Craig Biggio

Craig Alan Biggio (born December 14, 1965) is an American former baseball second baseman, outfielder and catcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros, from 1988 to 2007.

A seven-time National League (NL) All-Star often regarded as the greatest all-around player in Astros history, he is the only player ever to be named an All-Star and to be awarded Silver Slugger Award at both catcher and second base.

Most notably, after the 1983 season Biggio was awarded the Hansen Award, which recognized him as being the best football player in Suffolk County.

However, Biggio's passion lay with baseball, such that he turned down football scholarships for the opportunity to play baseball for Seton Hall University.

Although Biggio was an infielder, Seton Hall coach Mike Sheppard switched him to catcher because the team was in need of one.

At the end of his career, he ranked sixth in NL history in games played (2,850), fifth in at bats (10,876), 21st in hits (3,060), and seventh in runs scored (1,844).

In 1986, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

Biggio was an All-American baseball player at Seton Hall, where he played with other future Major League Baseball stars Mo Vaughn and John Valentin.

Biggio, Vaughn and Valentin, along with Marteese Robinson, were featured in the book The Hit Men and the Kid Who Batted Ninth by David Siroty, which chronicled their rise from college teammates to the major leagues.

Biggio was selected by the Houston Astros in the first round (22nd overall) of the 1987 draft.

Biggio remains Seton Hall's leader in triples, second in runs scored, and is in the top 10 in 18 other single-season and career categories.

Biggio was called up as a catcher midway through the 1988 season, having batted .344 in his minor league career.

In 1989, his first full season, Biggio became the Astros' starting catcher.

He won the Silver Slugger Award in 1989.

He was a very speedy runner, and an adept base stealer.

Astros management, in an attempt to keep the rigors of catching from sapping Biggio's speed, tried him in the outfield part-time in 1990, as he had played 18 games there in the minors.

Yogi Berra mentioned Biggio's height in his book You Can Observe A Lot By Watching, saying, "I always identified with short catchers—they don't have to stand up as far".

The pair came to be known as the "Killer B's", synonymous with the Astros throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s.

The Astros acquired first baseman Jeff Bagwell prior to the start of the 1991 season, who, like Biggio, spent his entire major league career with Houston.

A power hitter with higher-than-normal on-base skills, Bagwell played 15 seasons, thus completely overlapping his career with Biggio's and wound up Houston's career leader in home runs.

The Astros finally convinced Biggio to convert to second base in spring training of 1992, even though Biggio had made the National League All-Star team as a catcher the year before.

Biggio made the All-Star team for the second time in 1992, becoming the first player in the history of baseball to be an All-Star at both catcher and second base.

A prodigious offensive and defensive unit, during their 10 peak seasons from 1994 to 2003, they appeared in nine All-Star Games, won five Gold Gloves, ranked in the top five of the Most Valuable Player Award voting five times and averaged 226 runs scored.

They totaled 689 home runs, 2,485 RBI and 3,083 runs scored while the Astros advanced to the postseason six times.

Other players that the Astros later acquired whose names started with the letter B also were included in this distinction, including Derek Bell, Sean Berry, Lance Berkman, and Carlos Beltrán.

Biggio considered free agency with a team other than the Astros just once: after the 1995 season ended, teams such as the St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, and the San Diego Padres; the Rockies and Cardinals were the most serious, with the former offering $20 million for four years while the latter approached him with a five-year, $25 million contract.

However, Biggio took a four-year deal worth $22 million to stay with the Astros.

In 1996, Biggio was inducted into the Seton Hall Hall of Fame and had his number 44 retired in 2012.

With longtime teammates Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman, he formed the core of the "Killer B's" who led Houston to six playoff appearances from 1997 to 2005, culminating in the franchise's first World Series appearance in 2005.

His 668 career doubles ranked sixth in major league history, and are the second-most ever by a right-handed hitter; his 56 doubles in 1999 were the most in the major leagues in 63 years.

Biggio, who batted .300 four times and scored 100 runs eight times, holds Astros franchise records for most career games, at bats, hits, runs scored, doubles, total bases (4,711) and extra base hits (1,014), and ranks second in runs batted in (1,175), walks (1,160) and stolen bases (414).

He also holds the NL record for most times leading off a game with a home run (53), and is one of only five players with 250 home runs and 400 steals.

A four-time Gold Glove Award winner who led NL second basemen in assists six times and putouts five times, he retired ranking fourth in NL history in games at second base (1,989), sixth in assists (5,448) and fielding percentage (.984), seventh in putouts (3,992) and double plays (1,153), and eighth in total chances (9,596).

He was the ninth player in the 3,000 hit club to collect all his hits with one team.

Biggio also led the NL in times hit by pitch five times, with his career total of 285 trailing only Hughie Jennings' 287 in major league history.

One of the most admired players of his generation, Biggio received the 2005 Hutch Award for perseverance through adversity and the 2007 Roberto Clemente Award for sportsmanship and community service.

The Astros retired the number 7 in his honor the year following his retirement.

Since 2008, Biggio has served as special assistant to the general manager of the Astros.

He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, and is the first member of the Hall to be depicted in an Astros uniform on his plaque.

Craig Biggio graduated from Kings Park High School in Kings Park, New York, where he excelled as a multi-sport varsity athlete.