Hardcore baseball fans, and especially the gentleman on campus who attractively sports the Astros warm-up jacket and cowboy hat, know well the name Craig Biggio. For those unfamiliar, let me get you started with two words that sum up the man and his career: good guy. For the entirety of his 20-year career, Biggio has been nothing but that. Unfortunately, as I will contend through use of a mini career retrospective, good guys like Biggio may be the last of a dying breed.
Very few baseball players stay in the game for 20 years. But you can probably count on your hands the players in this small set who play solely for one team. That's right: Biggio never left the Astros. Through good seasons, bad seasons and (gasp!) a pay cut -- from $9.75 million to $3 million between the 2003 and 2004 seasons -- Biggio stayed true to his club, his teammates and, most importantly, his loyal fans.
Or take this classic Biggio story. During a rough 2003 season for the second-baseman Biggio, the Astros signed All-Star second baseman Jeff Kent. Instead of polluting the clubhouse atmosphere and demanding a trade, Biggio willingly ceded his position to Kent and moved to the outfield. Why? Because he wanted his team to win. A shocker, I know.
Then we have what is perhaps Biggio's greatest accomplishment: becoming one of the few players to have 3,000 career hits. During his chase for this milestone, he wasn't booed by opposing teams nor was he playing a game of shadows. Instead, he had the full support of baseball fans everywhere.
When asked recently about his career, Biggio simply stated: "I have no regrets. I played the game the right way." Yes he did. But one wonders if this remark is a classy way of making a distinction between Biggio's way -- the right way -- and the wrong way that is spreading like a plague throughout the wide world of sports.
The right way of playing harkens back to a time when players stuck with one team for their entire career because they cared about the team's success. This was a time before free-agency, before "show me the money" became the mantra of athletes everywhere, before teams became short-term collections of players. Now, a guy like Biggio is rare. A guy like Alex Rodriguez, on his third team and anxiously looking to move onto a higher-paying fourth, has become the modern game's norm. Sorry all those with A-Rod jerseys -- and not just because you are Yankees fans.
The right way of playing involves hustle and good, old-fashioned work ethic. Want to reach a baseball milestone? Spend more hours with the hitting coach, more hours in the gym and more hours studying pitchers. True, this takes more time than a Human Growth Hormone injection, but putting in extra effort will never become a front page scandal.
Perhaps more than anything else, this "right way of playing" exemplified by Biggio boils down to one attribute: honesty. Players like Biggio are honest in the most literal sense of the word: They refuse to lie to themselves or others. Unlike Bonds, McGwire, and the cyclists on Le Tour de Dope par example. Honest players have nothing to hide. As a result, we as fans can respect and cheer their accomplishments without feeling like we've been duped or, dare I say, cheated.
Players like Biggio are also honest in another sense of the word: they have no pretensions. This is the honest of "an honest day's work" or "an honest effort," a term signifying that no pretending is involved. Players choose to play to the best of their ability every time. Among athletes, this type of honesty is becoming ever more rare. When a player gets paid millions whether or not he gives 110 percent or somewhere in the "just passing" neighborhood, the incentive to play without pretension seems to come only in a contract year.
And thus, Craig Biggio's retirement seems like the tail end of a golden era for sports. One hopes that another Biggio will come along -- a player as talented as he is committed and honest. Until then, we must hope that the recent controversies in sports stemming from rampant dishonesty will force leagues and organizations to crack down in an attempt to restore their integrity. But nobody is holding their breath.
