HOUSTON -- The World Series was by far the most intense experience any Houston Astro endured all season. But for Jeff Bagwell, his personal uphill climb began two days after the last out, and this winter, he's worked harder than in any of his 15 years in baseball.

Bagwell has no idea how this whole thing will play out. He feels good about where he is and where he thinks he's headed, but for now, all he can do is work. And wait. And hope.

It's been six months since he underwent unconventional surgery that may or may not allow for him to finish his career on his own terms. The capsular release procedure alleviated the gnawing pain he's suffered through for the better part of three years, and now it's up to him to build his strength to the point where he can do two things: throw the ball 90 feet across the diamond, and keep the shoulder healthy enough that throwing doesn't hamper his hitting.

Bagwell goes to Minute Maid Park every day, where his workouts are simply a warmup for the intense rehab sessions he endures later in the afternoon. He's a man on a mission, working against the clock and attempting to prove to himself, the club and the fans that he can help his team in the final year of his contract.

Other than clubhouse attendants and the athletic trainers who oversee his workouts, Bagwell is alone most days. He has to himself the spacious weight room, where he maintains a steady routine: throw a weighted ball against a net 40 to 45 times, every other day, and lift free weights for as long as he can endure.

He's getting stronger. Better yet, he's moving forward, not back, as he has many times in the past years when he's pushed himself too hard.

"Over the years, my strength has gone down and down and down," said Bagwell. "But my strength now is starting to rise a little bit. It's never going to be to where it was, but it is getting better. I'm not getting weaker, which is a positive for me."

From glory days to tough times
Sure, Bagwell would love to be what he was in the late 1990s, when he was among the game's elite sluggers and carried the team to the playoffs on his once-monstrous shoulders.

But a small tear in his labrum, discovered in 2001, turned into a far worse condition -- a degenerative, arthritic right shoulder that disintegrated to the point where there was nothing but bone on bone.

He played through the injury until 2005, when the shoulder was so bad that it made it impossible for him to move, let alone hit, or throw.

"Any time you're hurt, everything kind of shuts down around it, because it's trying to protect it," he said. "So if my shoulder starts to irritate itself, then it starts to shut down and then it gets weak, and I get hurt. For three years, I was able to throw and hit and it never bothered me. Last year, it affected my hitting. Throwing was unbelievable. I just couldn't do it."

Bagwell believes those days are behind him, and so far, so good. He's put on a few pounds of muscle, which isn't as important to him as how he feels after he throws that weighted ball.

"In the past, after 10 throws, it would get weak and hurt like heck," he said. "Now it seems to get better the more I throw."

Happy new year...let's play catch
Bagwell will have some answers in January, when he starts throwing a real baseball and hitting in the cage. He'll know even more in February, when he steps onto the field for the first time in Kissimmee, Fla., to begin Spring Training.

His goal? Simple.

Jeff Bagwell  /   1B
		Born: 05/27/68 Height: 6'0" Weight: 215 lbs Bats: R / Throws: R More info: Player page Stats | Splits Gallery Team Site | Shop

"To be able to play every day," he said. "Hopefully, I'll be ready this time where I won't have to baby myself in Spring Training. We might do it a little bit, but I need to be able to prove to myself and to everybody that I can [play]."

He's not worried about his hitting. He was pleased with his swings when he made his premature comeback in September, and he has no qualms about his at-bats in the World Series. The most important element of hitting is bat speed, and he proved he's still got it.

But can he throw? Stay tuned.

Added ammo
Bagwell isn't immune to the fan criticism that began long ago and has built steam with each passing season. He's heard the grumblings about his contract. He's aware of the accusation that his lucrative deal is preventing the club from building a competitive team. He knows there are some who want him to walk away, now.

And it just gives him that much more determination to prove that he's not done.

"No question about it, I do believe sometimes you can stay too long," he said. Chuckling, he added, "And I think people are tired of me at times. I know the vast majority are not."

If he was making a couple million, would there be controversy? Probably not. But he's due $17 million in 2006, and with money comes responsibility. No one has carried the burden more than Bagwell.

Never mind that he's deferred money for most of the past 12 years so the club can sign impact players. Or that he backloaded the deal so the team wasn't weighted down in the early going.

He senses that the organization would prefer for him to go away, and he could have done that long ago, with an extended trip to the disabled list, and still have been paid. But that's not who he is.

"I tried to honor my contract because I didn't feel right sitting at home," he said. "That bothers me, that people would be down on me because of that. It's so easy to sit down. I tried to at least honor it somehow.

"It's easy to look at it and say, 'Get him out of here, he's killing us.' The one thing I have that makes me keep going is I know how those 24 [teammates] in there feel about me. And what they want from me. And that's what keeps me going.

"I want to honor what I signed," he added with a smile. "And then I'll go away. I promise."

Happy ending?
Interestingly, unlike many superstar players, all Bagwell ever wanted was to simply play out his contract and ride off into the sunset. When he signed this deal in 2000, he knew it would be his last. No hanging on for the sake of hanging on.

The end is quickly approaching, and he'd like to go out the way he came in -- on top of his game.

The World Series was an emotional time for Bagwell. Without question, he was beside himself the night the Astros won the pennant. But he also felt somewhat out of place, having been so limited in what he could contribute.

The shot of Bagwell and Biggio hugging in the dugout when the final out in St. Louis was caught was touching. But it was also poignant -- the two most prolific players in franchise history were not on the field for that historic moment.

Biggio's absence was a defensive strategy. Bagwell's was health-related, as was the case all year. He'd like that to change in 2006.

"The playoff run was fun, but it was still very weird for me," he said. "Being a part of this whole thing for so long, and not to be in the center of everything ... it was weird. It was fun, I enjoyed it and I was proud as heck of the kids. It was a heck of a run. But it was different for me."

Bagwell has written the storybook ending in his head. The next step is to make it a reality, one a lot less painful than what he's gone through the last three years.

"I didn't mean to get hurt," he said. "Nobody has suffered more from this than me. I just want to finish it the way I want to finish it -- working hard this offseason to try to get that to happen. If it doesn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be. But if it does, that's the way I want to end it."