Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio leading Houston with talent, experience and loyalty; Astros' veteran All-Stars let teammates know they're among friends - American Baseball League

Baseball Digest, July, 2002 by Jack Etkin

THE TORNADO ROARED THROUGH central Florida during spring training and touched down near the Houston Astros facility. Infielder Tim Bogar, his wife, who was four months pregnant, and their young son were living in a home that was heavily damaged. Teammate Craig Biggio was the first person to contact Bogar.

"Not to say nobody else would do that, but he was the first guy to say, `Pack your stuff. You and your family are coming to my house,'" said Bogar, who was in spring training last March with the Colorado Rockies and is playing this season at Class AAA Colorado Springs.

That was in 1998, a few months after pitcher Darryl Kile left the Astros, the organization where he spent his first 10 professional seasons. Kile won 19 games in 1997 and signed with the Rockies as a free agent. His decision to leave the Astrodome, a pitching haven, for the wrath of Coors Field wasn't popular in Houston.

Fans viewed him as disloyal and a mercenary, even though it was reported that the Astros' 11th-hour offer was more about saving face publicly than seriously negotiating. Soon after Kile agreed to sign with the Rockies, he heard from Jeff Bagwell, who had just become his former Houston teammate.

"The first guy that wished me luck and was really in my corner was my friend, Jeff," said Kile, who now pitches for the St. Louis Cardinals. "Jeff was disappointed they lost a pitcher in the rotation. But as a friend, he understood why I made that choice, and he was behind me. I'll never forget that."

Biggio and Bagwell.

Bagwell and Biggio.

Their names are inextricably linked with each other--the tie fostered just a bit more by alliteration. They have been Houston teammates since the start of the 1991 season when Bagwell, new to the organization after an ill-fated trade by the Boston Red Sox, broke in with the Astros.

When their names come up, baseball people have a typical response, simple but all-encompassing and filled with rare praise:

They are the Astros.

Biggio, 36, and Bagwell, 33, will retire as Astros. And when they do, no one on that team will ever again wear Biggio's No. 7 or Bagwell's No. 5. They have played their entire major league careers with the Astros, developing into superstars in Houston and never taking the free-agent ride to another city.

Bagwell wasn't sure he would still be with the Astros after their dismal 2000 season. But after that plunge to fourth place and 90 losses, the Astros came to Bagwell, who would have been eligible for free agency after the 2001 season, and they agreed on a five-year, $85 million contract extension.

Bagwell believes the Astros probably would have traded him after their 2000 pratfall had they not signed him. And some grass-is-greener thoughts came to Bagwell when he pondered the possibility of leaving.

"It would have been very easy for me to say, `I'm out of here because we stink,'" Bagwell said. "My wife and I struggled with this. I can't imagine wearing another uniform, mid I felt like I would be bailing out.

"I want to win for this organization and this city. It couldn't be any more gratifying than that. Everybody was starting to say I'm going to go play for the Yankees and win the World Series. How much better would it be for us to win it here, where nobody quite expected it to happen? I want to be part of that, and if I don't, I'm going to die trying. That was what my motivation was (in staying with Houston)."

At a time when players skitter like tumbleweed across the baseball plains, Bagwell and Biggio haven't budged. Biggio came close to leaving the Astros' after the 1995 season. He was a free agent and nearly signed with the Rockies, which immeasurably would have altered Colorado's course. Instead, he stayed in Houston where, not coincidentally, the Astros reached the playoffs in four of the next six seasons.

"Billy Crystal tells the story how he walked into Yankee Stadium, saw No. 7 and that was it," Bagwell said, referring to the comedian's sighting of Mickey Mantle. "He was standing out there. I hope some kids do that when they-see Craig and I.

"All they've got to do is look right. They can see us on the right side of the infield. This is our 11th year on the right side of the infield, and it was only 90 feet (different) one other year when he was catching."

Because they have played next to each other for so long, Biggio said each simply knows where the other will be when various situations arise on the field, making conversation unnecessary.

Their lockers are near each other in the Astros clubhouse in Houston as well as on the road, where locker assignments typically follow a numerical sequence. There is familiarity and closeness and knowledge of the other's habits, making this, within the confines of baseball, something akin to a marriage.

"It's a lot easier than a marriage," Biggio said, smiling, "because you don't have to talk as much."

For all they share when it comes to how they approach the game, Bagwell and Biggio are very different players. Bagwell is a slugger who has hit at least 31 homers and has driven in no fewer than 111 runs each of the past six seasons. But he's also a .303 career hitter with a .415 on-base.