HOUSTON – HBU head baseball coach Lance Berkman was inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame in a ceremony preceding Houston’s game against the Minnesota Twins Saturday at Minute Maid Park.
The inaugural Astros Hall of Fame class was inducted in 2019 and Berkman was to be inducted in 2020, but festivities were postponed to this year. He is joined by Cesar Cedeno, Roy Hofheinz, Roy Oswalt, Billy Wagner and Bob Watson.
Berkman played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, 12 with the Astros, two with the St. Louis Cardinals and one each with the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. He was a career .293 hitter with 366 home runs, 422 doubles, 30 triples, 1,234 RBIs and 1,146 runs, who made the All-Star Game six times. Berkman was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year and won the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011.
The 1997 NCBWA National Collegiate Player of the Year at Rice, Berkman hit .431 with 41 home runs, 134 RBIs and 109 runs to lead the Owls to their first College World Series appearance. He hit .385 for his collegiate career with 67 homers and 272 RBIs to earn All-America honors twice, was elected to the Rice Hall of Fame in 2005 and the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. Berkman was selected in the first round with the 16th overall pick by the Astros in the 1997 draft.
Berkman was named the fifth head coach in HBU baseball history on May 31, 2021, and will begin his first season at the helm of the Huskies in February 2022. He also announced his first recruiting class on Monday.