Stinging loss for B's
Biggio, Bagwell unable to make most of chance
HOUSTON -- No two players in professional sports have been teammates longer than 37-year-old Jeff Bagwell and 39-year-old Craig Biggio, who have played together the last 15 seasons. They locker together, in the center of the Houston clubhouse, leaving little question as to whom the room belongs. There is Biggio's dressing area, there is an open locker, and there is Bagwell's.
There might be one last season for the Killer B's, in 2006. Bagwell will make $17 million next season in the final year of a five-year, $85 million extension he signed in December 2000, coming off a season in which he hit 47 homers and knocked in 132 runs. The club holds an $18 million option for 2008 with a hefty buyout figure of $7 million. Biggio, meanwhile, clubbed a career-high 26 homers this season at age 39 and received a one-year extension for $4 million on the last day of the regular season.
But this, last night's Game 4 of a World Series swept by the Chicago White Sox, figures to have represented the first and last chance for Bagwell and Biggio to deliver here in the city to which they've long committed themselves.
''If I never have the chance to go back [to a World Series], my career would be complete," said Biggio. ''A lot of guys have never gotten to go to the World Series and I feel for them."
For years -- 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001 to be exact -- the Killer B's were silent when in mattered most. Bagwell, in those four postseasons, hit .174 (8 for 46) with zero extra-base hits and 4 RBIs. Biggio struggled even more, batting .130 (7 for 54) with one double, no homers, and 1 RBI.
Biggio went 1 for 4 last night and hit .295 (18 for 61) in this postseason. Bagwell hit .286 (14 for 49) last postseason but was just 1 for 8 in the World Series and 2 for 11 in the postseason. Limited by the shoulder surgery he underwent in May on his arthritic right shoulder, Bagwell was limited to pinch hitting in September and October, until he could DH in Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. Last night, he hit for starter Brandon Backe and grounded out to end the seventh.
''I'm thankful for the guys who got us here because I didn't do much myself this year," said Bagwell. ''They did the work. I appreciate that.
''If this is the last game I play, that's the way it is. I don't want to think that way. I want to play next year. That's my goal. I'm going to start [rehabbing] Friday."
