Hall No! The Case Against Craig Biggio
By: Carlo Rivieccio
When the Baseball writers dipped their eagle quills into gilded ink and made it clear that they will not tolerate the induction of suspected steroid users fans gasped. If Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire didn’t make it in there protest would be heard. But there is collateral damage. Mike Piazza didn’t make the cut,. Neither did the (borderline at best) Jack Morris. However the one player that most prognosticators thought would get in, the one who was considered clean and therefore above it all was Craig Biggio. He was left out. Though he garnered the most votes and is therefore likely to get in eventually, I am here to make the case against inducting Craig Biggio into the Hall of Fame.
First off, it must remain the Hall of Fame. Craig Biggio was Hall of Very Good for a Very Long Time worthy, but not Hall of Fame worthy. Craig Biggio was very good for very long. At times he was great, but you never found yourself crossing your fingers and hoping for the final out because Craig Biggio is on deck. You never changed the channel because you had to see a Craig Biggio at bat.
You NEVER said “Hey honey, get the kids were going to ball park tonight, Craig Biggio is in town!”
In his defense he has 3,000 hits. That magical number puts him in rarefied air. Only 27 other players have accomplished that task and none of them are converted catchers. Unfortunately that number, like most of the “Magic numbers” (3,000 K’s, 500 Home runs, 300 Wins) are not put into proper context. For instance, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruths Home Run record, and set the high mark with 755 total. But he had nearly 4,000 more at bats than Babe Ruth. That’s necessary context.
In the 100 years after Cap Anson became the first player to reach 3,000 in 1897, twenty others joined him. In the 15 years after that century, seven have joined the club. And within the next few seasons there’s a good chance we’ll add A-Rod, Ichiro and Pujols with outside chances for Jose Reyes, Robbie Cano, Johnny Damon (if he can catch on witha team) and even Juan Pierre (!). With one notable exception those are all very good to great players, but adding that many more people to an exclusive club makes it less exclusive. Is 3,000 hits as valuable now, with the dearth of talent at middle relief, as it was when Roberto Clemente reached it?. The over expansion of the league and the dilution of the talent pool on the mound has taken some luster away from this milestone.
In any case, that is essentially the case for Craig Biggio.
Here’s the case against him.
His proponents will talk about his prolific doubles hitting, leading the majors three times in that category. To which I say…HE PLAYED IN THE GODDAMN ASTRODOME! After that he moved to Minute Maid Park, which, while friendly to power hitters down the line but has cavernous power zones and 435 to center. As well, in 1998-99 he hit a combined 107 doubles (leading the league in both seasons) which is one sixth of his career output in two seasons!
Biggio, in a 20 year career only won the Silver Slugger as a Second Basemen 4 times, and was a 4 time gold Glover, losing out to the legendary Pokey Reese and Luis Castillo.
Never won an MVP. Which may be luck. But was rarely even a serious contender. In the years he had enough votes to garner any placement he came in 16th, 10th, 4th, 5th and 12th from ’95 to ’99 without placing in 1997, a year in which he played in 162 games. Winning an MVP may come down to luck, but consistently being in that conversation comes down to talent. Craig Biggio was rarely in that conversation.
His career batting average is .281, only batting over .300 four times (with 1998 being his best season .325, and a huge outlier) and batting under .270 eight times (including his first season). This would place him 15th among HOF’ers at his position.
His .363 OBP would place him 12th among HOF’ers at 2nd Base.
Top five in Most errors by his position seven times.
His career Wins above Replacement is 62.1, per baseball-reference.com. That meant over a 20 year career he gave you just over 3 wins per year and 2 is the replacement level cutoff.
His career numbers lead to a person who, though talented, and with a three year span of greatness, compiled hits. He’s a very good player, but was never a dominant force. While some numbers may compare favorably to Hall of Famers his most likely comparison Ryne Sandberg ripped off a 9 year string of Gold Gloves.
When you are the greatest of your generation at very specific task you deserve to be a Hall of Famer. Biggio was good at a lot of things, but what can be said that he was the greatest at?
This is of course, much ado about nothing. He’ll eventually get in. Though it is at least fair that he wasn’t elected on the first ballot.
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