Sunday, September 30, 2007

Thanks for my childhood, Biggio


Craig Biggio played the final game of his 20-year, three-position, 7-time All-Star (at two positions), 4-time Gold Glove, 5-time Silver Slugger, 3000 hit club, first in 8 club records, exclusively Astros career today.

And thus ends my childhood. I know it sounds ridiculous and just plain silly, but Biggio was a huge part of my life for the last 17 years. I started watching baseball because of a set of Mother's Cookies Special Edition Astros Baseball Cards that I won as a prize for good behavior in the second grade. Biggio was one of the cards in that pack. My mom had watched the Tigers with her mom some when she was growing up, and now the tradition was passed on as Astros baseball became a mother-daughter activity in my own home. My mom and I have a lot in common, and she's like my best friend anyway, but that baseball connection definitely only strengthened our relationship. I'll never forget watching all those games with her, and going to games with her, and then the really cool days when it would be "girl's day out" and my grandma, my mom, and I would all get to go to the game.

I went to my first game against the now-defunct Expos in 1992, and Biggio immediately became my favorite player. Even as a seven year old, I could tell that this man played the game right. He ran out everything that hit the bat, he was ready for anything that came at him in the field, and he just projected goodness onto the whole team. I collected every baseball card I could get of him, and my dad's friends sent me cards and memorabilia related to him. I had posters all over my ceiling of Biggio, Biggio, Biggio. I sound like a kid again.

When I started playing softball the following season, Bidge was my role model and inspiration - I modeled my field stance after him, even though I didn't play second base until many years later (and even then for only one season), I asked for #7 for my uniform number every season, and I ran down that first base line like my life depended on it every time. Bagwell was cool too - I modeled my batting stance after him until I realized I was already really short and didn't really need to squat that much, nor did it help me much to do so. But Biggio was my hero. He WAS baseball.

I watched Biggio and the Astros through the rainbow uniforms years, the Astrodome years, , the beginnings of the "Killer B's," the "we can't beat the Braves" years, the '97-'99 division titles, and the Enron Field/Astros Field/Minute Maid Park swaps. I wrote a college essay about/that included Biggio. Then I left the state, but in '04, I failed a couple midterms while living and breathing the Sox and 'Stros at once for the NLCS and ALCS. In '05, I cried for the first time in professional baseball - tears of pure joy - for the look on Biggio's face when they finally got to the World Series.

Today, I cried again. I made certain to glue myself to the downstairs couch in my house today so that I could grab the TV with cable to watch Biggio's final game. Ironically (and thankful, for once, for TBS), it was against the Braves. I sobbed every time the man came up to bat, every time the crowd gave him a full standing ovation, and every time a player hugged him or shook his hand before they left the field. I started flat-out really sobbing when 'Bidge left the field for the final time in the 7th.

He played the game right to the very end. He hit a signature Biggio double to start the game, and he scored in the same inning. He made a sliding play at second. He was wearing his dirtiest of helmets. And he ran out all his balls that didn't end up being hits.

No one else probably cares about this post, because it's not witty, and it's not relevant to a large part of the baseball world, but this is the one place that I could find to express myself with at least some hope that someone might get it. Get that feeling of your entire childhood, flashing before you, living, and breathing, and dying, and loving that player, that team, and that game. There are times when you can't even express it anymore, but you feel it, and you can feel it ripping out your soul while still giving you that same stability and devotion that drew you in as a seven year old kid.

My childhood is over now, and technically (and realistically) has been for more than a couple years. But today was the end of my metaphorical childhood, in that from this day forth, baseball will not be the same for me. I've never had another player that stayed with one team for practically my entire life, and all of my coherant baseball life. I've never loved another player like I loved Biggio, the way he played the game, and the work he did for the community. And I will never be able to dedicate myself to the following of statistics, standings, and the individual watching of games like I could when I was either a kid or in college. The world calls me now, and life calls me now, and although baseball will always be a part (a pretty big part, I would even venture to claim) of my life and my passions, I won't even begin to pretend that it will ever be the same for me again. It's time for other things to matter now. Biggio even managed to show me that, too.

So goodbye, Craig Biggio, #7, Mr. Astro, and Houston's hero. You were my hero, and you will be missed immensely.

There may be no crying in baseball, but there was on your behalf today.

2 Comments:

Blogger mbrannonreese said...

As a native Houstonian transplanted to Baltimore, I was grateful for TBS on Sunday. I too grew up watching Biggio and the 'Stros, and it always brings up memories of my childhood with my dad. There was only me, no boys, but that didn't stop him from buying me a mitt, playing catch, and taking me to games. I was glad I could return the favor in college. I only wish I could've taken him to the Ballpark at Union Station to see Biggio play one last game.

5:59 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

Wow. I just stumbled across this, and I could not agree more. Biggio was the epitome of my childhood. I nearly cried just reading this salute to one of my all-time heroes. Sadly, those days are over. But man, they were great! Thanks, Bidge!

3:50 AM  

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