Houston's Biggio records his 3,000th hit June 28, 2007 HOUSTON (TICKER) -- Houston Astros veteran Craig Biggio recorded his 3,000th career hit with a single in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies. Biggio becomes the 27th player in major league history to reach the historic mark. :beer: Congrats Biggio...A very nice career you have made for yourself.
Biggio with a 3 hit night; reaches 3,000 career 3 singles and an RBI, but Houston is going to lose to the rockies in reality, he should not be leading off. houston was doing it for sentimental reasons. he's part of the reason they're way under .500 now. he was a very good leadoff hitter in the '90s, but his last good season was 2001.
Craig Biggio reaches 3000 hits Along with Frank Thomas (500th homer earlier), another first ballot hall of famer. I don't think some people realize how amazing an accomplishment 3000 hits is. There are all time greats like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Frank Robinson, and Ernie Banks who never reached 3000. What I find amazing is that, if you look where Biggio is on some all-time lists, such as Doubles, the only guys around him all played in the Dead Ball era.
All time ranks (as per baseballreference.com) 15th in runs 6th in doubles 21st in times onbase 2nd in HBP 8th in power/speed 13th in plate appearances Never really realized how long he was around.
Babe Ruth's career hits are lower only because he lost about 1300 at bats in the first five years of his career because he was primarily a pitcher - make him an outfielder from the start and he breaks 3200 hits easily. Part of what you note is also that there wasn't the fascination with 3000 hits earlier that there is now. Rogers Hornsby was player-manager for the Cubs and Browns from 1932 to 1937, gave himself only 258 at bats in those six years, and finished with 2930 hits. Frank Robinson was player-manager of the Indians in 1975 and 1976, gave himself only 185 at bats in those two years, and finished with 2943 hits. Clearly both could have easily gotten past 3000 hits if they had wanted to. Contrast their behavior with that of Pete Rose, who as player-manager of the Reds in 1985-1986 gave himself 642 at bats, and slugged .301 (!) as a first baseman, just so he could break Ty Cobb's career hits record (while his team finished second in the division both years).
Not a HOFer. He really only had 5 or 6 years in the middle of his career where he was a big time player. Pretty similar to Cal Ripken except he doesn't have the whole games played streak to pave his way into Cooperstown.
He does have the switching positions thing, however. It think that he was pretty clearly the best middle infielder in the NL during the 90s (although far behind Jeter, Nomar, and A Rod in the latter half of the decade), and one school of thought of HoF membership is that that is enough. He's been nothing more than mediocre for years now, although he's racked up over 800 hits by playing every day and not walking very much. The biggest contrast between him and Ripken is probably that Ripken had HR pop, while Biggio was a line drive doubles hitter. I would probably lean towards Biggio being a HoFer, but I've never understood the incredible fascination Bill James has had for him for years (as in 1999, when he said that Biggio was the best player in the major leagues, ahead of Ken Griffey Jr., which to me was insane).
Amazingly is how he started as a Catcher, then Middle infielder then Center Fielder...I always thought that was pretty impressive..And he never lost any speed from playing Catcher.
I'd put Alomar ahead of Biggio, and although he's a little later, Kent as well. I guess when you look at it in the context of his 2bness he may deserve to go. I don't think he's a first balloter though.
Note I said NL - I agree about Alomar as well, but the AL had much better middle infielders then. Kent is also a bit different - until he went to SF in 1997 he was pretty mediocre, and then he suddenly put together 8 100 RBI years in 9 years.
I missed the NL part, processed the best middle infielder part and the AL SS you mentioned and thought you were talking about the entire league. Kent's numbers are better then both Alomar and Biggio, including an MVP season but his rise did curiously coincide with the rise of the steroid era. I don't know that he's ever been implicated or rumored to be using though.
Interesting point - I don't remember hearing that either, but Kent is certainly as surly and nasty as Bonds ever was.
Alomar probably is ahead of Biggio; he had a long period of time in which he was without a doubt the best 2b in the game. Both are first ballot hall of famers. So is Jeff Kent, despite the fact that he's nothing more than his statistics.
