Except perhaps for Jose Cruz, no position player has personified Houston Astros baseball as much as Craig Biggio. His scrappy, no-nonsense style of play has set the example for all the Astros clubs of the 1990s and beyond.
Biggio was an All-American at Seton Hall University, where he played alongside future big-league stars Mo Vaughn and John Valentin, under the tutelage of legendary coach Mike Sheppard.
Called up to Houston as a catcher in 1988, he quickly established himself on the everyday roster. In 1992, hoping to extend his career, the club moved him first to outfield, then to second base, where he would remain a fixture. He is, to date, the only player in MLB history to be named an All-Star as both catcher and second-baseman.
The only time he was ever on the disabled list was in 2000: the Florida Marlins' Preston Wilson slid into second base, trying to break up a double play, and hit Biggio's planted left leg, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in Biggio's knee. Biggio missed the rest of the season. He made a dramatic comeback in 2001, and remains one of the best second-basemen in the league.
On June 29, 2005, Biggio broke the post-1900 career hit-by-pitch record, previously held by Don Baylor with 267. In the fourth inning of a game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, a pitch from Byung-Hyun Kim hit Biggio on the left elbow for his 268th HBP.
Active in the community, Craig is a major supporter of the Sunshine Kids, a charity for children stricken with cancer.
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