Biggios note similarities between Jays, Astros

It is hours before Game 1 of the World Series and at the sports bar that bears his name and is just three blocks away from Minute Maid Park, Craig Biggio is meeting and greeting his legion of fired-up fans.

A rarity in baseball in that he played all of his Hall of Fame career with one team, Biggio is revered here.

Fans appreciate the professionalism, his continued role with the Astros as a special assistant to general manager Jeff Luhnow and the glory Biggio brought to baseball in this town as a seven-time all-star and four-time

Gold Glove Award winner.

Now he’s also known as the father of a budding major league star, Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Cavan Biggio, a topic that comes up regularly when Craig talks baseball both with the public and any of his many acquaintances in the game.

It’s been a busy run for the senior Biggio, a trusted behindthe-scenes voice for a franchise that can certainly use one. Besides his work with a 107-win Astros team attempting to win a second World Series crown in three years, he has paid special attention to Cavan and the Blue Jays, helping guide him through his rookie MLB season.

Craig Biggio is seeing something familiar unfolding north of the border. The versatile and consistent superstar was with the Astros in the dark days of a rebuild, and was an important resource on the way back up.

“I see a lot of comparisons, a

lot of similarities,” Craig Biggio said. “I see that Toronto has a really good thing going on right now. It’s exciting for the players who are there. It’s exciting for the organization. It’s exciting for their fan base.

“What I’m looking at player-wise in Toronto is the same thing we went through here.”

On some levels, such comparisons are at once simplistic and unfair. Yes, the Astros bottomed out — far lower than the Jays did. And yes, not every prospect turns out to be star-calibre the way George Springer, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman did.

But sometimes opportunity leads to advanced progress.

“George and Jose and Alex, when they got here and Carlos (Correa) when he got here, they all got their chance and took advantage of it,” Biggio said. “It’s the same thing that happened this summer in Toronto. Guys are playing. Guys are getting their feet wet and they’re getting good.”

Though he’s 24 now, Cavan was a high schooler in Houston when Altuve broke into the league. There was an immediate bond between Altuve and Craig Biggio.

“(Craig) didn’t even know who I was and he was already trying to help me,” Altuve said. “He

treated me so good right from the start and that means so much for a young guy. He’s a second baseman. He’s in the Hall of Fame and he’s always in the clubhouse, he’s always in contact with us and always trying to help.”

Before he went off to Notre Dame for a stellar NCAA career, Cavan certainly took note of what was happening in Houston.

And the more serious he got about his baseball career, the more the Altuves and Springers had an influence on him.

Now that he’s with the Jays and coming off a terrific rookie season, he too can draw from the experiences he witnessed in those early days of the Astros dynasty.

“You look at what they did in Houston and you can definitely relate,” says Cavan. “(The Astros) drafted really well and they got some luck with guys and developed others and it’s just all been able to pan out.

“You can see that what we’re doing is we’re just in the early stages of what they’ve already done.”

Craig Biggio believes there is considerable value in a group of young stars sharing institutional development through multiple levels of the minors. With the

Jays, the touted big three of Biggio, Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr. played together in multiple levels of the Toronto farm system and strengthened a baseball brotherhood in the process.

“Those guys, they started together as kids in Dunedin and then played at double-a and triple-a — they played together for a long period of time,” Craig Biggio said. “You make all the stops, you do what you’ve got to do and when you play together, you develop great chemistry and have fun together.”

Both Biggios are careful to caution that the young Jays prospects are still in the toddler stages of development. And neither want to project who might match the players that have carried the Astros to the ALCS for three seasons running.

“We’re all our own type of players,” Cavan says. “You can’t sit here and say that Bo’s going to be like Altuve because he can hit and Vladdy’s going to be like Springer because he hits home runs and doubles all the time.

“I think that’s the beauty of what we’ve got going on here is that we’re so young that it’s almost unpredictable how it’s going to unfold.”