NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 11, 2004

Jeff Bagwell

Craig Biggio

CRAIG BIGGIO: Once again, we're both kind of devastated about it and feel terrible. It's something that we played with this guy for a long time - eight, nine years. My wife and his wife are best friends, we know their kids. It's tough. It's a tough thing. I guess the best thing we can do today for him is just go out there and play well.

JEFF BAGWELL: I mean, obviously, we're both - and everybody that's been associated with Ken and his family - are devastated. This is obviously awful news. I mean, things go bad for people and all that kind of stuff. It just shows you that all this stuff, we're sitting right here, it's great, it's a great game, the game has brought us all together, but it goes far beyond that. To lose another friend and somebody like him, it's tough on all of us.

JEFF BAGWELL: Probably for -- I guess he had a heart attack to die, and that's where it starts, his heart. One of the biggest attributes Ken had is his heart. One of the nicest guys, would go out of his way for you no matter what the situation was. Kenny was just a great person. That's how I'm going to remember Ken. How our relationship developed, and all the great things that he's meant to my life, I think if you start with his heart and how great a person he was, that's a good way to remember him.

CRAIG BIGGIO: He's just - I don't know - there's two different people, the way I view people in the world; there's givers and takers. To me, he was a giver. You looked at him, he looked mean, he played the game mean. Off the field he was a teddy bear even though he had that fu-manchu, looked like a big, nasty guy. If you needed a dollar and he had a dollar in his pocket, that was the last dollar he was ever going to make, he'd give it to you and not ask for it back. He had the ultimate respect from his friends, his teammates. He loved his girls, his family. I just think he was probably the greatest third baseman that I ever played with or against. He should be remembered for all the things that he's done on the field. Yeah, he's had some misfortunes the last couple years, but he needs to be remembered for all the charity work he did in Houston and San Diego, all the great things he did out there, brought a championship out there. He, to me, is kind of like Baggy, a constant professional.

CRAIG BIGGIO: You know, we've both done a lot of things, there's a lot of people. Camy had -- I think one thing that he didn't understand really is how many people out there loved him. There's a lot of people that wanted to help him and tried to help him. It's a bad disease. It's a tough thing. I think there's a lot of people that tried to help him.

JEFF BAGWELL: I think, as Craig said, there's a lot of people that have tried to help Camy. But that's a beaten path, it doesn't really even need to be gone down that much anymore. It's a constant battle, from what I've heard from people that have had to go through that, and there's nothing that probably any one of us in this room could have imagined. So as a friend, you can only do as much as you can. But, you know, it's really not about us helping him and all those kind of things. It's kind of a moot point at this moment. But as Craig said, we all loved him very much and he loved us back. It's just a sad day.

CRAIG BIGGIO: I guess the only way we can look at it is the way he would look at it, the best thing we could do right now is go out and win. That would be the most gratifying thing for him and D.K. (Darryl Kile)

JEFF BAGWELL: Found out about it around 11 o'clock, somewhere around there.

CRAIG BIGGIO: 11, 11:30.

JEFF BAGWELL: I don't know. This has obviously been a big shock to both of us. Kind of different circumstances, but the same result. Not one is bigger than the other, obviously. But I think, as Craig talked about earlier, Camy would want us to go out and play as hard as he would be out there playing. I think that's our greatest thing that we can honor him. They're a little different circumstances at the time but, as I said, the same results. I think we're just going to -- I think both of us are still in shock. We went around our clubhouse and guys that have known Ken I think were all in shock. But I think as I just said, I just think if we can go and bust our butts as hard as we can and try and win, that would be as good a tribute at this particular moment that we can.

CRAIG BIGGIO: My sentiments are the same. It's just something that, I mean, we got three or four hours until we play a game. We'll take their strength that they had and passion that they had for the game, and knowing what they would want us to do, and that's going out there and giving it everything we've got. Hopefully, having a good day.

CRAIG BIGGIO: You know, like I said earlier, my wife and his wife are kind of best friends. I got a lot of information through my wife through his wife. I mean, just Camy is, you know, he was just a special person, he was a special guy. It was something that -- I'll give you a quick little story. He got me back into hunting about ten years ago, asked me to go in on a piece of property with him. I ended up -- I did. I went down, said I was going to go check it out, went down and checked it out. I said, "Yeah, I'm in there with you." Came up with the name of "Cambo." Bought a ranch that year and named it for Caminiti and Biggio. I bought a place this year and asked my kids what they wanted to do, they said they wanted to keep the same name. He's affected my kids, my family, he's done that to a lot of people.

JEFF BAGWELL: I really haven't talked to Camy that much in the last couple of years. It's been difficult. Obviously, he's been through a lot of different things in the last couple of years. It's not as easy to keep contact. But special friends, it's not always -- you don't always have to be in contact every second of every single day. People have different relationships and different ways with different people that you know. But our friendship has never wavered.