That's a season
The lesson, as always, is this: Sure, it's a lot of fun to wait until you have to win 12 consecutive games to make the playoffs, and then win 9 in a row... but it's not really the best way to make the playoffs. Similarly, it may be fun to wait until the last week of the season to get those last 7 HBPs you need to break the all time record, but as it turns out, it will probably leave you with some work to do next season.
Craig Biggio got hit by a total of 9 pitches in 2006, the lowest total he's had since 1994, the year before he first led the league. He was hit by 9 different pitchers on 7 different teams in 7 different ballparks. He was left unplunked by the Colorado Rockies for the first time since 1999, but he continued his streak of being hit by the Reds for the 15th straight season.
Everyone expects the Astros to sign Biggio for one more year, and that it will be his last. The goals for 2007 are clear: 6 more HBPs for 288. 70 more hits for 3000. Another 19 home runs for 300 is a distinct possibility as well, and there will be a concerted campaign to get Craig Biggio a spot on the NL all-star team one last time.
And, maybe next year the Astros can arrange a 9 game winning streak sometime a little earlier in the season. Maybe more than one?
Have a good offseason everybody. I'll be back for spring training sometime in late February.
12 Comments:
...and *do* make sure you're back. While I don't make it by every day, I immensely enjoy this space. Kudos and thanks.
This is one of the few blogs I consistenly read, it puts a smile on my face and enlivens my day.
Thanx!
Keep up the fantastic work.
Far and away the most original site I visit. Strong work, pbr. I have recommended this site to many.
Your contribution to the modern sport of baseball is historic, and I predict you will get absolutely NO CREDIT for the horde of copycat esoteric baseball blogs which will no doubt proliferate in the future. Which is a shame. You have provided a humorous, entertaining, and often surprisingly enlightening distraction for all baseball fans, worldwide, and highlighted the illustrious career of one of baseball's greatest players, a man who plays old-school tough-nosed baseball and helps his team win.
I root for the Minnesota Twins and for Craig Biggio of the Astros. I'm friends with a 94 year old veteran from Corpus Christi who is also an Astros fan, and your blog allowed me to share weird bits of esoteric Astros lore with him when he recently visited Minnesota. The time we spent chatting around a campfire in the north woods, about Biggio, the record, and all the other odd tidbits of info found on your blog, are much more valuable than words can express.
Thank you for doing what you do. You do what you do very well. Please continue to do what you do, and know that when you do well what you do, it makes people happy. Thanks.
And since the Astros are done, give a cheer for the Mauerists, please.
Enjoy the break!
Have a nice off season. Great job on your blog. I'm impressed with all the stats and facts you put together.
Waouh !
see you next spring
Awesome site man! Keep up the entertaining work!!!
- Damon
Me and Mama agree with what them folk above done said. See you next season... at which time I am sure to have the prognostication system figured out and perfected. In the mean time, Mama axed me to tell you to take a break and stop working your noggin’ so hard. She reckons if anybody could use a break, you could (and probably Target could too be she is more concerned with PBR’s overworked noggin’ than Target’s sore appendages). Mama also suggested you come down to Chesterfield County and give them Maine woods a miss through the cold season. Mama worries an awful lot.
See, this is why everything should have an off season... so people have a chance to write nice things - sort of like yearbook quotes. Wouldn't everyone like their job a lot better if it took a couple of months off every year and people left you nice "have a nice offseason" notes?
Thanks for the nice words everyone, and don't worry too much about my noggin Mama Huckabee - it's never been quite right, and usually when it has a chance to rest is when it gets really weird. I'd be happy to visit Chesterfield County if I can find directions, and figure out what state it's in. (One time I asked the slow kid selling fireworks on the corner how to get there but his instructions pointed me to Nepal... and today he seemed to suggest a route in the direction of southeast asia - that kid knows exactly how many dunkin donuts there are between here and Jordan Marsh, but he doesn't seem to know where chesterfield county is located). And tell Mama Huckabee not to worry about the winter - a few feet of snow never killed anyone - except for avalanches, snow related traffic accidents, heart attacks while shoveling, hypothermia, getting hit by snow plows or run over by reindeer, snowballs with rocks in them, yellow snowcones, and being trapped with that Linoge guy in Steven King's "Storm of the Century". But all those things just make spring training seem that much more special when it comes time for plunkers and catchers to report.
I twelfth the motion, love the blog, keep it up, look forward to the home stretch next season.
ditto, great site, consistently good posts. rah-rah statistics, and go 'stros.
-t
I hope to see you and this blog again in February. As a longtime resident of Houston (now in the DFW area, unfortunately, and largely unable to watch prospective plunks on TV), I have long felt that Biggio should get his credit. You have educated us all a great deal. Here's to you - and Biggio - returning in February in the quest for 288.
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