Bagwell:Deserves a call (c) Houston Astros

So, there are two staples of holiday reporting in baseball media - the year-ender when reporters review the year that was. Anyone who wants that can review it right here but I wouldn't recommend it without a few glasses of egg nog first.

The other is about who might be joining the Baseball Hall of Fame, which will get announced in early January but the votes from baseball writers are being pondered now between glasses of their favorite holiday booze.

For Astros fans, it's all about Jose Lima. Oh, wait. There's another former Astro on the ballot who deserves to go in this year or we may have to witness this annual event long into our new American League existence.

Jeff Bagwell failed to reach the round milestone numbers Hall voters get excited about. He came up 51 homers shy of 500. He fell .003 shy of a .300 career batting average and .052 shy of a 1.000 OPS. But he was the 1991 NL Rookie of the Year, 1994 NL Most Valuable Player and a four-time All-Star at a position that was hard to crack the lineup. He led his league in runs, RBIs, walks and OPS at least once in his career and is still the only first baseman in major league history to hit 30 homers and steal 30 bases in the same year.

He was exemplary both on and off the field, extolling others to play baseball "the right way". At his peak, he was scary good and that peak (1994-2003) lasted a decade.

Check out his page at Baseball-Reference.com. He meets three of the four Hall of Fame metric formulas and comes close on the fourth. Two of the players with careers most similar to his are in the Hall (Willie Stargell and Orlando Cepeda) and two more probably will be someday (Frank Thomas, who was born the same day as Bagwell, and Chipper Jones).

Yet there is a cloud over him that exists without proof. Some writers claim they won't vote for him because they think he might have used steroids. He admits to using Andro, which is a legal muscle builder and developed big muscular arms just as he was changing from a low-power minor leaguer with the Red Sox to an MVP in Houston. He was also good friends with Ken Caminiti, an admitted user.

But is there a positive test anywhere, even in 2003 when the league held secret tests? Is he named in the Mitchell Report? Is there even one former player, baseball employee or supplier that has ever accused Bagwell of doing steroids? No, there is no proof.

Couple that with the inconsistent outrage the writers have over performance enhancing drugs (PED). Earlier this month, NL MVP Ryan Braun failed a PED test but the baseball writers weren't outraged enough to strip him of his award or even re-do the vote. And many baseball writers already have their prepared scripts on why they will let confirmed steroid cheaters like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez into the Hall. So why punish a guy with no proof while overlooking guys with greater proof? The hypocrisy is glaring.

There is a selfish reason, also, why Bagwell should be inducted this year. No player has made the Hall as an Astro. While we are still in the National League, there ought to be one. Houston fans are owed that for all we've had to endure, from our first 100-loss season to being forced to switch leagues for the benefit of everyone else but Houston.

Bagwell deserves to get in on his own merits. Besides Jeff, only Barry Larkin and Tim Raines have legitimate cases this year before a flood of worthy cases start showing up in the next five years, including teammate Craig Biggio next winter. But if not for Jeff, do it for the lowly Houston fans who would like a Hall of Famer to call our own and could use some uplifting news after the worst year in our history.

- Bob Hulsey

(We at Astros Daily wish to everyone a blessed Christmas and a better New Year.)