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 t

See Full Page