Olberman just ripped apart the Baseball Writers Assoc. of America for taking away Dan LeBatard's voting card this year. LeBatard had enlisted the help of deadspin to help him decide by having them ask people who to vote for. Olberman said that some voter back in 2007 in Houston had a Tequila party and had people help him decide. Another dude just this year admitted to voting for his 10th and final person by flip of a coin (between Bonds and Clemens). Yet another voter went to social media on twitter and asked fans about whether he should vote for Biggio and Kent. So Olberman wanted to know why banish LeBatard when you have these other idiots doing worse stuff?
My guess (and that's all it is - a guess) is because LeBatard was so public about what he did. He mentioned it on his radio show for like a week. I don't doubt that those other incidents happened. I just never heard about any of them.
I respect Biggio. I respect him as a player and as a person in the community. He's had a great career (20+ years is amazing). However, I don't look at Biggio as a HOF player. Yes, he got over 3,000 hits. But over 20 years, you had better get there. But I'm trying not to "poo poo" his accomplishments. I just feel that there was never a point in Biggio's entire pro career that any opposing team feared him the same way they do/did for other players--even on his OWN team. No one ever walked Biggio to pitch to Bagwell. Biggio's spot in the order never gave an opposing manager headaches with how to approach him. Biggio deserves to be applauded for his career, deserves to be an Astro Fan favorite. Retire his number in Houston and put him in the Astro HOF. But the MLB HOF?? Well, he certainly wasn't the greatest, most feared catcher in the game when he was a catcher, and he wasn't the best 2B or the best CF either. He was a good player. No denying that. But he certainly wasn't a "great" one.
If we categorize Biggio as a 2nd basemen and a leadoff hitter, since that's what he was for roughly 80 % of his career, we would have to compare him to other 2nd basemen in the hall. So I would implore anyone to find me a 2nd baseman and/or leadoff hitter in the HOF that has: .281 Avg .363 OBP .433 SLG 291 Homers 668 Doubles (Only behind Speaker, Rose, Musial and Cobb) 1844 Runs 1175 RBIs 414 Stolen Bases 3060 Hits With all due respect BostonBengal, your description of Biggio would disallow pretty much all 2nd basemen from the HOF. You'd only have corner fielders and corner outfielders and a few catchers in your hall. Is Ryne Sandberg good enough?: .285 Avg .344 OBP .452 SLG 282 Homers 403 Doubles 1318 Runs 1064 RBIs 344 Stolen Bases 2386 Hits Joe Morgan? .271 Avg .392 OBP .427 SLG 268 Homers 449 Doubles 1650 Runs 1133 RBIs 689 Stolen Bases 2517 Hits Rogers Hornsby (considered the greatest hitting 2nd baseman of all time): .358 Avg .434 OBP .577 SLG 301 Homers 541 Doubles 1579 Runs 1584 RBIs 135 Stolen Bases 2930 Hits In the all important category of Offensive WAR (wins above replacement), Biggio is 46th in MLB history. Morgan is 17th and Sandberg is 94th. Hornsby is 10th. In WPA (win probability added), Biggio is 86th. Morgan is 10th, Sandberg is 117th. There are other important tell tale categories I could mention, all of which Biggio is highly ranked in the pantheon of baseball. He just didn't play for a long time. He played well for a long time. His stats did get watered down a bit in the last 5 seasons or so when he was a low .290 hitter. He went through a 5 year stretch as a leadoff hitter where he averaged nearly 20 homers, 80 RBIs, 35 stolen bases and 125 runs scored while hitting just over .300 and an OBP just over .400. He was the best leadoff hitter in the majors during this time.
CB absolutely belongs in the hall. Especially when you look at some of the names that are already in that were far less productive. Anyone that says otherwise is either a braves fan or just doesn't know crap about baseball.
Biggio started playing as a catcher when I was a teenager and didn't follow the Astros very closely. The Astros became my favorite team when I was at LSU and my roomate would watch and listen (introduced me to Milo) to games. I moved to Houston in 2001 and became an even bigger Biggio fan. When he got his 3,000th hit, my company gave me a couple of last minute tickets. He needed four hits so we obviously thought it was a long shot. He ended up getting five in that game and was thrown out trying to stretch a hit into a double. My wife was pregnant at the time and we had settled on "Quinn" as our (2nd) son's name. When I read the story about Biggio the next day, it said his wife and daughter Quinn met him on the field. That was the 3rd time I heard Quinn used as a girl's name so we changed our minds and went with James.
