December 14, 2006
Bagwell Makes it Official
Jeff Bagwell will make his retirement official tomorrow.
The four-time All Star will remain with the Astros as part of a personal-services agreement reached with the team earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the team's plan who requested anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
Bagwell, the greatest power hitter in Houston Astros history, is expected to work with young Astros hitters, assisting in the front office and making appearances for the team.
The Astros have scheduled a Friday morning news conference to announce the retirement.
Bagwell was quite the hero at STATS, Inc. The STATS Baseball Handbook following the 1990 season was the first to include Bill James projections for the next year. Included were predictions for players likely to be rookies in 1991, including Bagwell. When Peter Gammons read the book, he wrote in his review that Bill James predicted Jeff Bagwell would win the National League batting title.
What happened was that Bagwell's prediction turned out to have the highest batting average among National League players. No one at STATS noticed this at the time. Bill felt at the time that if Jeff had a poor season, no one would respect the predictions again. Bagwell didn't win the batting title (he finished 5th in OBA), but he did have a great season and won the Rookie of the Year, ending up making the prediction look pretty good. With that season, he became one of Bill's favorite players.
I remember being lucky enough to score a couple of seats 2 rows off the field For Mets-Astros between the visitors dugout and home plate back in 1991. Dr. K threw a gem and the Mets won easily. Late in the game a rather "physically unimposing" Bagwell came to the on deck circle. I remember reading the name on the back of his jersey and thinking "Who???".
btw - any of you Red Sox fans know what Larry Andersen is doing these days?
Larry is retired, as of a long time ago (he was more than 15 years older than Bagwell when"the trade" was completed) He had a fine, long career (he pitched 17 years; Bagwell's career lasted 15 years), was a terrific bullpen pitcher for a really long time, and played in one more world series than Bagwell did. If you look back at the trade, when it was made, it made sense. The Bosox had alot of 1B/DH options and were pushing for the postseason. Nobody would have predicted, in 1986, that Bagwell was going to be a hall-of-famer. Andersen was a great reliver for a long time, which is a rarity in baseball. While I don't think the Sox would do the same thing, knowing what we all know now, Andersen wasn't some chump - he was a damn good pitcher.
