close but not quite, part 2—inspired terror and/or awe, but not for long enough: Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, Frank Thomas, David Ortiz, Edgar Martinez.

Um, steroids? Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa.

Did the Evil miss anyone?

I am sure that everyone here is very, very interested in my continued thoughts on Bert Blyleven, why he belongs in the Hall of Fame, and other players who deserve a place in Cooperstown as well, so here we go.

In the comments of my last post the gentlemen who I am having a discussion regarding the Hall of Fame with, Porky, had this to say

No offense taken. I don’t mind a little friendly debate on this. In fact, in a show of good faith, I will concede this: He does belong in the Baseball Pranksters Hall of Fame. So, there you go.

Beyond that, I’m still not convinced. If you take wins out of the equation (which to me is his strongest argument – 287 wins is a lot of damn wins), then his case rests on the fact that he had a lot of strikeouts. Well, Mark Langston fanned a lot of guys over 16 years, and averaged more than half a K/9 higher than Blyleven, but the only way he gets to Cooperstown is on a bus. Unless you’re Nolan Ryan, I just don’t think K’s matter that much. It’s like saying Biggio deserves a spot in the HOF because he’s fifth all-time in doubles. It’s nice and all, but not much to hang your hat on.

With that said, I am going to go further into Blyleven’s Hall of Fame case, as well as why Craig Biggio deserves to be there.

First up, Bert. To use some quotes and numbers from a writer much better than myself, let me turn it over to Mr. Joe Posnanski for a moment

Not to get back on this, but let’s use Bert Blyleven as an example again. I see Bert Blyleven as a no doubt Hall of Famer because he’s fifth all-time in strikeouts, ninth all-time in shutouts (led the league three times), he finished Top 10 in ERA ten times, he won 287 games (and in better circumstances probably would have 30 or 40 more), he threw what might be the greatest curveball in baseball history*, he was terrific in the postseason** and so on. His 118 ERA+ is better than every single starting pitcher inducted into the Hall of Fame the last 15 years, including Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton. I don’t see this being close, and I don’t see Blyleven as a borderline case, and I personally think it’s a travesty of perception and an overrating of the win stat and a few warped opinions about what a pitcher can do that has kept his vote total well below the 75% mark. OK. Now, that’s my opinion.
*In The Neyer/James Guide to Pitcher, Rob and Bill ranked Blyleven’s curve third behind Sandy Koufax and Three Finger Brown, which is probably fair. Koufax’s curve was incredible, though it may have been aided and set off nicely by the sick 174-mph fastball he threw. And Brown — well the guy only had three fingers so give it up. By he way, why isn’t it “Three Fingers Brown,” you know, plural?

**I have written often about how Jack Morris, based mostly on one game, has this amazing reputation as a clutch pitcher, one of the great clutch pitchers of all time, and so on. And Blyleven, who has better postseason numbers, is just viewed as a “guy you wouldn’t start in Game 7.” I’ve never written, though, about their actual postseason matchup — will have to do that, will have to write a post about Oct. 8, 1987, when Blyleven THOROUGHLY OUTPITCHED Morris in the playoffs. And then, fours days later, Blyleven came back and pitched (and won) on three days rest to clinch the pennant while the mighty Morris, uh, did not pitch, leaving things in the capable hands of Doyle Alexander, who didn’t make it out of the second inning.
So, that’s my perception of the Blyleven Hall of Fame case. But lots of other people have very different perceptions. They see a guy who made only two All-Star teams, who never won a Cy Young Award, who only won 20 games in a season once, who could not pitch to the score, whose 287-250 record doesn’t seem too impressive, who compiled his stats based on his longevity rather than his excellence and so on. The fact that this perception is WRONG and STUPID does not make it any less viable or any less real. In fact, if they were writing a blog, they would say my perception is WRONG and STUPID. Trouble is they’re not writing a blog, or at least not this blog, so too bad, I win, they’re the wrong and stupid ones.

Whereas I don’t know if I believe that people who don’t vote for Blyleven are stupid, I will certainly agree with Joe that they are wrong. Next let’s look at some research from Bill James via Sabermetic Research

Bill argues, quite reasonably, that there are two reasons Blyleven might have lost a few wins off his record:

1. His teams might have given him poor run support;
2. He might have failed to “match the effort” of his teammates.

Number two means that, even though Blyleven pitched well, he might have saved his best outings for when it still wasn’t good enough; giving up three runs when his team only scored two, for instance. If true, that would have cost him a bunch of wins, and, in some eyes, would be enough to keep him out of the hall.

Bill starts by looking at run support. Throughout the essay, he compares Blyleven to six other similar pitchers. Those others, like Blyleven, had long careers and ERAs ranging from 3.22 to 3.45.

It turns out that Blyleven had poor run support compared those other guys:

4.39 Jenkins
4.38 Kaat
4.37 Carlton
4.24 John
4.22 Niekro
4.19 Blyleven
4.14 Sutton

Instead of resorting to Pythagoras, Bill looked at those six comparison pitchers, and figured out the records of their teams when they scored 0 runs of support, 1 run, 2 runs, and so on. He then counted how many times each of those scores happened in a Blyleven start, and computed an “expected” number of wins.

The expected record was 371.5-313.5. The actual record of Blyleven’s teams was 364-321. That’s 7.5 wins

And, by the way, for those of you who want to hold Blyleven responsible for his 7 missed “timing” wins, Bill writes,

“Suppose that Blyleven has a seven-game stretch during which he wins games 13-0 and 5-2, but then loses 3-2, 4-3, 3-2, 7-4 and 3-2. Those are the actual scores of Blyleven’s games from May 3 to June 4, 1977.
Blyleven was supported by 4.43 runs per game during that stretch and allowed 3.14, but he lost five of the seven games.

“One can look at that and say that Blyleven failed to match his efforts to the runs he had to work with—but why is that all Blyleven’s fault? Isn’t it equally true that his offense failed to match their efforts to Bert’s better games? It seems to me that it is.

“So why do we hold Blyleven wholly responsible for this? Wouldn’t it be equally logical, at least, to say that this was half Blyleven’s fault, and half his team’s fault?”

While I argued before that his won/loss record is somewhat irrelevant, I have to realize that, to Hall of Fame voters, it is not. So for the sake of argument, let’s say that Blyleven should have gotten to 300 wins, and with this information it appears that with even an average team he would have; how many pitchers have 300 wins and are not currently in the Hall of Fame?

Three. Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine. Yeah, I think those guys might make it.

For the sake of the readers Porky, please just agree with me, I don’t think that the wonderful masses here at FTLT will be able to stand another 1,300 words about Bert Blyleven, a man who stopped playing before some of them were born.

In the event that my thoughts are Blyleven weren’t enough next up we have my thoughts on the great Craig Biggio.

You stated that Biggio has the 5th most doubles in Major League history so maybe we should just put him in. Well, where as by that criteria alone, he certainly does not belong, let’s take a look at the players in the top ten in career doubles just for the fun of it before we move into a much stronger argument for Biggio:

Tris Speaker, Pete Rose, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb, George Brett, Nap Lajoie, Carl Yastrzemski, Honus Wagner, and Hank Aaron.

In case you didn’t realize it, everyone listed above, other than Rose, is in the Hall of Fame. And I think we can all agree that if it were not for a few certain transgressions that Mr. Rose would be included as well. But enough of the arbitrary stats, let’s take a look at Biggio’s other numbers.

Biggio’s career OPS+ is 111, by itself not an overwhelming number. For what it is worth, that does not take positional adjustment into effect which factors into Biggio’s case. Over his career, Biggio spent time at catcher, second base, and center field, without question, three of the four most important defensive positions on the field, save for shortstop. Again, just for fun though, let’s take look at Hall of Famers with a lower career OPS+, once again, not taking defense into account

Lou Brock, George Kelly, Joe Sewell, Pie Traynor, Johnny Evers, Bid McPhee, Bobby Wallace, Brooks Robinson, Travis Jackson, Tommy McCarthy, and Ned Hanlon. Hardly an elite group of Hall of Famers, I understand. Some of the players listed above had special skill sets like Brock or Robinson, speed and defense, which helped them get inducted but the majority of the players listed there were up the middle players (catcher, ss, 2b, and cf) who played sound defense with slightly better than average offense.

To get a better understanding of Biggio’s offensive value, let’s take a look at Biggio versus the league in a metric called wOBA (which puts a greater emphasis on OBP than SLG), which is a liner average using on base percentage as a reference created by Fan Graphs

That shows 11 seasons above average relative to the rest of the league. For a player who spent time playing catcher, second base, and center field, that is rather impressive. By comparison, let’s use someone who has, according to the masses all but secured himself a spot in Cooperstown, Capitan America, Derek Jeter

Those are stinkingly similar, huh? If anything, I would give the edge to Biggio, and that doesn’t even take into account Derek Jeter’s, widely disputed, defensive abilities, or lack thereof, at shortstop.

And for the hell of it, let’s not forget both Bill James’ and my favorite statistic about Craig Biggio; in 1997 he grounded into exactly 0 double plays.

All and all, I am not sure if Biggio belongs in the Hall, but at the very least, I think that I have proven, there is a discussion to be had regarding him.

Oh, and if anyone knows a site that needs someone to make long rambling posts about players and their Hall of Fame merits, well, I would love to contribute.

Ahh, the New Year is upon us and with it comes the annual black tie banquets awarding the best of 2008, and the gathering of “revered” sportswriters and baseball eficionados on who will be recognized for their illustrious contributions to the sport.

I will spare any readers the proverbial Slumdog Millionaire and/or The Wrester references and get right to the point.  The Baseball Hall of Fame, well, lets just say that they really need to take a good look at themselves and determine exactly what they are rewarding players for.  Sure, in there defense, their has been well-documented controversy surrounbding the pre-2001 Veteran’s Committee, comprised of former MLB’ers, passing on former foes and giving special consideration to former teammates, but still, the general philosophy of who is a Hall of Famer and who isnt, is in my opinion, still highly flawed.

First off, I would like to congratulate Jim Rice for making it in, in his final year of eligibility…how convenient, huh.  Second, I would like to congratulate arguably the most impressive overall player of my youth, Mr. Ricky Henderson…BUT!  My understanding is that there are 539 ballots comprised of the BBWWA (Baseball Writers) and the Veteran’s Committee.  Ricky Henderson received 511 votes making him only the  44th player of the 200+ candidates to be elected on the first ballot.  My first question is this, who the hell are these 28 so-called experts that didnt vote for Ricky Henderson. Lets hold that thought.

Ricky did most of his damage in the first half of his career, fair enough, many players prior to the steroid era did, so then why is it that players that have short but amazing careers can not get serious attention, for example, Donny Baseball.  Don Mattingly.  Mattingly received a mere 64 votes, that is less than Alan Trammell, Dave Parker, and Tommy John.  Once again, I grew up watching 80’s baseball, and for the same reasons that Gale Sayers is in the NFL Hall of Fame, Don Mattingly should be as well.  He dominated pitchers!  He was as good a player as I have ever seen for 3 years, the best!  No disrespect Boggs, Ichiro, Gwynn, Griffey, A-Rod, etc, but he was the best!

OK, so back to Ricky not getting those 28 votes…Look at this list of players that have received votes over these past few years:

Todd Stottlemyre

Travis Fryman

Hal Morris

Gregg Jefferies

Walt Weiss

Tony Phillips

Jim Eisenreich

So, these guys were “serviceable” MLB players.  But I would appreciate it if congress went back and documented exactly who cast those votes and impeach them from the voting committee!  That is bull!  I can assure you that the people that used their votes on these guys passed on Jim Rice, Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, Tim Raines, Jack Morris…and Pete Rose!  LOL

Over these next 5 years, there will be a handful of new Hall of Fame players…so i would like to play “true, un-biased, baseball fan” and suggest who of the available candidates should be in the Hall of Fame.  Lets all cross-reference this list in exactly 5 years from today and see where we are, cool?

IN:

Roberto Alomar

Greg Maddux

Barry Bonds

Roger Clemens

Sammy Sosa

(For the latter three, my theory is this, if the MLB didnt catch it before they had the successes they did, you still let them in…same with Pete Rose.  For cryin out loud, Ty Cobb  is in the HOF.)

Notable people that should NOT get voted in:

Mike Mussina, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, Craig Biggio, Bernie Williams, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Larkin, and oh how I hate to say this, my favorite player in the world, Edgar Martinez!!!

Player: Craig Biggio

Set: 1988 Fleer Update and Score: Rookies / Traded

Card Numbers: 89Uand 103T respectively

Why are These Cards a Must Have?: When I was a little chemgod I remember going to Shea Stadium and seeing the Mets play the Astros.  It was Biggio’s rookie year and here he was this scrawny catcher.  He ripped a double and stole third.  The Astros lost, but I’ll forever remember watching Biggio hustle.  It took a long time and 3000 hits, but Biggio finally got the notice he deserved so long ago.  He finished his career in 2007 with 3060 hits, 291 home runs and 1175 RBIs.  He had 7 All Star selections, 5 Silver Slugger awards, 4 Gold Glove awards, 15th over all in games played (2850), 13th over all in runs (1844), 20th in career hits, 28th in total bases (4711), 5th in doubles (668), 38th in singles (2046), 28th in extra base hits (1014), and most dubiously 2nd in hit batsmen. As you can see, statistically he was a hell of a ball player.  Playing in Houston definitely stunted his league wide popularity. It’s rare for a player to spend his entire career with a ball club, but Craig did, all 20 years.  He’s a first ballot Hall of Famer, and he absolutely deserves it.

On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Must Have Are These Cards?: An 8, playing in Houston, limited his superstar quality but the truth is that he was definitely one of the most versatile and consistent players ever to play the game.  The Score card is the most valuable card in allof the 1988 sets, booking for 15 bucks.  You can find these card for between more than $5 – $10  on eBay.  Some of the graded versions of the Biggio card were selling for nearly $40.

Yep, Craig Biggio is celebrating his 43rd birthday today.

And what do you give this former catcher turned outfielder turned 2nd baseman turned outfielder for his birthday?? 

I give Biggio 9 more home runs.  That’s all.  Just 9 more trips around the bases.  9 more standing ovations…  This would give him 300 career home runs.  I don’t think that it is required for his candidacy into Cooperstown as he has done enough to get in without this milestone.  I just want there to be no question about his place among baseball’s greats!!