Complete text of Bagwell’s speech, more photos from induction ceremony.
Y’all from Houston, you know I don’t like all this attention. • This is actually a really unbelievable day. • I’m so humbled to be here, to be surrounded by some of the greats that ever played this game. • The guys you see on TV, guys you read about and all that, and I’m standing up here and kind of sitting in the background just watching and just trying to figure out what’s really going on. • You know, I want to first thank the baseball writers for getting me in here. I truly, truly appreciate it. You guys have a tough job and do a great job of it. • I thank the Hall of Fame and the entire Hall of Fame staff. Just an unbelievable job up here what you guys do. Every single thing you guys have covered made my family, my friends feel welcome. I can’t thank you enough for all of that.
We congratulate John, Bud, Rock and Pudge. So many things you’ve done in baseball, whether it be executive side or playing. Getting to know you guys here, as great as you were in your fields, you’re even better people, and I am truly honored to go into this class with you guys. As I said before, it’s an honor to be with all these Hall of Famers, to stand up here and try and talk my story. I’d much rather be sitting in some of these rooms and listening to stories that they tell. But you know, this is all part of it, and I love it, and I’m humbled and I’m grateful.
My family means so much to me, and to have my brothers, my cousins, my nieces to be here with me is really, really special to me. • My family is just — I can’t tell you how much they mean to me as far as … we have baseball life, which I played for 15 years — obviously, put a lot more time to it than that — but there’s so much more that goes on in life, and for my family and my children, with Lauren, Maxwell, Rachel, Blake and Bryce, I think the pleasures of being a father, getting to see every single child be different, always a challenge every day, and always fun — you make my life so happy to watch you grow as people.
To my mother: Mom, you’re absolutely just the most amazing woman in the entire world. You’ve been a staple in my life, a pillar for me through all my success and through some of my failures, too. I can’t tell you how much I love you and what you mean to me.
My father, Bob. You know, I would imagine a lot of guys up here talk about their fathers, because there’s something about a dad for a son who plays baseball. You brought me to love this game of baseball, to go out and every single day try and get better. You used to say that you gave me your right arm throwing to me batting practice all the time, and you did. But more importantly, you taught me how to be a man. You are just a wonderful father, and I’m so happy that you’re here for this day for me. I know it means a lot to you, and we’re in this together, my friend.
To my beautiful wife, words cannot explain how much you have meant to me. Like I said, as wonderful as things are up here, there’s good times and bad times, and I know — and everybody that knows me — that I would not be standing here without you and your love and your support. You have taken me through so many different journeys, and to finally end up here, for both of us to sit here and just kind of look and go, “Is this really happening?” Because there were some times that we didn’t even know. But you have been a rock for me, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything that you do for me every single day. So thank you, my love.
You know, they talk about the Hall of Fame is just a dream come true. I mean, I can’t honestly say that. I mean, who’s a young kid that dreams about being in the Hall of Fame? Maybe somebody does. For a kid that was a Red Sox fan my entire life, I dreamed of playing for the Red Sox. You know, chances probably weren’t pretty good at that. I was never that great. But something my father instilled in me when I was a kid is to never quit. I’ve pretty much stuck to that.
There were certain situations that I wish I had quit — a couple of jobs that I had. Dishwasher at Friendly’s in Cape Cod. I should have quit that. Sometimes I probably should have quit baseball, too. But deep inside of me, I just never gave up. I continued to get a little bit better every year, and that drive that my mom and my father gave me got me a long way.
As I said, I wasn’t the most talented guy. I came from Killingworth, Connecticut. I went to all-boys Xavier High School. I wasn’t on the varsity team when I was a freshman, ended up playing there, played in American Legion. Never even thought about a draft. That was funny to me. I was like, well, I don’t think we’re at war. But the draft itself was not a possibility for me.
But I kept getting a little bit better. I was fortunate I played in Legion baseball, where a lot of guys from the University of Hartford had gone, and I got a scholarship offer from the University of Hartford and head coach Bill Dehney. Pretty much my only place that I could go to school and play baseball, so I took that opportunity. I was a starting shortstop my freshman year, which gave me a lot of opportunity, because if I went to a big school, I probably wouldn’t have played right off the get-go. I hit for the cycle and added a home run my first game, made two errors at short, and played third base the rest of my career, so that tells you how well I did at short.
So I went to University of Hartford. I played for Dan Gooley for two years. We had such a great team. Two of my best friends in life, Chris Peterson and Greg Centracchio, I met there. We lived and died with baseball, and now we do it with our kids. I thank you both so much.
I got to play in Cape Cod. I truly believe that that’s where I became — that I thought I could play baseball a little bit past college. I started playing there with a bunch of guys that were on TV all the time: Robin Ventura, Joey Belle, which became Albert Belle. These guys were just tremendous players that I saw, but I realized that I could play, which really helped me. I went back to school there, and I got drafted in ’89 by the Boston Red Sox, which was a dream come true.
I played in low A, got to Double-A and got traded. I got traded to the Houston Astros, and I had no idea what I was getting into. You know, I learned very early that it’s a good thing, no matter what you do if you’re a player, you just go out and play as hard as you can, make the organization do something for you, and they did. They traded me — Bill Wood traded for me, the GM of the Houston Astros. They got me from the Red Sox. I’m not sure exactly if I was the first choice, but they had another guy that was playing third base at the time with the Red Sox named Wade Boggs that wasn’t going anywhere.
So I get traded, and I asked who I got traded for. They said, Well, you got traded for Larry Andersen. I said, “Who’s Larry Sanderson?” He says, He’s a relief pitcher for the Astros, really good one. So I just thank Larry for being such a great reliever that the Red Sox wanted you. You did a great job with the Red Sox. Larry used to always get on me when I went to Philadelphia and said, “Hey, man, you’ve got to step it up. People are not actually talking about me anymore.” I was like, yeah, OK. So I did the best I can. I played my entire career, Larry, and I’m here. Is that good enough for you? Is that enough props?
I want to thank my other GMs, Bob Watson, Gerry Hunsicker. Gerry Hunsicker was a big part of such the big rebuild in our community and the Houston Astros, as all of them were. I had Tim Purpura and Ed Wade, Jeff Luhnow, who is there now and doing a tremendous job for the Houston Astros. What a fun team to watch, and very proud of them.
I thank my owners. My first owner, John McMullen, signed my first paycheck with the Houston Astros. Sorely missed. What a tremendous man. Drayton McClane, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done. I know Craig talked earlier about playing our entire career with one organization. That takes a lot for players to do that in today’s society, but it takes a lot from owners, too, and teams that they want to keep you around. We were very fortunate to have a give-and-take with the organization. Drayton McClane was a big part. You and Elizabeth have been a big part of my life for a long time. Jim Crane, the Astros’ owner right now, I thank you so much for everything you’ve done for my family, everything you’re doing for the Houston Astros. It’s a class organization, and you’re the head of that.
I want to thank two of my trainers, Rex Jones and Dave Labossiere. Most of you know in Houston I played three years basically with about an arm and a half, and Dave and Rex would spend hours and hours grinding on my shoulder just to get me to play. I truly appreciate all the efforts you’ve given me to get that shoulder to do the best it could out there. So I want to thank you for that. My clubhouse guys —and anybody that’s sitting up here knows about clubhouse guys — they’re very, very important. They don’t get as much credit as they deserve and stuff that they do behind the scenes. I had a guy in Dennis Liborio, who I had my first year, who gave me No. 5 because he was mad at the Astros for trading Larry to the Red Sox. And I happened to be in Boston, so he gave me a single-digit number as a nonroster invitee. That does not happen. You see guys in the big leagues now with 67, 98. That’s what you get for non-roster guys, but I got No. 5, so I was very fortunate with that.
Barry Waters, my traveling secretary, has been there my entire career taking care of me and the entire Astros organization. You were a special part of my life and still are. I appreciate that. Barry Axelrod, my agent, you’ve been there for me through thick and thin, all the good times, all the bad times, like a lot of people I haven’t mentioned. There’s a lot of good and bad, but I want to thank you so much
for everything you do.
I want to thank all my coaches who I’ve had that have been instrumental in my growth as a player. All of you were so great. With my swing, if anybody saw it, it’s not something you want to teach to your kids. You spread out that far — I’m not really worried about the spreading out, but stepping backwards and dropping your hands is not really what you want to do. But Rudy Jaramillio, just the effort that you put into me every single day to always try to make me better. I really do appreciate that and all the times that we went in the back cage and worked.
The other coach I want to recognize is Matt Galante, not only just a great baseball guy but just a great person, just someone you could go to for anything that you needed. I watched him for hours and hours and hours work with guys to make them better, so I appreciate Matt, everything you’ve done.
The thing about my career that I’m proud of — you know, obviously, you get here with tons of numbers, and I get that, and mine aren’t overly glaring. But what I do take pride in is I thought I tried to do everything well. It wasn’t just hitting home runs. Those are nice, but you’ve got RBIs and runs scored, and for me, runs scored was very important because it was a mindset, and I wanted to score for our team, and I wanted to score for my other players to make their job a lot easier. I enjoyed the stolen bases more than anything else. The only number I really cared about towards the end of my career was getting 200 stolen bases. For a little guy with not much speed, I truly appreciated that. That’s what I try to be for my teammates. If I could do everything, then I could help us win in different ways. I didn’t just have to hit a home run or drive in a run. I could walk. I could steal a base. I could go first to home or second to home or first to third, whatever it might be. My bunt plays, I loved that when people had to change how they used to do bunts just to get away from me because I was on top of most of the pitchers. Sometimes players, but more pitchers than anything else.
You know, baseball is truly about relationships. We spend so much time off the field together. More than you see on the field. Being on the field is wonderful. People say, well, I love playing baseball. Yeah, I love playing baseball, but I don’t love stinking, and I don’t love having oh-fers and stuff like that. It’s a grind out there. It’s the relationships you make in the clubhouse with coaches, with clubhouse guys that really gave me a unique opportunity to grow as a man, both on and off the field. And I don’t take that lightly. It’s very, very important to me.
I have had so many wonderful teammates. I really have, and I just wish I had time to talk about each and every one of them. The only thing I wanted to do was be a good teammate, somebody that you could count on, even when I wasn’t feeling well or my arm hurt or whatever it was, that I was always out there and you knew you could look in the lineup and that I was there every day.
I’ll talk just about a few of them. Casey Candaele, I learned so much about baseball through Casey, just the way he saw it. I was just a young kid when I first came to the big leagues, and one of the things I remember is my first time I played in Atlanta, there was 5,000 people there, and you could hear the flies buzzing and things like that. Came back at the end of the year before they clinched, and there was 40,000 people there, and literally the ground was shaking. And I was sitting next to Casey, and I said, “Man, this is awesome.” He goes, “This is what it’s all about.” I took that, and I really understood that. He taught me so much about baserunning, how to be a good person, how to be a good player.
Brad Ausmus, fellow Connecticut guy, spent a lot of time together, one of my closest friends in the entire world. He just — he was so much fun to be around. He knew the game inside and out. He was a tremendous catcher. You know, just a close friend that I truly, truly cherish. We had some great times together, played in a lot of games together, spent a lot of time sitting in the locker discussing every single thing that you could imagine in life. I hold him very, very dear to my heart.
In 1997, the Florida Marlins won the World Series and traded a guy named Moises Alou to the Houston Astros. So very quickly in spring training, I got to become close with Moises, and our relationship grew and grew and grew. Been to the Dominican a few times with his family and his lovely wife, Austria. And two of my children, Bryce and Blake, their godparents are Moises and Austria. Where are you going to get that but in baseball? Where am I going to meet Moises except playing baseball? Just a tremendous, tremendous person. I love you so much, even though you’re waving an Expos hat.
My last teammate I want to talk about obviously is Craig Biggio. Thank you, kid, for that wonderful intro. That was great. Craig Biggio I’ve watched his entire career. When I first came up, he was a catcher. Played second base, center field, back to second base. Craig could do anything that he wanted to. You’ll never meet a player who put more effort and time into his craft than Craig. You know, as I sit here today and we go in the Hall of Fame, Craig and I … pretty much in Houston, we’ve been known to be together. It was Bagwell and Biggio, Biggio and Bagwell, however you want to say it, but now we’ll always be here in the Hall of Fame together. And I can’t thank you enough for just giving me inspiration to how to play every single day, post and go out there, give everything you can. And Craig and I just wanted to win, and we wanted to win one way, and that was the right way, and I hope that’s what we did, and I really thank Craig for that.
A couple last things. Baseball, as I talked about relationships … I’ve also lost some teammates that I want to talk about. I lost Andujar Cedeno, lost Jose Lima. Ken Caminiti I lost, or we all lost all of them. That was a very, very tough thing. I almost want to say that Cammy, his heart was too big. He was the nicest guy in the entire world. Took me in when I was supposed to take his job.
And the other I want to talk about is Darryl Kile. There’s not one day that goes by that I don’t think about Darryl Kile. He died way too early. Thankfully, he died peacefully. But I can’t tell you how many times that we’ve talked on the phone and talked about going fishing around the world, and just the type of person and his family. Great father, great husband. And DK, man, you are sorely missed, buddy, but I know you’re down here somewhere, so thank you.
Lastly, I want to thank the Astros fans. You guys have been absolutely wonderful. I can’t tell you how much being around you guys in the city and showing me the love and my family. This is where my kids were born; this is where my kids were raised. I love you so much for everything that you’ve done for me.
Over the last few months doing this thing, I was thinking about something. I was thinking about my father and me. My father would come home at 6 o’clock at night, take off his shoes, we’d go outside play catch, play pepper, play baseball. Then about 7 o’clock, we would try and turn on the Red Sox game. I’d have to go up on the roof and mess with the antenna and stuff like that. Obviously, we had no cable back then, but it was time that I spent with my father. We would sit there at the table or watch the games. My dad would talk about his favorite player Ted Williams. We’d talk about Yaz, we’d talk about Fisk, talk about Rice, talk about Boggs. What we were doing is spending quality time together as a family.
And if I could have given you guys anything for being at the dinner table or going to a game and to watch us play and to watch me play and I brought some joy, then I was helping bring you joy in a world that can be tough sometimes. But if you enjoy me playing and it brought our families together, then I did my job.
Thank you.