Bagwell, Biggio and Berkman led the Astros to the World Series.
Biggio, Bagwell headlined group of players who led team to only Fall Classic appearance
Former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker does not recall the first time he heard the moniker. But it sure stuck.
From 1998 through 2005, the Killer B’s in their various incarnations were the heart and soul of the Astros’ most successful period — four National League Central titles, two NL wild cards and the franchise’s lone World Series appearance.
At the center of all the winning were two franchise icons.
“It started out with (Jeff) Bagwell and (Craig) Biggio, who by the time the nickname was developed had distinguished themselves as not only star players but really the faces of the franchise,” said Hunsicker, the architect of the team from late in 1995 through the 2004 season. “I can’t think of any two guys who identified more with the team that they played for and made the impact that they made over a long period of time than those two guys did. They really were the heartbeat of the club.”
Biggio had arrived in Houston in 1988, one year after the Astros drafted him in the first round out of Seton Hall. An All-Star catcher by 1991, he was converted into a second baseman the next season. And by the end of his 20-year Hall of Fame career, spent entirely with the Astros, Biggio had collected 3,060 hits and scored 1,844 runs.
Bagwell was acquired from the Red Sox as a minor leaguer in a 1990 trade generally considered to be the greatest in Astros history. He was the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1991 and Most Valuable Player in 1994. And like Biggio, he never played for any other major league team, finishing his 15-year career as the Astros’ all-time leader in home runs (449) and RBIs (1,529).
But it wasn’t until the 1995 season when the Killer B’s fraternity was truly born.
The December 1994 acquisition of Derek Bell in a 12-player megadeal with the San Diego Padres gave the Astros a triumvirate of B’s in the middle of their lineup. Bell proved a valuable addition as the cleanup-hitting right fielder, and in his first season with the team, he batted a career-best .334.
Third baseman Sean Berry was another integral member of the group from 1996 to 1998. He batted .283 over those three seasons and posted career-best numbers for home runs (17) and RBIs (95) in 1996 despite playing through a torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder.
The trade to acquire Berry holds special significance to Hunsicker to this day because the December 1995 deal with the Montreal Expos was his first as general manager.
“We had a nice nucleus in place, and now we’re looking for more veteran-type pieces that could cement the competitiveness of the roster,” said Hunsicker, now a special adviser for the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Sean came on and filled a very important role for us both defensively and offensively at third base.”
The Astros made the postseason in each of the final two seasons of the original BiggioBagwell-Bell-Berry rendition of the Killer B’s. But they were swept 3-0 by the Atlanta Braves in the 1997 National League Division Series and lost 3-1 in the same round in 1998 to the San Diego Padres.
The 1998 team was probably the Astros’ best, especially after Hunsicker acquired Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson minutes before the July 31 trade deadline. The Astros won a club-record 102 games but were out-Killer B’d, so to speak, by righthander Kevin Brown of the Padres in Games 1 and 3 of the NLDS.
“The ’98 club, I think most people would tell you, was the best in the history of the organization even though it lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Padres,” said Bill Brown, an Astros television broadcaster of 30 years. “That club just rolled over teams.”
For Hunsicker, that season is “one of my fondest memories and also one of my biggest disappointments, given the fact that we had such a talented team and yet didn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs that year.
“I think it’s a great reminder of how difficult it is not only to get to the postseason but to get to and win a World Series.”
A new B emerged in July 1999 when the Astros called up Lance Berkman, who had been their top draft pick in 1997 out of Rice, where in his final season he hit the astounding collegiate total of 41 home runs.
Berkman garnered only 93 at-bats in his first Astros season, but with Bell dealt away in a December 1999 trade to the New York Mets, Berkman batted .297 with 21 home runs and a .949 OPS in 2000 and finished sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
After the Astros had won three consecutive NL Central titles from 1997 to 1999, the 2000 team won only 72 games (with Biggio lost to torn knee ligaments Aug. 1) and finished fourth in the division.
But in 2001, Bagwell, Berkman and Biggio had their greatest collective season together, and with the Killer B’s leading the way, the Astros recaptured first place with a 93-win campaign.
That year, Berkman hit .331 with 34 home runs, 55 doubles, 126 RBIs and an OPS of 1.051. Bagwell batted .288 with 39 homers, 130 RBIs and an OPS of .966. Biggio hit .292 with 20 homers and scored 118 runs.
But the Astros again lost in the first round of the playoffs, and fans wondered if the team would ever do anything in the postseason.
By 2004, Berkman, Biggio and Bagwell remained productive, but much of the attention had shifted to an Astros pitching staff headlined by Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt. Despite the star-studded roster, the Astros sputtered to a 44-44 record at the All-Star break. When the players returned for the second half, they did so under a new manager, as Phil Garner had replaced Jimy Williams.
And it was another B — Carlos Beltran, acquired in a June trade with the Kansas City Royals — who helped them turn their year around. The Astros secured the wild card on the season’s final day, and a 3-2 NLDS win over the Braves marked the first postseason series victory in franchise history. The Astros came within one win of a World Series appearance, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series 4-3.
Finally, in 2005, the Killer B’s era culminated in the Astros’ first World Series appearance. That season began even worse than its predecessor and consisted of yet another final-day wild-card clincher.
Once in the postseason, the Astros beat the Braves 3-1 in the NLDS and the Cardinals 4-2 in the NLCS en route to the World Series.
Although the Astros were swept in four games by the Chicago White Sox in the 2005 Fall Classic, the differential was a mere six runs.
The White Sox won the first two games in Chicago, following a 5-3 victory in Game 1 with a dramatic 7-6 triumph that ended on a ninth-inning walkoff home run by Scott Podsednik, who had no homers in the regular season.
When the scene shifted to Minute Maid Park, the Astros lost 7-5 in 14 innings in Game 3 before bowing 1-0 in Game 4, which was scoreless through seven innings.
A bad shoulder had limited Bagwell to 39 regular-season games, and that final game of the World Series would mark the last time he, Biggio and Berkman played together.
Bagwell retired before the next season, signifying the end of the Killer B’s era, the best run of sustained success in Astros history.