How can you resist a blog that's devoted to one man's (probably unintentional, possibly unconscious) quest to become baseball's all-time hit-by-pitch king? I can't, so I've added a subscription to the oddly compelling Plunk Biggio to my Bloglines subs. Thanks to Lair and Pete for the heads-up on this one.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on April 27, 2005 to Baseball | TrackBackHe may get the all time record, but the single season mark of 50 is going to be tough to beat. :-)
Posted by: William Hughes on April 27, 2005 2:33 PMErnie Pantuso lives on!
Posted by: Laurence Simon on April 27, 2005 3:07 PMBiggio is my favorite because IMO he's the ultimate team player. He hustles down the line, takes the extra base and is always willing to take one for the team.
Consider these factoids - Since 1994 he has been HBP more times each season than he has grounded into a double play - that's 11 seasons and counting. For his career his HBP to GIDP ratio is greater than 2 to 1 which is out of this world for a player that has been around for over 15 years. In 1997 he played in 162 games got plunked 34 times and hit into 0 double plays.
I just saw Biggio get plunked to break Baylor's mark. Very cool in a weird sort of way. Biggio clearly never truly wants to get plunked, but at the same time, with the way he crowds the plate he has also learned to turn his body just so so that he can make the clear case he's trying to get out of the way while making the HBP part of his game. I saw that he has come around the score almost 40 percent of the time he's been hit and he did today as well. You know, you could eliminate all of this and still enjoy Biggio's greatness as a player, but this just adds one weird chapter to the HOF story.
Posted by: Marty Hajovsky on June 29, 2005 5:16 PM