March 26, 2006 6:22 AM

The end of the road for a Houston icon?

Bagwell: ‘I may never play again’

Bagwell headed to disabled list for season’s start

Season lost? Bagwell comeback on hold.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Jeff Bagwell, the Astros’ all-time leader in home runs and RBIs, said today he will start the season on the disabled list and isn’t sure if he’ll return this year.

It’s a sad reality that an athlete’s livelihood is his body, and that eventually that body, and with it his livelihood, breaks down. It’s a reality that all of us have to face- except that few of us are dependent upon our physical skills in order to make a living. It appears that this reality is coming home to roost for Jeff Bagwell.

All athlete want to go out on their own terms, to leave the playing field at a time and in a manner of their choosing. Too often, though, we see an athlete who wants to continue playing, but whose body simply will no longer cooperate in that undertaking. In Bagwell’s case, he’s been playing with a bad shoulder since the 2001 season, and after having surgery last season and attempting to give it a go during Spring Training, he may well have reached the end of the line.

Through the off-season soap opera that culminated in the Astros filing an insurance claim on Bagwell’s $17 million salary and claiming that he’s “disabled”, the question was whether or not Bagwell would recover enough to be able to throw without pain again. There is little doubt that Bagwell can still hit, but since there’s no designated hitter in the National League, he’s going on the disabled list, and his career as an Astro (and as a baseball player) may well be over.

“I may never play again,” he said. “It’s been 15 years with the Astros. I have to do what’s best for me, what’s best for the Astros and best for baseball.”

The 37-year-old Bagwell, perhaps the most popular player in franchise history, spent the spring in a contentious battle with the team while he tried to prove he could still play despite a chronically injured right shoulder.

“I came down to spring training to see if I could still make it as a first baseman with the Astros,” he said. “There were times in the offseason where I felt like I could do this. But with the condition of my shoulder, I’m not going to be able to start the season with the Astros.”

The Astros filed an insurance claim in January to recoup about $15.6 million of the $17 million Bagwell is guaranteed this season in the final year of his contract, arguing he is too hurt to play. For now he is on the 15-day disabled list. He must stay on the injured list all season for the Astros to collect their money.

While it’s too bad that Bagwell’s career may be over before he wanted it to be, it’s difficult to be overly sympathetic. After all, Bagwell, spent 15 years in an Astros uniform and may well be headed for baseball’s Hall of Fame. He came to symbolize the Houston Astros, spending his entire career covering first base in the Astrodome and then Enron Field/Minute Maid Park. He’s had an amazing run, and if this is the end, we should remember him for what he brought to a franchise that came to depend on him for it’s indentity. Jeff Bagwell played the game the way it’s supposed to be played- hard and with unbridled passion. He never made excuses, he showed up every day, and he worked hard. Though Bagwell was a legitimate superstar, he never carried himself that way. No doubt that Astros will miss his presence, both in the locker room and on the field.

Jeff Bagwell, along with his sidekick Craig Biggio, has been a part of the Astros’ identity for 15 years. It’s been a great run, but all good things come to an end. If his career ended with his last official at-bat being in the 2005 World Series…well, that’s not such a bad way to go out, eh?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 26, 2006 6:22 AM.

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