Bagwell to join teammate Biggio in National Baseball Hall of Fame
Jeff Bagwell started as a prospect for his hometown Boston Red Sox, but he ended as a career Houston Astro, and his 1990 trade may have been the break he needed to end his baseball journey in the Hall of Fame.
“I was devastated when I was traded because I was leaving my hometown team, the Red Sox,” he said in March during his HOF orientation tour. “My grandmother’s crying. My grandfather’s crying. My mother’s crying. And my dad, who had to come pick me up in Albany (where Bagwell was playing in the minor leagues)…he said, ‘you might have a chance (in Houston).’”
Bagwell will be inducted into the Hall on July 30, along with Ivan Rodriguez, Tim Raines, Bud Selig and John Schuerholz.
The 1990 trade from Boston for pitcher Larry Anderson is sometimes called the worst trade in baseball history. Anderson, who had a career record of 40-39, spent half a season with the Red Sox before going to San Diego in free agency. Boston won the American League East in 1990, but was swept in the playoffs by Oakland.
However, it was an outstanding trade for Houston and Bagwell. Boston had Wade Boggs at third base and Mo Vaughn at first base. By the time Anderson was a Padre, Bagwell was starting at first base in Houston. He won the 1991 National League Rookie of the Year award as well as the 1994 NL MVP. In 15 seasons with Houston, he hit .297 with 449 home runs, 2,314 hits and 1,529 RBIs. He was a four-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger and won a Gold Glove in 1994.
Bagwell will be the second player to have an Astros logo on his HOF plaque, after longtime teammate Craig Biggio made the Hall in 2015. Biggio was also a career Astro, coming up three years before Bagwell and retiring two years after him.
“The funny thing is, I can see different pictures from different times in my career, where I can tell you if I am hitting well based on my stance,” — Jeff Bagwell
Houston built itself into a National League power during the two players’ careers, leaders in what the team and local media dubbed “the Killer Bs.” The group at times also included Lance Berkman, Derek Bell, Sean Berry and Carlos Beltran.
The team peaked in 2005, when it made the only World Series in team history, but got swept in four close games by the Chicago White Sox. It was Bagwell’s final season, as a shoulder injury ended his career, and he could only pinch hit in the playoffs.
“I was ecstatic for the team,” he said. “And I was still a part of it…It really wasn’t tough on me. I was extremely excited for our city, for the Houston Astros, and specifically for Craig, for spending all those years with the team and to finally get there. It was extremely magical for our city.”
Bagwell said he will take pleasure in joining his childhood idol, Carl Yastrzemski, in the Hall.
“Growing up in Boston, he was my hero,” Bagwell said. “He just did things the right way. He did the little things. He replaced Ted Williams (as the team’s big star), who was my dad’s favorite. It means a lot to me that people recognize he was my hero.”
Known for a wider than usual stance, Bagwell joked that he has ruined a generation of Houston hitters who sought to emulate his fundamentally wrong stance.
“It was basically my attempt to get my head to stay at the same level,” he said. “My legs were just wide, and I would drop my hands and step backwards, everything they would never teach. Somehow it worked out for me.
“The funny thing is, I can see different pictures from different times in my career, where I can tell you if I am hitting well based on my stance,” he said. “If I am really spread out, then I was really struggling. If I am not spread out, then I must have been doing OK.”
Bagwell’s fans could be a component of another top-five crowd for Induction, a trend which began in 2014 with 48,000 fans for the induction of three managers plus Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddox. Last year’s induction of Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. drew an estimated 50,000 fans.
Astros fans came out big for Biggio in 2015, and many said they looked forward to returning for Bagwell. Astros fans were all over the village the entire weekend; the induction of Biggio, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Pedro Martinez — three first-ballot HOF pitchers and Biggio on his third ballot — cracked the top five for induction attendance with an estimated crowd of 45,000.
“(People are saying) they shut down Houston this weekend, so everybody could come here,” said Billy O’Bannon of Baytown, Texas, to The Cooperstown Crier in 2015.
O’Bannon, his wife, Gloria, and their children, Courtney and Bryan, were one group of Astros fans on the streets of Cooperstown that induction weekend, but they were not alone.
“Aren’t y’all proud of the turnout,” Cindy Safar of New Orleans said to the O’Bannons. “On our flight from New Orleans to Baltimore and then Baltimore to Albany, the planes were almost all filled with Astros fans.”
This year’s induction will be a Texas-two-fer. “Pudge” Rodriguez, a catcher, is the second player to go into the Hall as a Texas Ranger, following Nolan Ryan. Ryan was also an Astros standout. Rodriguez played a short time with the Astros, near the end of his career in 2009.
Klein writes for The Cooperstown, New York, Crier.