New Hall of Famer has enduring LI legacy

Houston Astros legend and Kings Park native Craig Biggio will join baseball immortality this weekend as he is inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kevin Johnston was a Kings Park teacher and coach while

News 12 Staff

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Jul 23, 2015, 2:18 AM

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Updated 3,439 days ago

Houston Astros legend and Kings Park native Craig Biggio will join baseball immortality this weekend as he is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Kevin Johnston was a Kings Park teacher and coach while Biggio became a three-time all-county baseball player.

"He showed that, even in high school, he could play anywhere on the diamond. More importantly, he wanted to play," says Johnston. "He was the Charlie Hustle of that era."

Former teammate Joe Pirecca says Biggio was the big man on campus in Kings Park. Chuck Alben, a friend and neighbor of Biggio's, says people looked up to him.

"He was a young athletic guy that was a star athlete at the high school, so it was somebody we wanted to be," says Alben.

Some people say baseball wasn't even his best sport in high school. Football was.

He scored 40 points in one game - a game in which he also had another touchdown that was overturned. In 1983, he became the only Kings Park player to ever win County Player of the Year.

Over the years, King Park High School inducted Biggio into its Hall of Fame, put his Astros jersey in the gym and remade a baseball field that bears his name.

Biggio is set to be inducted Sunday alongside pitchers Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and John Smoltz.