Happy Birthday #40 to Jeff Bagwell!

Here's a birthday toast to my favorite all-time Astros player, Jeff Bagwell, who celebrates his 40th birthday today. I love the this year's Astros team, the new guys, the kids, but I do miss seeing Bagwell out there on the field, in the dugout, at the plate in that funny-looking crouching stance, just before he whacks the ball into the stands. He really epitomizes to me what made the Astros a team that could cause a fan, long gone from Houston, to continue to cheer for a hometown team: Sportsmanship, athleticism, attitude, team spirit. I think that core stays with the team, through guys like Berkman and Oswalt, while the new guys bring new characteristics to make this team special. Seeing Bagwell back in uniform, in the dugout and on the practice fields, was the best thing at Spring Training this year.

In case turning 40 makes him feel old, here's a story about that:

The most memorable game of my childhood was that 24-inning marathon against the Mets. It was on a school night in April, and my dad had taken us to the game as a special treat. But by the end of the 18th inning, at around midnight, he made us leave to go home, where my mother was worried that something terrible had happened to us to make us so late. So we weren't there to see Bob Aspromonte hit a ground ball between the exhausted Mets' shortstop's legs, scoring Norm Miller in the bottom of the 24th for the 1-0 Astro's win. But it stands in my memory as a notable game, more for the scoreboard than for what was happening on the field (not much!). There were funny messages on the Astrodome's programmable scoreboard throughout the game, like "The Judge wants to go to bed" (Judge Roy Hofheinz had an apartment in the Dome), and "I think I'm going to throw up." Back in those days, that was considered to be very high tech.

So what does this have to do with Bagwell's birthday? Well, actually, he wasn't born yet! That game was April 15, 1968. Jeff Bagwell was born a few weeks later on May 27th. He's only 40 - just a kid!

Happy 40th Birthday to Jeff Bagwell! It was great to see him in uniform hanging out with the Astros and the minor league guys at Spring Training. Hope to see that a lot more in the future!