Despite receiving the highest percentage of votes, Craig Biggio was not elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Biggio believes his snubbing at the hands of baseball writers has a lot to do with other stars who used performance-enhancing drugs.
“I think it’s kind of unfair, but it’s the reality of the era that we played in,” Biggio said. “Obviously some guys are guilty and others aren’t, and it’s painful for the ones that weren’t.”
There were numerous reasons to vote for Biggio. He had 3,000 career hits, played premium defense at three positions and was a class act in Houston and beyond.
Still Biggio fell 39 votes short after appearing on 68.2% of Hall of Fame ballots. Players are required to appear on 75% of ballots in order to earn enshrinement in Cooperstown.
Several ‘Steroid Era’ stars appeared on the ballot with Biggio including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa.
“All I know is that I went out there and played the game and I loved the game and I went out there to win, and we have a lot of flags on that wall out there that represent that, and that’s really the most important thing to me,” he said.
While Biggio believes he may also have been hurt by some writers refusal to vote for first ballot players he gave a bit of a hat tip to the the idea of the Hall of Fame.
“You had a list of a lot of guys that were very qualified and nobody was let in. It just says a lot about how special that building really is.”
Oddly, Biggio says he would also have voted for Bonds and Clemens citing them as the greatest he has ever seen.
“Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter that I’ve ever played against … and Roger was one of the greatest pitchers of all time,” he said. “I would have yes, I think those guys are Hall of Fame players. Barry and Roger, their numbers speak for themselves and what they did on a baseball field speaks for itself.”
Former teammate Jeff Bagwell shared Biggio’s disappointment.
“That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s a travesty,” Bagwell said, according to tweets by Mark Berman, sports director of Fox affiliate KRIV in Houston.
It may be even more difficult for Biggio next season. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina, Frank Thomas and Jeff Kent will all be added to the ballot next season.
