BRIAN T. SMITH: BAGWELL’S LIFE ‘HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER.’
As a franchise legend who relates to players, Bagwell a welcomed sight in the locker room
The Boston Red Sox versus the Astros in the American League is a real thing.
Houston’s professional baseball team recently won a World Series trophy and has a new collection of shining rings.
Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio are in the Hall of Fame.
So, of course, there was a smile on Bagwell’s face Friday when his old clubhouse doors opened to the media. A 50-yearold who has lived a few lives was proud, at home and at ease.
“My life has never been better. I’m in a good place in my personal life,” said Bagwell, as the 2017 world champions began a three-game homestand against MLB’s reigning champs. “My kids are doing great. … I’m happy and this is part of my happiness.”
There was a time when Bagwell was rarely seen inside his old ballpark. That time is now officially in the past. A man with 449 career home runs and .297 lifetime batting average has reattached himself to A.J.
Hinch’s Astros, in turn rediscovering the youth and joy that are always waiting to be found in the grand old game.
“Honestly, we had great clubhouses when I played. But this clubhouse, the last three years, it’s just been special,” said Bagwell, who was born in Boston, drafted by the Red Sox in 1989 and part of a rather famous trade for Larry Andersen that forever changed the Astros’ organization on Aug. 30, 1990.
‘He’s like a teammate’
Bagwell joined Biggio in the Hall of Fame on July 30, 2017. Leading up to the induction, the 1994 National League MVP openly discussed his new connection with the rebuilt Astros. Hinch’s team downed the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers in the playoffs a few months later. Since then, Bagwell’s reconnection with the only team he played for in the majors has only grown deeper.
“It’s been really, really cool and really important for the organization and for our fans and for the players and maybe, most importantly, for Baggy,” Hinch said. “He’s a true baseball man. He watches when he’s not here — he’s invested. He’s now building a relationship with the players on our team and our coaches, to where he’s really an extension of everything that we’re doing here.
“You always want your legends to be around. I love when Nolan (Ryan) comes around, (Biggio) comes around. … But there’s a certain presence that Bagwell brings that really separates him. Some of it is his consistency and how often that he’s here. A lot of it is just the content that he brings, that I grab ahold of and the players do. He’s like a teammate.”
Hinch gives Bagwell a “hard time” when the ex-slugger dresses up for professional TV appearances. The Astros manager also holds a powerful personal memory of Bagwell that will never disappear.
“He was one of the first guys that I saw, after we won the World Series, on the field,”
Hinch said. “I’ll always remember that. I’ve got a good picture of him and I on the field. It matters to him. It’s always mattered to him being an Astro. … I love how he cares just as much about what’s going on now as when he was doing great things on the field.”
Bagwell joked that he now can’t see, hit or throw. When he speaks with the modern Astros, he opens up about the tougher side of a game that is rarely easy to play, even for the sport’s biggest stars.
“When I come back and talk to the guys, what I want to talk about is basically my failures and how I dealt with them, to help them with what they’re going through,” Bagwell said. “Never do I talk about my success or anything like that. Craig’s the same way. I’m just trying to tell them, ‘I’ve been there. I get it.’ ”
For Bagwell, there’s true pride in how national the Astros have become. Fox and ESPN broadcasts have become commonplace again, after the franchise’s slow decline from his 2005
World Series appearance and the painful 100-loss seasons that followed.
“For me, it’s the people that are here. The kids, the organization, the progression of the Houston Astros — just where we are as a ballclub in the baseball community,” Bagwell said. “(It is) Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Astros. I’m proud of that and I’m proud of these guys.”
Bagwell’s primary connection is to the athletes on the field and men inside the clubhouse. What Biggio, Bagwell and Co. achieved still rings out for longtime Astros fans. But the franchise’s career leader in homers and RBIs made a point to place this golden era on a different pedestal.
“It’s taken it to another level,” Bagwell said. “We were successful seven or eight years in a row. We came in first or second, got to the World Series once. But this team that won in ’17 could have killed the ’05 team. They’re really, really good and just to be part of it — I can’t speak for Craig, but I know how it feels — it’s fun.”
Fun side growing on him
How taken is Bagwell with these Astros?
A Hall of Famer once known for his grit and intensity now gets a kick out of the college/ high school-vibe that captures Hinch’s team at its joyful peak.
“I’m old school. And when they first started doing all this stuff on the field … I’m like, ‘Man, get back in the dugout,’ ” Bagwell said. “And then when the World Series and playoffs happened in ’17, I kind of changed my tune. I was like,
‘You know what? This is fun.’ And both sides were doing it, so it’s not disrespectful if both sides are doing it.
“They’re just having a good time. Back when I was playing, it was business and this is the way it is. You put your 3½ hours in and then you can have fun afterwards. They have fun the entire time and I appreciate that.”
There was a time, not that long ago, when the Red Sox or Chicago Cubs in downtown Houston would have become a road game for the home team. Since 2015, the Astros have been one of the best teams in baseball again, and the wins just keep piling up. Which has forced a proud Hall of Famer to make another mid-life adjustment.
“You go to different parts of the country and you see Astros (gear). I love that,” Bagwell said. “I never knew orange was going to be one of my favorite colors, but now it is.”