I was a bit late getting home today and was too late to get a blog up concerning the game going on as I type. Unfortunately, the score is currently 5-0 in the 3rd inning…ugh. In other news, there were two big milestones achieved yesterday. Craig Biggio finally hit is 3000th hit and Frank Thomas launched his 500th homerun.
Growing up in Chicago in the 90s I had a chance to watch these guys play a number of games. Biggio and the revolving door of killer Bs were always a thorn in the Cubs side. I’ll always remember Biggio as the guy who had the dirty helmet. I always loved to watch him play because he was true grinder on the field. He wasn’t afraid to step into a pitch or get his uniform dirty. I’m using past tense here because I believe this is Biggio’s last year…and Biggio is no where near the player he once was. He is hanging on by a thread just to get his 3000 hit. I don’t have a problem with that, especially on a team that likely has no chance to make the playoff. With the dark cloud of steroids and other drama in baseball today, Biggio is a breath of fresh air and I’ll be happy to tell my kids someday I saw him play.
The same goes with Big Frank. When I was a kid I really wasn’t a complete Cubs fan or complete Sox fan. I was just a Chicago Sport fans. In fact, I went to far more White Sox games than I did games at Wrigley field. It wasn’t until my first or second game at Wrigley that I became exclusively a Cubs fan. Anyway, Frank Thomas was the first player whom I followed from his rookie year until present. It’s not hard to see why Frank Thomas stood out. He was huge standing out at first base. He had a unique swing and wore high top cleats. Some of my favorite memories with my late father was discussing how good of hitter he was. “Best pure hitter in the game”
Having Biggio and Big Frank get their milestones on the same day seems very appropriate to me. Watching both events took me back to time when I was just a kid having fun with my father. Now that my father is gone, as is my childhood, yesterday seemed like a special day. I have many memories of both of these guys and I hope they just stamped their ticket to Cooperstown.
Every Blog needs a sappy corny entry at some point. This is mine…
