Game Hero, 9 - 6

Craig Biggio

1 for 4, 4 RBI, 1 R Walk, stolen base, and yeah, a grand slam. Doubled his monthly RBI total, from 4 to 8 Hit number 2945, Home run number 283 Stolen base number 410, and RBIs number 1129 - 1133 Third career slam 110th Slam in Houston history, and 14th in the ninth Nice range to make the play behind the bag on Mench in the eighth, and started a double play

Who would've thunk it? These days, almost all his extra bases come down the left field line, and almost all of his production comes at home.

So even those among us who thought Biggio would come through after Lamb got robbed would never have guessed homer to left-center. Single to right? Sure. Double down the line? You bet your ass. But a homer that sailed over the center-left gap? No way.

We all thought it was a sac-fly at first, but thank goodness it had the extra oomph it needed to carry itself just past the leaping Billy Hall

You know, even those who carry the banner for Biggio against his attackers know that he's hanging on. We say that it's OK, we say it's not selfish, we say that with his marvelous career in Houston, he's earned the right to hang on. What we don't do is dispute the nature of what he is doing.

We know he's just a shadow of what he once was. He still hustles, yes. Hell, he still hustled in Spring Training if you can believe that. Craig Biggio has never gotten lazy the way some of the others have.

But his skills have eroded. He ain't what he was. We wish he were, he wishes he were, no doubt. But he ain't.

Rooting for Craig Biggio is tougher than it used to be. It's an exercise with limited returns. So when he pulls off something like he did tonight, something clutch to the extreme, something improbable and wonderful, it's doubly meaningful.

It works on its own, for tonight. But the resonance is with something deeper, and something older. You could see the shadows on the wall tonight, see the shadows of a time when Craig Biggio wasn't busy exercising his well-earned right to hang on and collect his 3000 hits, of a time when he simply helped his teams in more ways, and more often, than any other player in baseball. He's no longer that, but on this one night, he did more than anyone else in this one game to win it.

That is more than good enough for right now, and it was great to see.

Craig Biggio's Career Grand Slams

Date	Opponent	Inning	Pitcher	Scoring
September 14, 1989	at Dodgers	2nd	John Wetteland	Craig Reynolds Rafael Ramirez Gerald Young
July 24, 1994	vs. Pittsburgh	5th	Jon Lieber	Kevin Bass Scott Servais Andujar Cedeño
April 20, 2007	at Milwaukee	9th	Greg Aquino	Chris Burke Adam Everett Brad Ausmus