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Here is a portion of a February 25, 1998 article from the Houston Chronicle's Dale Robertson.
It was in response to the tornadoes that rolled through central Florida during Astros spring training in 1999.
Across the street from the Astros facilities several folks lost their lives. Several of the homes rented by Astros players were also damaged.
Robinson's article discussed Biggio's well founded fear of lightning. Here's the excerpt:
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For Biggio , this wasn't an especially close call. Where he's staying was some eight miles from the nearest swath of deadly destruction. Still, there were fellow Astros who themselves had cheated death in their battered neighborhood.
And the thunder did wake him - to a pyrotechnical spectacular that had erupted in what was supposed to be a pitch-dark night sky. It chilled him to the bone. Again.
"I used to be really afraid of lightning ," he said. "I thought I was over it, but I guess I'm not."
He is afraid of lightning because of what happened on an American Legion baseball field a long time ago.
He was bound for college at Seton Hall - and eventually, of course, stardom in the major leagues - when he went to second base that hazy summer afternoon. Although lightning could be seen on the New Jersey horizon, nobody paid it much mind.
"I mean, who gets hit by lightning , right?" Biggio said.
That day, his team's shortstop did. A bolt literally out of the blue above struck the youngster directly in the chest.
One second, they were waiting for the hitter to step into the batter's box; the next, Biggio was curled up in the fetal position in the infield dirt, out cold.
For a conscious moment, he had experienced a strange burning sensation in the back of his legs and upper body, then he went down. He came to quickly enough, however, to see the shortstop sprawled not 20 feet from him, his uniform in tatters and the sock on one ankle in flames.
Emergency assistance came quickly. It didn't matter. The kid - a nephew or a cousin of Manny Mota, as Biggio recalls - never stood a chance.
"I went to the hospital," Biggio said, "not because I was hurt myself but to see if he was going to make it. We didn't think he would, and he didn't. "I haven't handled lightning very well since."
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P-Sz
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