Jeff Bagwell
Jeff Bagwell
Jeffrey Robert Bagwellis an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire fifteen-year Major League Baseballplaying career with the Houston Astros. Originally, the Boston Red Sox selected him from the University of Hartford as a third baseman in the fourth round of the 1989 amateur draft. The Red Sox traded Bagwell to the Astros in 1990; the next season he made his MLB debut and was named the National LeagueRookie of the Year. The NL Most...
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth27 May 1968
CityBoston, MA
There's no other situation this would be OK. A normal guy, that wasn't going to play. It fit for our situation at the time. It's not something I would advocate. But Roger Clemens is a gift from the baseball gods. Anything he does is a gift. ... Craig (Biggio) and I have never had a ring. Our best opportunity to get one was to have Roger around. He tends to his obligations, his kids. And it's not like the man comes in here and pitches five innings and gives up six every day.
Hitting is no problem. The question is if I can make throws.
I have a chance to go to the World Series toward the end of my career and I'm ecstatic.
I've had plenty of conversations (in past years) where I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it, but I've always found a way to do it. And that's why I'm here again.
This was what we wanted to do, ... We spent a lot of time in this city and this organization trying to get to this particular point.
You know, I am not fragile of mind, ... Just because I've been out, this is the kind of opportunity I love. But when a guy's throwing 100, it's pretty tough to catch up with it. And if he throws a cutter at 100 ... man, that's not easy.
You just know it. The group just believes in each other. It's a special group.
We win that game, it changes the whole series. But the bottom line is, we didn't, and we've got to deal with that.
Yeah, that doesn't count. To be honest with you guys, I'm not really looking to throw. I guess everybody else is, but I'm not. I'm just trying to get my legs underneath me, get out there, get used to taking throws again, covering the base. All of the things that you seem to take for granted, but it's a little bit different here.
Towards the end of my career, I didn't want an opportunity like this to go by.
We talked about taking a month or so to try to strengthen my shoulder and try to see how my shoulder reacted to non-baseball things. Not throwing a baseball, not hitting a baseball every day.
You have to be a little nervous in that situation. It was a big moment, and it's a win we needed.
Today didn't go that well. My arm was bothering me from when I woke up, so I'm hoping it's just that I slept on it wrong. I tried to get loose and see if felt any better, but it didn't, so I just didn't want to take my chances. Playing catch is no fun, but that's secondary right now. That'll come, hopefully, in another couple of weeks.
When you come in here, it's no different from anybody else, ... except when the game starts.