Jeff Bagwell
Jeff Bagwell
Jeffrey Robert Bagwellis an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire fifteen-year Major League Baseballplaying career with the Houston Astros. Originally, the Boston Red Sox selected him from the University of Hartford as a third baseman in the fourth round of the 1989 amateur draft. The Red Sox traded Bagwell to the Astros in 1990; the next season he made his MLB debut and was named the National LeagueRookie of the Year. The NL Most...
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth27 May 1968
CityBoston, MA
When I came back, we decided to give it a try and see how I would do. I told them: I can give you a good at bat and I think I can help the team. I can hit a home run now. I can get a base hit to right field. I'm just a lot stronger -- and I've been in these situations, runners in scoring position.
When you come in here, it's no different from anybody else, ... except when the game starts.
Today it wasn't bad, for me to be able to come back after the other night and be able to bounce back. I'm happy with it. I don't expect to be able to know whether I can play right now. This is a little too early, I've got to get through my soreness first and then a little later on see what I can do. Right now my main focus is to get out there and throw the ball in between innings, get my legs under me, things like that.
Today didn't go that well. My arm was bothering me from when I woke up, so I'm hoping it's just that I slept on it wrong. I tried to get loose and see if felt any better, but it didn't, so I just didn't want to take my chances. Playing catch is no fun, but that's secondary right now. That'll come, hopefully, in another couple of weeks.
When you're playing in his games, ... it seems like you raise your intensity a little bit, because you don't want to make a mistake behind him.
You have to be a little nervous in that situation. It was a big moment, and it's a win we needed.
We talked about taking a month or so to try to strengthen my shoulder and try to see how my shoulder reacted to non-baseball things. Not throwing a baseball, not hitting a baseball every day.
Towards the end of my career, I didn't want an opportunity like this to go by.
Yeah, that doesn't count. To be honest with you guys, I'm not really looking to throw. I guess everybody else is, but I'm not. I'm just trying to get my legs underneath me, get out there, get used to taking throws again, covering the base. All of the things that you seem to take for granted, but it's a little bit different here.
What led me to this (decision) was the tremendous amount of pain that I just couldn't deal with anymore. I played a couple of days in a row. I came out that first game. Then I played a couple days and I got through it. And I was like, 'All right, let's see what's happening here.' I had to come out of the game in Detroit.
We win that game, it changes the whole series. But the bottom line is, we didn't, and we've got to deal with that.
You just know it. The group just believes in each other. It's a special group.