It’s official!
Houston Astros’ first basemen Jeff Bagwell has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, after his seventh season of eligibility.
“Anxiety was very, very high,” Bagwell said. “It’s a weird thing to be a Hall of Famer. I wrote it on a ball tonight. It was kind of crazy, so it was cool.”
Bagwell was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the fourth round of the 1989 amateur draft. He only played in the minor leagues with the Red Sox. In 1991, Bagwell came to the Astros where he won the Rookie of the Year.
Bagwell was the National League (NL) MVP for the 1994 season. In that season he had 147 hits, 39 homeruns, with a .368 batting average. In that same year, he earned a golden glove and the silver slugger award. In Bagwell’s last season, he helped take the Astros to their first ever World Series against the Chicago White Sox. Although they ended up losing that series, as many Houstonians remember, it was a great run for the franchise. To this day the Astros have not been to another World Series.
Craig Biggio, who was Bagwell’s teammate for 15 seasons, played in the World Series with Bagwell. Biggio was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2015. When Biggio heard the news, he was ecstatic for his former teammate.
“I’m very excited,” said Biggio. “I’m excited for him and I’m excited for his family, I’m excited for his teammates, the Astros’ organization and obviously the fans. You play with somebody for 15 years and it becomes synonymous where you mention Bagwell, you mention Biggio; you mention Biggio, you mention Bagwell. Now to be able to mention Bagwell and Biggio in the Hall of Fame, I can’t tell you how happy I am for him and his family.”
The Astros are waiting on one more player from the 2005 World Series to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. That player is Roger Clemens, whose resume shows he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Clemens was the Cy Young winner seven different times, along with the Rookie of the Year, and a one-time MVP. The steroid cloud is still over Clemens and it’s not definite that he will be able to get from under it anytime soon.
The Forward Times would like to congratulate Jeff Bagwell on his Hall of Fame induction.