BREAKING NEWS:Craig Biggio elected as the new ASTROS head coach,celebration everywhere,José Altuve And Alex Bregman welcome him as he arrived GOODNEWS
Astros Icon Craig Biggio Embraces St. Thomas Family During Hall of Fame Celebration.
The inevitable result of a big league career fueled by aqn insatiable drive with equal off-the-field devotion to family and faith.
The first home-grown Houston Astro voted into the hallowed National Baseball Hall of Fame just 12 months removed from tying the record for the closest rejection in ballot history.
Craig Biggio reveled in the supreme satisfaction of the moment. The rush followed by reflection.
He then paused in the tsunami swirl of emotions to contact someone who couldn’t have been further removed from his two-decade climb to his sport’s Mount Everest.He reached out for a relationship that didn’t take firm root until after his Astros retirement … when he suddenly (if not stunningly) accepted the head baseball coaching position at St. Thomas, where his sons, Conor ‘11 and Cavan ‘13, were already enrolled.
Biggio knew his much-anticipated induction day in the historic hamlet of Cooperstown, New York would bring more than the treatment a transcendent athlete hopes for and deserves … more than the authentic applause and support from fans, his peers, and predecessors, his game.
Biggio knew the third Sunday in July necessitated a personal favor the president of St. Thomas could satisfy.
“Craig is not a thump-you-over-the-head Catholic,” Fr. Kevin Storey, CSB said. “But he is a wear-it-on-my-heart Catholic. Never embarrassed to discuss his faith. Always a priority in his life. In my mind, that’s the way the best Catholics live, by invitation and by example.
“Craig didn’t want to go to the local Catholic church for Sunday Mass because he knew that would have turned into a spectacle. He wanted a private setting to make sure he and (his wife) Patty and the surrounding family could be comfortable. I understood completely why and what he was asking. And it struck me how easily the Sunday devotion could have been lost in the hoopla of a day unlike any other in his life. It was an honor to be able to accommodate the Biggios, especially given all that they have meant to the St. Thomas community over the years.”
Biggio arranged for the St. Thomas president to travel to the enshrinement weekend on the Astros private charter with an entourage that included STH alumni parent Matt Kemple, Hall of Fame strikeout king Nolan Ryan, his son and Astros president Reid Ryan, a host of minority Astro owners and executives, plus assorted baseball dignitaries, such as former Astro players and managers Phil Garner and Larry Dierker.Our experts rank 2024 Arizona Fall League rosters.There is a ton that goes into constructing an Arizona Fall League roster.
Each AFL club receives prospects from five separate organizations, all with different needs and priorities. Some want their best prospects to spend time in the desert. Others primarily want formerly injured players to make up for lost at-bats and innings. And some are out to get longer looks at players headed for Rule 5 eligibility in the offseason. With those and many other considerations, you still have to fill out a roster balanced between the nine positions on the field and ample depth behind them.
After all that movement, there are always plenty of reasons to get excited everywhere across the Valley of the Sun, but even so, some AFL rosters come looking brighter than others. Below is a ranking of the most loaded Fall League rosters as the circuit gets rolling this week:Organizations: Braves, Brewers, Mariners, Marlins, Padres
Top 100 prospects: Ethan Salas, C, Padres (No. 19); Colt Emerson, SS, Mariners (No. 27); Leodalis De Vries, SS, Padres (No. 28); Cole Young, SS/2B, Mariners (No. 38)
Total Top 30 prospects: 20
You want the most loaded group in terms of Top 30 prospects? Check. You want the joint-most Top 100 prospects on a single roster? Check. You want those Top 100 prospects playing premium positions? Check, check, check. The Mariners and Padres — Peoria’s two typical talent pools — bring the big names above, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Javelinas specifically balance the shortstop position. Salas, meanwhile, is looking to bounce back from an uneven age-18 campaign at High-A, though he was showing signs of a turnaround from August onward. Drake Baldwin (Braves) and Brock Wilken (Brewers) bring plenty of power to the table as well, and this is one of the deepest pitching staffs in the Fall League, with seven arms ranked in their club’s Top 30s. In fact, none of Peoria’s five parent clubs sent fewer than three of their Top 30 prospects, highlighting just how deep the Javs will be in the coming weeks.