Lou Criger Chapter meeting recap – 11/18/2012

From SABR member Steve Krah at the Elkhart Truth on November 19, 2012:

Craig Biggio is a busy man.

He is kept hopping as assistant to the general manager of the Houston Astros, head baseball coach at St. Thomas in Houston and as a husband and father of three.

But Biggio knows where he will be the second Tuesday of 2013.

“They tell me I have to be home Jan. 8,” says the man who played all 20 of his Major League Baseball seasons in an Astros uniform and collected 3,060 hits, including 1,014 for extra bases and hopes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first time on the ballot. “The resume speaks for itself. It’s pretty good. You just cross your fingers and hope the writers felt the same way.”

Biggio, who spoke at a Society for American Baseball Research [Lou Criger Chapter] meeting Sunday at Notre Dame, and Cal Ripken Jr. are the only middle infielders with both 3,000 hits and at least 1,000 extra base hits.

The right-handed hitter is the National League leader in lead-off home runs (53) and interleague hits (201). Biggio also ranks as the modern-day record holder for being hit by a pitch with 285.

Among the other players on the ballot for the first time are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, Kenny Lofton and Sandy Alomar Jr. Besides Bagwell, some of the holdovers from 2012 are Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Tim Raines and Alan Trammel.

“For my family, it would be really great (to go into the Hall of Fame),” said Biggio, who retired at the end of the 2007 season at age 41. “But, for the fans, it would be unbelievable. They deserve to have a guy there.”

Read the full article here: http://blogs.etruth.com/season-tickets/2012/11/18/is-biggio-bound-for-cooperstown-in-2013/