It’s kind of like lightning striking the same place three times.
That’s just how it is. The history of baseball dictates that if you are a Major League player, you just don#’t get the chance to suit up with two guys who reach 3,000 career hits. It just doesn’t happen.
Think about it, in the entire period – from the very first pitch to today’s games – only 27 guys have joined the exclusive 3,000-hit club. That’s 27 out of a very large pool of guys who’ve played the game in the big leagues.
So, to play with two 3,000-hit club members is – again, for the sake of not leaving anything understated – unheard of. But, like any good rule, there are exceptions. Call it freak, call it luck, call it what you want, but Cameron’s Bill Spiers – who played 12 years of Major League Baseball – yep, he is a guy who has suited up right next to not two, but three – that’s 1, 2, 3 – members of the club.
If you’re not a math whiz, that means that Spiers has, incredibly, played with one-ninth of the guys on the list.
The third guy to join and the most recent came Thursday night when Houston’s Craig Biggio put together a five-hit game to reach the plateau. The other two guys are Paul Molitor and Robin Yount, whom Spiers played with on the Milwaukee Brewers.
Thursday, Spiers didn’t see Biggio reach his mark live, because while he is retired from Major League Baseball and says he doesn’t get the chance to watch all that often, he remains involved in the game, coaching Dixie Youth baseball on the field named after him in Cameron. But, when he walked in the door, he turned on SportsCenter and there it was, Craig Biggio, 3,000 hits.
For Spiers, it was something to smile about.
“(Biggio) and I were close,” said Spiers, who spent six seasons with the Astros. “I will tell you the truth, I was playing with Robin Yount (in Milwaukee) when he got his 3,000th hit, and up until I got a hit to win a game in the ’98 playoffs – before that – the best thing I had been a part of was Yount’s 3,000th hit.
“I had never seen anything like it,” he said. “Every time he would swing 50,000 flashbulbs would go off. It was an unreal experience to be a part of that, and I wish I could have been there for Biggio’s – it’s a cool experience.”
The history between Spiers and Biggio is deep. Spiers actually lived with Biggio for a short time when he first began playing with Houston, and in 1987 Spiers’ Clemson Tigers knocked Biggio’s Seton Hall team out of the NCAA Regionals.
“He’s just like you see him on TV,” Spiers said. “His uniform is always dirty, and he plays as hard as he can. He’s not flashy, like he is trying to get noticed. He gets noticed by the way he plays.
“He’s a good friend to me,” he continued. “He’s just the type of guy that you would want to play with.”
Major League players communicate with few outside of their family and team once the season has begun, so Spiers hasn’t talked with his friend since spring training when he took his family to Disney World and spent a day hanging around the Astros’ clubhouse.
But, Friday, he gave Biggio a call just to congratulate him. He didn’t get him. He got the Mother-In-Law. But that was OK with Spiers. He understands. It’s not easy to track a guy down when he’s just playing, let alone when he’s playing and has just joined the 3,000-hit club.
The interview requests are plentiful and time is short. He’ll talk to him again soon enough. Until then, he’s just going to keep coaching his kids down in Cameron, and when he coaches them, he’ll be teaching them to play like guys named Biggio, Yount, Molitor – and for good measure, maybe even a little like a guy with the last name of Spiers.
“I had the privilege of playing with (Biggio) and Yount and Molitor, who were two great guys that did everything right,” he said. “They hustled and played the right way. I feel fortunate to say I’ve had teammates on two different teams like that.
“It is one of the greatest compliments you can have, to have somebody say they want to play the game like you,” he continued. “I tried to model my game after Robin Yount. In Houston, one of my teammates – Lance Berkman – said he wanted to play the game like Bill Spiers, and that felt good. You see guys that are superstars playing the game the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s the only way to do it because you are fortunate to be able to do it. You don’t know how long it will last.”
-- T&D Sports Writer Brian Linder can be reached by e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553.