Bags

Jeff Bagwell, owner of the ugliest batting stance this side of Moises Alou, hung it up after 15 seasons, all with the Astros. His final at bat was a ground out to second in the seventh inning of game four of the 2005 World Series.

He was never the best first baseman in the game, but he was always among them. You never heard a bad word uttered about him. A solid pro.

So – Hall of Fame?

He’s certainly earned consideration for the hall. Bags hit 449 homers (33rd all-time) and drove in 1,528 runs (41st all-time) while hitting .297 and .540. He finished his career 56th in total bases (4,213), 31st in extra-base hits (969). He’s also 35th in slugging %, 44th in on-base %.

He won 1 MVP award. No homer crowns. No batting crowns (2nd in 1994 with .368). He was a consistent top 10 RBI man, but only topped the NL once.

To paraphrase Rutherford (played by Richard Masur) in Risky Business, “He’s done some solid work here, but is it really Princeton work?”

Bags got screwed. His career year was 1994, the year of the strike. But he can’t use that as an excuse: he broke his hand a couple of days before the strike began. He was on pace for 60 homers, but it was not to be, strike or no strike.

He had 43 HR-31 SB in 1996, 42-30 in 1999. Has any other first baseman ever gone 30-30? I looked at the list of 48 30-30 seasons through Soriano’s in 2006, and although a couple of guys have played first base (Shawn Green, Larry Walker), they were principally outfielders. So this is unique. And he is one of only 10 that have done it more than once. Bags finished with 202 steals, more than Mickey Mantle, and a LOT more than Lou Gehrig and Willie McCovey and Harmon Killebrew and other Hall of Fame first basemen.

The fact is Bags was cursed to be among the best for a long time, but was never actually the best. He was consistent in his ability to play the game at a high level, and he was durable. He played at least 142 games in 12 of his 15 seasons, and played in at least 156 games in 10 of those seasons. His career was shorter than even Lou Gehrig’s, which was 16 plus a stub of a season in 1939. Bags had less of everything except speed.

But it’s not fair to compare him to Gehrig, the greatest. Except he was like Gehrig in the way he was integral to the fabric of his team, the only team he ever played for in the majors. Bagwell was the face of the Astros, a perennial contender, just as the Iron Horse was the captain of the Yankees, the only player so chosen until modern times. Day after day, opposing pitchers had to deal with him in the middle of that lineup. It was always a scary proposition. Bags was a tough out, despite that horrible looking stance.

Who were his closest BR comparisons? Frank Thomas, Garry Sheffield, Fred McGriff, Willie Stargell, Andres Galarraga, Ken Griffey, Orlando Cepeda, Mickey Mantle, Willie McCovey and Duke Snider. All fine players (I’m kind of surprised at seeing Galarraga there). Mostly hall of famers or future members. They are all the real deal.

I’m not sure his career stats earned it, but Bags is a guy I want in the Hall. He makes the Hall of Fame better by his presence. He was a quality baseball player, a quality teammate, and the real deal as an opponent, virtually every day for 15 years. The baseball world was better for his finally making it to the Series in 2005, despite his inability to swing anymore. Vote him in.