10 moments that defined Biggio's career

HOUSTON -- Considering he owns the Astros’ career records for games played, at-bats, hits, runs scored and a long list of other achievements, Hall of Fame second baseman Craig Biggio produced enough memorable moments in his 20-year career to fill a book.

Biggio retired with 3,060 career hits, 291 home runs, 1,175 RBIs, 414 stolen bases and a .281 average. He was a seven-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner and won five Silver Sluggers -- four at second base and one at catcher. He played his entire career with the Astros and was the first player with an Astros cap on his plaque when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.

Here are 10 moments that helped define Biggio’s career.

1. Welcome to the 3,000-hit club

In the final season of his Hall of Fame career, Biggio cemented his legacy when he became the 27th player to reach 3,000 hits with a seventh-inning single off Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook on June 28, 2007, at Minute Maid Park. Biggio was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double, but that didn’t diminish the celebration or the accomplishment. He finished the game with five hits for only the second time in his career.

“I wanted it to happen at home,” Biggio said. “For the integrity of the game, you let the chips fall where they may. But the right thing happened, and we were able to get it done, and anybody who had a ticket that night got to enjoy it, and the people at home got to enjoy it. Like I said, 20 years playing here and to be able to give that back to the fans is a pretty cool thing.”

2. Taking down Billy the Kid

Down by one run with two outs in the ninth inning, the Astros stunned their closest Wild Card contenders when Biggio launched a three-run homer off former teammate and Phillies closer Billy Wagner on Sept. 7, 2005. The game seemed well in hand for the Phillies, who had gone ahead in the eighth on a game-tying, two-run homer by Bobby Abreu and a Shane Victorino run-scoring single, but Biggio ended up handing the Phillies a gut punch that pushed them 2 1/2 games behind the Astros in the Wild Card race.

Legendary Phillies announcer Harry Kalas appropriately summed up the home team's angst.

"All the runs are unearned," he bellowed. "But so what."

3. Last hurrah

A crowd of 43,823 packed Minute Maid Park to watch Biggio play in his 2,850th and final game on Sept. 30, 2007, ending a 20-year career in an Astros uniform. Batting second and playing second base, Biggio went 1-for-4 with a first-inning double, extending his record for most doubles by a right-handed hitter to 668 (since broken by Albert Pujols). It was his 3,060th and final career hit. After Biggio grounded out in the seventh inning, he went to second base to start the eighth but was removed before the inning started. A teary-Biggio waved to the crowd as he walked to his teammates standing outside the dugout, shaking hands along the way. He later made a lap around the ballpark to thank the fans.

4. Record-breaker

When Biggio was hit by pitch thrown by Byung-Hyun Kim on June 29, 2005, in Colorado, he surpassed Don Baylor’s modern-day hit by pitches record with 268. Biggio liked to crowd the plate and wore a ton of body armor, including an elbow pad that wound up in the Hall of Fame. The record was so dubious that a bandage company sent Biggio a lifetime supply. When asked about the record, Biggio attributed it "fearlessness and stupidity."

5. Hitting for the cycle

Biggio became the fifth Astros player to hit for the cycle when he went 4-for-4 with a homer, single, double and triple in an 8-4 win at the Rockies on April 8, 2002. Biggio polished off the cycle with a double in his final at-bat in the eighth inning. Notably, Biggio’s son, Cavan, hit for the cycle in 2019 for the Blue Jays, making the Biggios the second father-son duo to hit for the cycle (Daryle and Gary Ward).

6. Leadoff thunder

Biggio set a National League record with his 31st career leadoff home run on April 10, 2003, in a win over the Reds in Houston. Biggio led off the game with a homer off Cincinnati’s Danny Graves to break the record set by Bobby Bonds. Biggio finished his career with 53 leadoff homers, which is third-most all-time behind Rickey Henderson, who holds the Major League record with 80, and Alfonso Soriano (54).

7. Hall of Fame battery

Biggio was the starting catcher for Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan's 100th win as an Astro on July 9, 1988. A 22-year-old rookie working to get comfortable both at the plate and behind it, Biggio tried to block out the fact Ryan was starting the game for the Astros in what was Biggio’s only 12th career game in the big leagues.

"I wasn't thinking about who the name and number was on the back," Biggio said. "I was just trying to catch the ball, do my job. Obviously, he's Nolan, one of the greatest pitchers of all time. It was great. It was kind of fun every fifth day to just watch a guy go out there and compete and play the way that he did. To be part of that, they're memories I'll have for a lifetime."

8. 50-50 club

Biggio entered some exclusive company on Sept. 23, 1998, when he stole his 50th base of the season against the Cardinals in St. Louis, joining Hall of Famer Tris Speaker as the only players in the 20th century with at least 50 steals and 50 doubles in a season. Biggio finished with a club-record 51 doubles (he holds the current club record with 57 doubles set in ’99) and career-high 50 steals while amassing 210 hits, which made him the only man in team history at the time to reach 200 hits in a season (Jose Altuve has since done it four times). He finished in the top five in the MVP voting for the second year in a row and made the last of seven his All-Star appearances.

9. October to remember

Biggio played in 2,564 regular-season games before playing in his first career World Series in Game 1 of the 2005 Fall Classic against the White Sox in Chicago. Biggio batted leadoff to become the first Astros player to get an at-bat in a World Series game and grounded out before he singled in the third inning and scored a run in the Astros’ 5-3 loss to the White Sox. Biggio wound up going 4-for-18 in his only World Series.

10. Goose hunting

Biggio didn’t collect hit his first career homer until his 81st career at-bat, which came on Aug. 22, 1988, in a game against the Cubs in the second official night game at Wrigley Field. Biggio entered the game at catcher in the ninth inning and led off the 10th by hitting an 0-1 pitch from future Hall of Famer Goose Gossage into the left-field bleachers. “I can’t tell you how much his does for my confidence,” Biggio said of the first of his 291 career homers.