I am obviously pleased that the Astros are on their way to the World Series, and that they got through the Cardinals to do it. Whenever you see postseason broadcasts, the commentators recognize that they have a lot of extra viewers that don't always keep up during the year. So they try to bring out the extra stories, the human interest side, like David Eckstein's family history of kidney problems. You know by now that this will be the Astros first World Series in a 43-year franchise history, and it will be the first World Series in the state of Texas. You know that the White Sox have not been to the World Series since the 1959 Go-go Sox team lost to the Dodgers, and that their last win came in 1917, which of course preceded the Black Sox scandal of 1919 in which the Sox threw the Series to the Reds for the sake of the gamblers and 8 players, including "Shoeless" Joe Jackson were banned from baseball for life.
One angle of this that I've been thinking about this morning is Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas. Both were born on May 27th, 1968, Bagwell in Boston and Thomas in Columbus, GA. Bagwell debuted in 1991 and won the NL Rookie of the Year, Thomas spoiled his ROY chances by debuting in 1990 and playing 60 games, but certainly had a Rookie of the Year-caliber year in 1991. Both play first base and both won MVP Awards in 1994. Thomas also won the award in 1993. Thomas has 5 All-Star appearances, Bagwell has 4.
At the end of 1996, Thomas looked like the better overall player, and maybe he was/is, but injuries have drained him over the years, and if you look at their career numbers now, Bagwell is usually ahead in the totals. Obviously they did a few things different: Thomas was a much more disciplined hitter, while Bagwell stole more bases. Here's a look at there career totals through 2005:
| Career Totals Through 2005 | |||||||||
| AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BB | BA | OPS | |
| Frank Thomas | 6956 | 1327 | 2136 | 448 | 1465 | 32 | 1466 | .307 | .995 |
| Jeff Bagwell | 7797 | 1517 | 2314 | 449 | 1529 | 202 | 1401 | .297 | .948 |
They have both have played their entire careers for the same organization, and now they are making their World Series debuts together. And in keeping with the last several years, Bagwell's just a little bit ahead: Thomas is hurt and will not play at all, and Bagwell is hurt, but will be able to pinch hit and do a little DH'ing. I'm not making a comment on their careers or who was/is better; I'm just observing the similarities.
Someone at FOX sports has been reading your blog. They talked about these similarities during the game last night.
Is the rest of the series even worth watching? I had my doubts at 12:15 last night, when I went to sleep hoping, and again when I turned on the news this morning to see the final score. We can win the next 4, right?
Posted by: Christin at October 26, 2005 10:15 AMI actually called in to one of the XM shows and informed them about the Bagwell/Thomas stuff. Kevin Kennedy (the guy that sits opposite Jeannie Zelasko in the "hosting" area of the FOX broadcasts) also works for XM.
Now that they've lost, and it's been more than 24 hours, it's getting easier to remember the joy of that they were simply in the World Series at all.
Posted by: Aaron at October 27, 2005 11:06 PM