HOUSTON — Billy Wagner was given the jersey No. 13 as a joke while in college at Division III Ferrum College in Virginia. It’s typically not a number any baseball player would like to have, but Wagner, who didn’t have many scholarship offers out of high school, was just glad to have any uniform with any number on the back.
“I didn’t know the difference from 13 or if it was bad or not,” Wagner said.
So when Wagner showed up to Spring Training after being drafted by the Astros in the first round in 1993, he was asked by longtime clubhouse manager Dennis Liborio what number he wanted to wear as a professional.
*“I said, ‘13,’ and he said, ‘Who the hell wears 13?’” Wagner recalled Saturday. “I wore that, and then I think in my first outing in the Astrodome, I gave up a two-run home run to Dante Bichette, and all the media comes in and says, ‘I guess you’ll be giving that number back.’ Thirteen has been that unlucky lucky number.”
After a remarkable 16-year Hall of Fame career in which he racked up 422 saves, including a record 225 for the Astros, Wagner’s No. 13 was retired during a ceremony prior to Saturday’s game against the Orioles at Daikin Park.
“Having your number put up in the rafters with the greats of the organization probably is up there with being a Hall of Famer, because you’re representing the city, you’re representing your team that you played for,” said an emotional Wagner, who was accompanied by his wife, Sarah, and three of their children. “It means a lot.”
Wagner became the 10th number retired by the Astros, joining Jim Umbricht (No. 32), Don Wilson (No. 40), Jose Cruz (No. 25), Mike Scott (No. 33), Nolan Ryan (No. 34), Larry Dierker (No. 49), Jimmy Wynn (No. 24), Jeff Bagwell (No. 5) and Craig Biggio (No. 7).
Wagner was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27, joining Bagwell and Biggio as the only members of the Hall of Fame to have an Astros cap on their plaques. He’s the ninth reliever elected to the Hall of Fame, joining Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley, Hoyt Wilhelm, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter.
Wagner’s Hall of Fame plaque made the trip from Cooperstown, N.Y., for the ceremony.
“It’s still hard to look at myself in that fashion, especially when you see the guys in the Hall that have accomplished so much and I’ve looked up to,” Wagner said. “I don’t know if that will ever hit me. It’s neat to sign my name and put ‘HOF’ on it, but it’s definitely been different. I still haven’t let it sink in and I don’t know if it ever will.”
Several of Wagner’s teammates were at the ceremony, including Biggio and Bagwell, who sat with him on the stage. Lance Berkman was also on the field among a group of players who are in the Astros Hall of Fame.
Dierker — who pitched for the Astros in the 1960s and ‘70s, then later managed Bagwell, Biggio and Wagner, winning four division titles in five seasons (1997-99, 2001) — said getting your number retired is the ultimate honor — short of getting to Cooperstown.
“The way that we won when I was managing with three guys who ended up in the Hall of Fame and a lot of other good players, it makes you realize that the manager can only influence so much,” Dierker said. “You have to have talent, and obviously Billy Wagner, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio had more than enough talent.”
