Speech, baseball immortality forged by relationships
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — For Jeff Bagwell, it was all about relationships.
From his family to his teammates to his trainers to his clubhouse managers, the second Astros legend enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame used his time on stage on a sunsoaked Sunday afternoon in upstate New York to highlight those who helped him reach the status of baseball immortal.
Many of those mentioned in Bagwell’s induction speech, like fellow Hall of Famer and Killer B Craig Biggio and six-time AllStar Moises Alou, are prominent names in the game. But several people the former first baseman acknowledged aren’t known to
most of the outside world.
“What I was trying to convey is a lot of things are done on baseball that you see in bottom lines. You see stats. It’s all about stats. But there is so much more to baseball that goes in,” Bagwell said in a brief news conference after the induction ceremony at the Clark Sports Center. “Whether it’s talking to media, whether it’s the clubhouse guys, umpires, there’s so many different things that go around a stat line that people don’t see.”
The second of five members of the Hall of Fame’s class of 2017 to take the podium, Bagwell spoke for more than 23 minutes. Dressed in a navy blue suit with a striped shirt and a pink tie, the 49-year-old former first baseman spent the rest of the ceremony seated on stage in front of Biggio amid a sea of 55 of the sport’s alltime greats.
Before Bagwell spoke, the bronze plaque that will be on permanent display in baseball’s hallowed halls was unveiled. In the etching of his face, he’s sporting a hat that features the Astros’ 1990s shooting star logo that he wore for the majority of his 15-year career. Below it are 124 words that capture the career of one of the most prolific righthanded hitters of his time.
“Combined a powerful batting stroke with a discerning eye to hit .297, score 1,517 runs and drive in 1,529 over 15 seasons, all in Houston. A prolific run producer, posted nine seasons with 100 or more runs scored, leading the N.L. three times,” the plaque reads. “From a wide stance, topped the 30-home run mark nine times and finished with 449 moon shots overall. Drew more than 100 walks in seven consecutive years, a record streak in the N.L. Durable, agile first baseman played in 160 — or — more games six times. Stole 202 bases, most by a first baseman after 1920. A four-time All-Star, named 1991 N.L. Rookie of the Year, and captured the N.L. MVP in 1994, unanimously.”
Bagwell’s bronze likeness was installed in the plaque gallery of the museum Sunday night along with that of fellow inductees Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, Tim Raines, John Schuerholz and Bud Selig.
“I like it. The plaque looks pretty good,” Bagwell said after the ceremony. “As far as my hair and all that kind of stuff, I think it’s done well.
“It’s still strange to me. I think when I see it in the gallery, that’s when it will totally hit me.”
‘An unbelievable day’
A longer-than-three minute highlight video featuring some of Bagwell’s most memorable moments and commentary from Biggio preceded Bagwell’s speech.
After Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred read off the inscription on Bagwell’s plaque and Bagwell posed for a few photos, the Astros icon took the podium. Once the cheers dissipated, Bagwell began his speech with a joke.
“Y’all from Houston,” he said, “you know I don’t like all this attention. This is actually a really unbelievable day. I’m so humble to be here, to be surrounded by some of the greats that ever played this game.”
Bagwell’s speech was filled with thank-yous. He started with the baseball writers, who last winter voted him into the Hall in his seventh year on the ballot. He praised the Hall of Fame’s staff, his fellow inductees and the other 50 living Hall of Famers who sat on the stage behind him.
Bagwell then shifted to speaking about his family, which he said “means so much to me.” He mentioned each of his five children and then his mother, Janice, whom he described as “a staple in my life, a pillar for me, through all of my success and through some of my failures, too.”
He credited his father, Bob, who he said “brought me to love this game of baseball” and taught him “how to be a man.”
“Something my father instilled in me when I was a kid was to never quit,” he said. “‘Don’t quit at anything you ever try.’ I’ve pretty much stuck to that. There are certain situations that I wish I had quit, a couple of jobs that I had. (I was) a dishwasher at Friendly’s in Cape Cod. I should’ve quit that. Sometimes I probably should’ve quit baseball, too, but deep inside of me I just never gave up.”
Bagwell told the story of his path from a kid who grew up a Red Sox fan in Killingworth, Conn., to induction weekend at Cooperstown, beginning with his careers at the all-boys Xavier High School and the University of Hartford, which he said was “pretty much my only place where I could go to school and play baseball.”
College summers in the Cape Cod League, he said, marked the time he first thought he could play baseball as a professional. He told of when his hometown Red Sox selected him the fourth round of the 1989 draft, “a dream come true,” he said.
At his mention of the famed August 1990 trade that sent him to the Astros, the thousands of orange-clad fans in attendance cheered.
“And I had no idea what I was getting into,” he said.
He acknowledged then-Astros general manager Bill Wood and the man for whom he was traded, journeyman reliever Larry Andersen, a shout-out he had promised.
“I have to thank Larry for being such a great reliever that the Red Sox wanted you,” he said. “You did such a great job with the Red Sox. Larry used to always get on me when I went to Philadelphia and just say, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to step it up because you know people are not actually talking about me anymore.’
“OK, I’m here. Is this good enough for you?” Bagwell joked.
Bagwell thanked his other Astros GMs — Bob Watson, Gerry Hunsicker, Tim Purpura and Ed Wade — and then his owners, John McMullen and Drayton McLane. He also thanked current Astros owner Jim Crane and current GM Jeff Luhnow.
Bagwell then spotlighted some of the lesser-known, behind-thescenes staffers from his Astros days: trainers Rex Jones and Dave Labossiere, traveling secretary Barry Waters and clubhouse managers Dennis Liborio, Carl Schneider, Steve Perry, Dave “Tweety” Burd. He even mentioned Phil Rozewicz, who runs the visitors’ clubhouse in Milwaukee.
Two coaches garnered thankyous by name. First was Rudy Jaramillo, the Astros’ hitting coach for Bagwell’s first three seasons (1991-93) who helped Bagwell tap into his offensive potential. The other was former longtime coach Matt Galante, whom Biggio also spoke about in his speech two years ago.
Inspired by Biggio
Of Biggio, Bagwell said: “I can’t thank you enough for just giving me inspiration for how to play every single day, (to) post and go out there and give everything you can.
“Craig and I just wanted to win and we wanted to win one way and that was the right way. I hope that’s what we did. I really thank Craig for that.”
Alou, Brad Ausmus and Casey Candaele were three others of his closest former teammates and friends Bagwell acknowledged. He spoke emotionally of his Astros teammates who died young: Ken Caminiti, Darryl Kile, Andujar Cedeno and Jose Lima. And lastly he thanked Astros fans, many of whom flocked to Cooperstown this weekend.
“You guys have been absolutely wonderful,” he said. “I love you so much for everything that you’ve done for me.”