Jeff Bagwell

Overall, Bagwell batted over .300 six times, had a career OBP of .408 (39th all time), and had a slugging percentage of .540 (32nd all time).

Jeffrey Robert Bagwell (born May 27, 1968) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Houston Astros.

In 1987 and 1988, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and in 1988 was named the starting third baseman for the East Division in the league's annual all-star game.

Originally a Boston Red Sox fourth-round selection from the University of Hartford in the 1989 amateur draft, Bagwell was traded to the Astros in 1990.

In early 1989, Bagwell was honored by Xavier for his character and generosity.

The Red Sox selected Jeff Bagwell in the fourth round of the 1989 Major League Baseball draft.

Throughout his career, Barry Axelrod served as his agent.

For his first professional assignment, the Red Sox appointed Bagwell to the Winter Haven Red Sox of the Florida State League in 1989, where he batted .310 with two home runs.

In 1990, while playing for the AA New Britain Red Sox, Bagwell won the Eastern League Most Valuable Player Award.

In 136 games with New Britain, he batted .333 with 160 hits, four home runs (HR), 61 runs batted in (RBI), 34 doubles, seven triples, 73 bases on balls (BB or walks), 57 strikeouts (SO), .422 on-base percentage (OBP), .457 slugging percentage (SLG) and .880 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS).

He finished first in the league in hits and doubles, second in batting, OBP and OPS, fourth in walks, fifth in SLG, ninth in runs scored and tenth in RBI.

Late in the 1990 season, the Red Sox, who were in search of relief pitching to improve their chances of making the playoffs, contacted the Houston Astros about Larry Andersen.

Stan Benjamin, who scouted the New England region for the Astros, recommended that they ask for Bagwell in return.

The Astros initially hesitated owing to his sparse home run production, but Benjamin persuaded them, quipping that New Britain's Beehive Field was so large that "Babe Ruth couldn’t hit home runs in that ballpark."

On August 30, 1990, the Red Sox took the Astros' offer.

Bagwell was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year in 1991 and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 1994.

Bagwell and longtime Astros second baseman Craig Biggio were known as the "Killer B's", and the team experienced consistent success during their careers; Houston finished in first or second place in the NL Central division in eleven of twelve seasons from 1994 to 2005.

The only player in MLB history to have six consecutive seasons (1996–2001) with thirty home runs, 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, and 100 walks, Bagwell is one of twelve players in history to hit 400 home runs and record an on-base percentage (OBP) of .400.

He is the only first baseman with at least 400 home runs and 200 stolen bases.

The trade is now considered one of the most one-sided trades in baseball history; in 2001, ESPN's readers named it the second-worst trade in sports history, behind only the Red Sox trading Ruth to the New York Yankees.

He also excelled in American Legion Baseball under coach Fred Tremalgia for Post 75 in Middletown and went on to be named the 2003 American Legion Baseball Graduate of the Year.

Bill Denehy head coach of the University of Hartford, offered Bagwell a scholarship in spite of baseball not being his primary sport.

Bagwell's acceptance of Hartford's baseball scholarship was based at least in part on the lack of a professional soccer league in the United States at the time.

At Hartford, Denehy switched Bagwell to third base.

Over three seasons playing for Hartford, he batted .413 in 400 at bats, a school record, and, for a time, a New England collegiate record.

He also was the school's career home run (31) and run batted in (126) leader when he was drafted, and a two-time Eastern College Athletic Conference player of the year.

During that period, the Astros qualified for the playoffs six times, culminating in Bagwell's lone World Series appearance in 2005.

Bagwell hit 449 home runs for the Astros, the most in club history, and set numerous other franchise career and single-season records.

He is a four-time MLB All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger winner and a Gold Glove recipient.

He was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, and to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, as the only son of Janice (née Hare) and Robert Bagwell, Jeff Bagwell and his family moved to Killingworth, Connecticut, when he was one year old.

Much of Bagwell's family is from the Greater Boston area, including both his parents, and are avid fans of the Boston Red Sox.

His favorite baseball player, Carl Yastrzemski, was a longtime left fielder for the Red Sox.

Robert, from Watertown, pitched college baseball at Northeastern University and as a semi-professional.

Janice, a police officer, grew up in Newton and played softball in local Boston leagues until her 20s.

Bagwell's parents divorced when he was 11.

Precocious and demonstrating much athletic ability early in life, he played a wide variety of sports as a youth.

Recalled Janice, Jeff "could throw a ball before he could walk. When he was six months old, we’d throw a ball to him and he would throw it back."

Bagwell graduated from Xavier High School, a private all-male Catholic school located in Middletown, Connecticut.

A versatile athlete, he excelled at soccer, setting the school goal-scoring mark, played shortstop, and lettered in basketball.