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Jeff Bagwell

Jeffrey Robert Bagwell (born May 27, 1968) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Houston Astros.

Originally a Boston Red Sox fourth-round selection from the University of Hartford in the 1989 amateur draft, Bagwell was traded to the Astros in 1990. Bagwell was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year in 1991 and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 1994. Bagwell and longtime Astros second baseman Craig Biggio and teammate Lance Berkman were known as the "Killer B's", and the team experienced consistent success during their careers; Houston finished in first or second place in the NL Central division in eleven of twelve seasons from 1994 to 2005. During that period, the Astros qualified for the playoffs six times, culminating in Bagwell's lone World Series appearance in 2005.

Bagwell hit 449 home runs for the Astros, the most in club history, and set numerous other franchise career and single-season records. He is a four-time MLB All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger winner and a Gold Glove recipient. The only player in MLB history to have six consecutive seasons (1996–2001) with thirty home runs, 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, and 100 walks, Bagwell is one of twelve players in history to hit 400 home runs and record an on-base percentage (OBP) of .400. He is the only first baseman with at least 400 home runs and 200 stolen bases. Overall, Bagwell batted over .300 six times, had a career OBP of .408 (39th all time), and had a slugging percentage of .540 (32nd all time). He was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, and to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Early life
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, as the only son of Janice (née Hare) and Robert Bagwell, Jeff Bagwell and his family moved to Killingworth, Connecticut, when he was one year old. Much of Bagwell's family is from the Greater Boston area, including both his parents, and are avid fans of the Boston Red Sox. His favorite baseball player, Carl Yastrzemski, was a longtime left fielder for the Red Sox. Robert, from Watertown, pitched college baseball at Northeastern University and as a semi-professional. Janice, a police officer, grew up in Newton and played softball in local Boston leagues until her 20s. Bagwell's parents divorced when he was 11. Precocious and demonstrating much athletic ability early in life, he played a wide variety of sports as a youth. Recalled Janice, Jeff "could throw a ball before he could walk. When he was six months old, we’d throw a ball to him and he would throw it back."

Bagwell graduated from Xavier High School, a private all-male Catholic school located in Middletown, Connecticut. A versatile athlete, he excelled at soccer, setting the school goal-scoring mark, played shortstop, and lettered in basketball. In early 1989, Bagwell was honored by Xavier for his character and generosity. He also excelled in American Legion Baseball under coach Fred Tremalgia for Post 75 in Middletown and went on to be named the 2003 American Legion Baseball Graduate of the Year.

College career
Bill Denehy, head coach of the University of Hartford, offered Bagwell a scholarship in spite of baseball not being his primary sport. Bagwell's acceptance of Hartford's baseball scholarship was based at least in part on the lack of a professional soccer league in the United States at the time. At Hartford, Denehy switched Bagwell to third base. Over three seasons playing for Hartford, he batted .413 in 400 at bats, a school record, and, for a time, a New England collegiate record. He also was the school's career home run (31) and run batted in (126) leader when he was drafted, and a two-time Eastern College Athletic Conference player of the year. In 1987 and 1988, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and in 1988 was named the starting third baseman for the East Division in the league's annual all-star game.

Draft and minor leagues
The Red Sox selected Jeff Bagwell in the fourth round of the 1989 Major League Baseball draft. Throughout his career, Barry Axelrod served as his agent. For his first professional assignment, the Red Sox appointed Bagwell to the Winter Haven Red Sox of the Florida State League in 1989, where he batted .310 with two home runs. In 1990, while playing for the AA New Britain Red Sox, Bagwell won the Eastern League Most Valuable Player Award. In 136 games with New Britain, he batted .333 with 160 hits, four home runs (HR), 61 runs batted in (RBI), 34 doubles, seven triples, 73 bases on balls (BB or walks), 57 strikeouts (SO), .422 on-base percentage (OBP), .457 slugging percentage (SLG) and .880 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). He finished first in the league in hits and doubles, second in batting, OBP and OPS, fourth in walks, fifth in SLG, ninth in runs scored and tenth in RBI.

Late in the 1990 season, the Red Sox, who were in search of relief pitching to improve their chances of making the playoffs, contacted the Houston Astros about Larry Andersen. Stan Benjamin, who scouted the New England region for the Astros, recommended that they ask for Bagwell in return. The Astros initially hesitated owing to his sparse home run production, but Benjamin persuaded them, quipping that New Britain's Beehive Field was so large that "Babe Ruth couldn’t hit home runs in that ballpark." On August 30, 1990, the Red Sox took the Astros' offer. The trade is now considered one of the most one-sided trades in baseball history; in 2001, ESPN's readers named it the second-worst trade in sports history, behind only the Red Sox trading Ruth to the New York Yankees. Although Andersen pitched well down the stretch in 1990 — he allowed three runs in 22 innings — to help the Red Sox secure the American League East division title on the final day of the season, the Oakland Athletics swept them out of the American League Championship Series (ALCS). They then lost Andersen after the season when he was declared a "new-look" free agent due to the third collusion settlement.

According to the Red Sox' then-general manager, Lou Gorman, the trade made sense at the time. Gorman spent the ensuing years defending the decision-making process that led up to the Bagwell trade. In his 2005 autobiography, One Pitch from Glory, Gorman noted that Boston already had Wade Boggs at the major league level at third base, and had rated prospects Tim Naehring and Scott Cooper higher than Bagwell on the organization's depth chart. Bagwell had seen some time in the minors at first base, but he was blocked from that position by Mo Vaughn. Gorman pursued Andersen only after receiving assurances from MLB's player relations committee that Andersen would not be lost to the new-look free agency. Nevertheless, it is considered one of the most one-sided trades in baseball history. Not only did the Red Sox lose Andersen to free agency after one month, but neither Naehring nor Cooper played in MLB past 1997. The disproportionate results of the trade notwithstanding, Bagwell eventually became acquainted with Andersen and they formed a friendship. "I knew LA and I love him," Bagwell asserted. "He used to make fun of me when I was playing bad. He said, 'you’re making me look bad, you have to step it up.' Look up his numbers. He was pretty good at what he did."

Houston Astros
In spite of the unexpected detour early in Bagwell's professional baseball career, he blossomed in Houston, becoming one of the most accomplished players in Astros franchise history. He spent his entire major league career in a Houston uniform and, along with teammate Craig Biggio in their 15 seasons playing together, were a prodigious offensive and defensive unit known as the "Killer B's", synonymous with the Astros throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. During their 10 peak seasons from 1994 to 2003, they appeared in nine All-Star Games, won five Gold Gloves, ranked in the top five of the Most Valuable Player Award voting five times and averaged 226 runs scored. They totaled 689 home runs, 2,485 RBI and 3,083 runs scored while the Astros advanced to the postseason six times.

With an exaggerated and unusual batting style, Bagwell waited for each pitch in a low crouch, with legs wide open and knees bent nearly 90 degrees, appearing as if he was sitting on an invisible bench. He stepped back with his front foot as he began his swing. Next, he would rise from his stance and rotate his hands with the bat forward into his powerful, uppercut swing. "That wide stance keeps him from over striding", Joe Torre observed, "which can be your biggest problem when you’re trying to hit for power." The low crouch also shrunk his strike zone, allowing him to walk more often. Standing 6 feet tall (72 in) and weighing 195 lb, he did not present the image of an imposing, home run-hitting giant that would cause pitchers to be very careful when he batted after he began his major league career.

Rookie of the Year Award and early career (1991–1993)
The Astros invited Bagwell to major league camp in spring training of 1991. Bagwell, expecting for the club to assign him to their AAA affiliate Tucson, enthused them with his play. Because they, too, already had an established major leaguer at third base in Ken Caminiti, they approached Bagwell about shifting to first base, which he accepted. Having not previously played the position as a regular, Bagwell received a crash course, playing minor league games in the morning and Astros games in the afternoon until Opening Day. Observed The Sporting News: "Rookie Jeff Bagwell never played first base before this spring, but the position is his to lose. It's up to his bat." Thus, Bagwell made the major league club without an assignment to AAA, making the uncommon jump from AA to the major leagues, and made his major league debut on Opening Day. On May 6, he hit the ninth-ever upper-deck home run at Three Rivers Stadium off Bob Kipper in a seventh-inning pinch hit appearance, estimated at 456 ft. Bagwell hit .350 in September. He finished the year hitting .294 with 15 home runs and 82 RBI while leading the Astros in several offensive categories. He was named the 1991 National League (NL) Rookie of the Year, the first Astros player to win the award, Baseball America's Rookie of the Year, The Sporting News Rookie of the Year and postseason All-Star and on the Topps' Rookie All-Star Team.

Bagwell's power hike piqued the curiosity of many baseball observers. In two minor league seasons from 1989 to 1990, he had managed six home runs in 932 at bats–a ratio of 155 at bats per home run (AB/HR). With 15 home runs in his first year in Houston, that average shrunk to 36.9. He also exhibited extraordinary plate discipline for a rookie: while ranking tenth in the league in walks with 75, his OBP placed fifth at .387. Of the power surge, commented Bagwell to hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, "That's awesome", to which he reacted, "Awesome? We can get more out of you than that." By altering an approach to contact the pitch with topspin as he did when he arriving to Houston, Jaramillo taught Bagwell to hit with backspin, resulting in a soaring trajectory rather than nose diving. He also habituated Bagwell to manipulate the count, waiting for a pitch to drive instead of indiscriminately swinging at any pitch that appeared to be a strike. Accounted Bagwell of the newfound advantage, "I didn’t hit many home runs in the minor leagues, but when I hit one, when I got backspin on it, it went a long way."

Although firmly established as the Astros' first baseman from Opening Day in 1991, Bagwell remarked years later that transitioning from third base was not automatic. First basemen approach fielding plays from their right side, which is opposite to playing third base. He recounted one conversation that occurred during an Astros pitching change in a game against St. Louis. Shortstop Ozzie Smith was on first and asked Bagwell, "How's it going?" Bagwell responded, "I'm really struggling with my backhand." Smith replied, "Well, here's what you do. You can't field the ball deep. You have to get out in front of it." Remarked Bagwell, "I was basically being given a lesson from Ozzie Smith at first base during a pitching change. It's pretty cool."

The next year, Bagwell hit .273, driving in 96 runs with 18 home runs. In 1993, the Astros improved to a third-place finish in the National League West division, and in mid-September, Bagwell was batting .320 with 20 home runs and 88 RBI. However, a pitch from the Philadelphia Phillies' Ben Rivera broke the fourth metacarpal bone in Bagwell's left hand, ending his season prematurely. It was the first of three successive seasons that ended early or was interrupted due to an incoming pitch breaking the same bone in that hand. His tendency to dip just before starting to swing made his hand more vulnerable to being hit by inside pitches. His .320 average was sixth in the NL. In February 1994, Bagwell and the Astros agreed to a one-year contract with a $2.4 million base salary (USD, $0 million today).

Unanimous selection for Most Valuable Player Award (1994)
The most productive season in Bagwell's professional career was the strike-shortened 1994 season which set several franchise records. On Opening Day, April 4, against the Montreal Expos, Bagwell hit the game-tying home run while going 3-for-6 as the Astros won in a 12-inning walk-off. For the month of April, he batted .360 with six home runs and added another six home runs in May. In June, he hit 13 home runs, establishing an Astros' franchise record for one month, while batting .394, 11 doubles, .455 OBP, .899 SLG, and 1.354 OPS. On June 24, he hit three home runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Astrodome — two in the same inning — in a 16–4 rout, becoming the first Astro since Glenn Davis in 1990 to do so. He was the NL Player of the Week for consecutive weeks on June 19 and June 26 and the NL Player of the Month for June, his second career monthly award.

Selected to his first All-Star Game as a reserve, Bagwell had tied Kirby Puckett for the major league RBI lead at 81 going into the All-Star break, and batted .348 with 27 home runs and 74 runs scored. In the All-Star Game, Bagwell entered as a pinch hitter for starting pitcher Greg Maddux, singling off David Cone, and wound up collecting two hits in four at bats. The first player in the majors to reach 100 RBI on July 27, Bagwell homered off José Rijo in a 6–5 win over Cincinnati to give him 101 RBI in his first 101 games. In July, he tied a club record for RBI in any month with 29, which José Cruz and Jimmy Wynn shared. and hit .409 with 11 home runs, 20 walks and 1.384 OPS and collected his second consecutive Player of the Month award. He would hit another three home runs with six walks in nine August games before a pitch from Andy Benes fractured his left hand on August 10 and ended his season in the same manner the season before. Entering that game, Bagwell carried an 18-game hitting streak. Two days later, the strike ended the season for all the major leagues. His production accelerated in 26 games after the All-Star break, batting .432, .530 OBP, .916 SLG, 1.446 OPS, 10 doubles, 12 home runs, 34 RBI and 30 runs scored. The Astros finished one-half game out of first place in the inaugural season of the National League Central division, a product of MLB's division realignment.

Bagwell played in 110 games in the 1994 season, batting .368 with a .750 SLG, 1.201 OPS, 39 home runs, 116 RBI, 104 runs scored, 300 total bases and 213 adjusted OPS (OPS+) in 400 at bats. He led the major leagues in SLG, OPS+, RBI, and total bases, and the NL in runs scored and OPS, but fell short of winning the batting Triple Crown, finishing second for the batting title to Tony Gwynn, who, after batting .394, had the highest average in the major leagues since Ted Williams in 1941. Bagwell finished second in home runs to Matt Williams, who hit 43. Bagwell set the record for the fewest plate appearances in a season reaching 100 of both runs scored and runs driven in and became the first National Leaguer to finish first or second in batting average, home runs, RBI, and runs scored since Willie Mays in 1955. His .750 SLG at the time ranked as the seventh-best ever and was the highest by a National Leaguer since Rogers Hornsby in 1925 (.756). Further, at the time in National League history, the 213 OPS+ trailed only Hornsby's 1924 season (222 OPS+) for the second-highest ever. The 116 RBI in 110 games qualified for the 13th-highest ratio in history. He also hit 23 home runs in 56 games at the Astrodome, setting a record that stood for the stadium that was famed to be pitcher-friendly until the Astros moved out following the 1999 season. He set single-season club records for batting average, SLG, OPS, OPS+, AB/HR, and offensive win percentage (.858), and also for home runs, breaking Wynn's 27-year-old record, and RBI, breaking Bob Watson's record he had set 17 years earlier — later which he again both subsequently broke.

The unanimous winner of the NL Most Valuable Player Award, he became the fourth player in National League history to win by this distinction, and the first Astros player to win the award. Bagwell also won his first Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, and Player of the Year Awards from The Sporting News, Associated Press, Baseball Digest, and USA Today Baseball Weekly. "Crazy stuff happened that year", Bagwell recalled of his 1994 season. "Every pitch that I was looking for, I got. And when I got it, I didn't miss it." The Astros and Bagwell agreed to a four-year contract on November 23, 1994, worth $27.5 million (USD, $0 million today) with the three option years. The average annual value of $6.875 million ($0 million today) made him the fifth-highest paid player in the majors.

Continued peak (1995–96)
The 1995 season was shortened by 18 games due to the players' strike that commenced the year before. Bagwell endured a slump through the month of May in which he batted .183. In June, his results started to improve as he batted .339 and followed up in July by driving in 31 runs. Both Bagwell and Derek Bell — included as a "Killer B" — registered 31 RBI that month, breaking the monthly club RBI record. Bagwell had tied the previous record one year earlier to the month. He hit his first two career home runs against Maddux of the Atlanta Braves within a week — on May 28 and June 3 — who ceded eight over the entire season. On July 28 against the Colorado Rockies, Bagwell's 10th-inning home run tied the score and two innings later he scored the winning run for a 5–4 final score.

For the third time in three seasons, an incoming pitch broke a bone in Bagwell's left hand: on this occasion, it was on July 30 from the Padres' Brian Williams. Rather than change his successful style, Bagwell resorted to wearing a heavily padded protective batting glove. He returned in September to bat .313 with five home runs and 21 RBI as Houston finished one game behind the Rockies for the NL wild card. Bagwell missed a total of 30 games, appearing in 114 and batted .290 with 21 home runs. He won the 1995 ESPY Awards for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Outstanding Baseball Performer (later renamed "Best Major League Baseball Player"). After the season, he commenced a rigorous training program that enabled him to gain 20 pounds and increased his endurance for the long season. Activities of focus included concentrated weight lifting, change of diet, and the use of creatine and androstenedione.

By the start of the 1996 season, Bagwell and Biggio had gained seniority — even if not necessarily by age — within the Astros clubhouse as well as status as superstars. According to journalist Dayn Perry, the earliest recorded reference to an Astros version of the nickname "Killer B's" encountered via a Google Search occurred that year. Bagwell enforced accountability and preparation which fostered camaraderie and incorporated all players as instrumental to the success of the team. Thus, the Astros raised their level of play, and a new string of playoff appearances followed. In time, all who entered the Astros gym were greeted with a banner that read: "Bagwell's Gym. Work Hard. Play Hard. Or Leave."

On May 7 against Philadelphia, Bagwell reached the 500th RBI of his career with two home runs and four RBI. By hitting his second upper-deck home run at Three Rivers Stadium on May 29 — it travelled 459 ft — Bagwell joined longtime Pirate Willie Stargell as the only players to homer twice into the stadium's upper deck. For the month of May, he batted .360 with .740 SLG, 10 home runs, 31 RBI, 22 runs scored, and four stolen bases. He was named NL Player of the Month, his fourth career monthly award. On June 14, Bagwell tied a major league record with four doubles in one game against San Francisco. He played all 162 games that year, batting .315 with a 1.021 OPS, 31 home runs, 120 RBIs, 111 runs scored, and 135 walks. With 21 successful stolen bases in 28 attempts, it was his first season in the 20–20 club, that is, to steal 20 bases while hitting 20 home runs in the same season. Bagwell reached base 324 total times and in all but 11 games. He led the NL in doubles with 48 while earning his second All-Star selection and finishing ninth in the MVP voting.

Rumors had surfaced during the 1996 season that manager Terry Collins did not get along well with Bagwell and Biggio, largely contributing to his dismissal. The Astros hired team color commentator Larry Dierker after the season to replace him. According to his autobiography, This Ain't Brain Surgery, Dierker was asked during the interview how he would handle the players. His response: "'Look, I'm tired of this Bagwell and Biggio s---,' I said. 'Bagwell and Biggio will not be a problem, believe me.' I now believe that this statement is the one that got me the job." The Astros won division titles in four of five seasons with Dierker as manager; however, in each instance, they did not advance past the first round of the playoffs, and 2001 was Dierker's last season as the club's manager.

First two playoff appearances (1997–98)
The 1,000th hit of Bagwell's career was a home run on May 20, 1997, off Calvin Maduro, one of his two that game, in a 9–5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He was selected to the play in the All-Star Game. Exhibiting above-average speed and baserunning skills for a first baseman, Bagwell became the first full-time first baseman to join the 30–30 club, capping the 1997 season with 31 steals in 41 attempts. The only other first baseman to accomplish the 30–30 club is Joe Carter. Bagwell batted .286 and scored 109 runs. He finished second in the league with both 43 home runs and 135 RBI — the RBI total was a career high — and was third in the MVP balloting. He made the playoffs for the first time in 1997 when the Astros won the National League Central division, the club's first appearance in 11 years. The Astros faced the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series (NLDS), who swept them in three games. Bagwell, Biggio and Bell combined for two hits in 37 at bats.

In 1998, Bagwell informed a Houston Chronicle reporter that he was using androstenedione (commonly referred to as "andro"), which at the time the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified it as a nutritional dietary supplement, finding it benign and authorized for non-medicinal purposes. It was considered a "weak" androgen steroid hormone and allegedly in widespread use around the sport at the time. Bagwell hit his first career grand slam while tying a career-high six RBI against Cincinnati on September 8 in a 13–7 victory. It was his 218th career home run, making his streak the then-longest among active players without a grand slam.

Bagwell finished the 1998 season batting .304 with 34 home runs, 111 RBI, 124 runs scored, 19 stolen bases, 109 walks, .424 OBP, .557 SLG, .981 OPS. He ranked third in the league in runs scored and walks, fifth in OPS+, sixth in OBP, and eighth in OPS. The Astros won a franchise-best 102 games while winning the NL Central division title, leading the league in runs scored. Their season ended by defeat to the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, including losing two starts against Kevin Brown — both by a 2–1 score. Bagwell, Bell, and Biggio combined for six hits in 51 at bats in this series.

MVP runner-up and second player with multiple 40–30 seasons (1999)
The high school which ruminated Bagwell, Xavier, officially retired his uniform number 9 in a commemoration on January 30, 1999. As the "Killer B's" brand gained increased national attention, journalist Dayn Perry jocosely noted that in 1999 the Astros, "in pursuit of arcane history, used eight players whose last names began with 'B'", including Bagwell, Paul Bako, Glen Barker, Bell, Sean Bergman, Lance Berkman, Biggio, and Tim Bogar. On April 21, Bagwell hit three home runs in a 10–3 win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, his second career three-home run game. The second home run allowed him to overtake Wynn as the Astros' all-time home run leader at 224 and he tied a career-high with six RBI in one game. Bagwell produced another three-home run game on June 9 against the Chicago White Sox that was a grand slam short of the "home run cycle", accounted with a solo home run, a three-run home run, and a two-run home run, respectively. The two three-home run games made him the only player to accomplish this feat at two different stadiums in Chicago in the same season.

Nominated to his fourth career All-Star Game, Bagwell to that point in the season had scored or driven in 28.6% of the Astros' runs, the highest portion of a team's offense for which any one player in MLB accounted. He was stationed first in the NL in walks (83), runs scored (81) and OBP (.464), second in home runs (28), RBI (78) and SLG (.648) and stole 17 bases while Houston tenanted percentage points behind Cincinnati for first in the division. On August 20, 1999, he walked a major-league record six times in a 16-inning battle against the Florida Marlins. Bagwell's aggregate output in 1999 included leading the major leagues in runs scored (143), bases on balls (149), and games played (162). He also batted .304, hit 42 home runs, 126 RBI, and .591 SLG and stole 30 bases, giving him his second 30–30 season. Further, he paired with Barry Bonds as the only major leaguers to obtain the 40–30 mark (40 home runs and 30 stolen bases) twice. The Astros engulfed the Reds to clinch the NL Central division title in 1999, their third consecutive. They faced Atlanta in an NLDS rematch of two years prior but were defeated in four games. The NL MVP balloting materialized with Bagwell scaled second to the Braves' Chipper Jones. Bagwell was honored with the third Silver Slugger Award of his career.

National League runs scored record (2000)
In a presentation of rankings of active major leaguers prior to the 2000 season, Sports Illustrated slotted Bagwell second among position players behind Ken Griffey Jr., and The Sporting News placed him sixth among all players, including pitchers. Bagwell christened the team's 2000 move to Enron Field (later renamed Minute Maid Park) with the stadium's first-ever hit and first two runs driven in, in a 6–5 exhibition victory over the New York Yankees on March 30. His two-run, ninth-inning home run against Trevor Hoffman in San Diego on June 10 won the contest for Houston, 7–6, and stopped a 10-game road losing streak. On August 14 in Philadelphia, he homered twice and tied a club record with seven RBI in a 14–7 win, shared by Rafael Ramírez and Pete Incaviglia. Five days later against Milwaukee, Bagwell again homered twice for the 299th and 300th of his career; the second home run broke an eighth-inning tie to give Houston a 10–8 win. He joined Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Robinson and Ted Williams as the fifth player in major league history to record 300 home runs, 1,000 RBI and 1,000 runs scored in his first ten seasons.

Bagwell finished the 2000 season with a career-high 47 home runs, .310 average, .424 OBP, .615 SLG — the second-best mark of his career — for a 152 OPS+. His 152 runs scored was the highest total in a season since Lou Gehrig in 1936, and his 295 runs scored from 1999 to 2000 set a National League two-season record. His pair of cleats from the 2000 season were turned in for display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The following December, Bagwell and the Astros agreed to a five-year, $85 million (USD, $0 million today) contract extension. With an average annual value of $17 million, he became the third-highest paid player in the sport at the time. By 2005, he was the seventh-highest paid player in the sport, receiving $18 million in the fourth year of the deal.

Sixth consecutive season of 30 HR, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored and 100 BB (2001)
With a triple on May 7, 2001, against Chicago, Bagwell achieved the 700th extra base hit of his career. For the second time in his career, he reached seven RBI in a game — again tying a club record — at Kansas City on July 7. Over four successive games from July 8–13, Bagwell homered and totaled five home runs in that span. In a contest at Enron Field against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 18, he hit for the cycle. He went 4-for-5 with five RBI as the Astros won, 17–11. He was the NL Player of the Month that July after batting .333 with nine home runs, and breaking his own club record with 36 RBI in a month, exceeding the 34 RBI in the previous August.

While hitting his 32nd home run on August 19, 2001, against Pittsburgh, Bagwell collected his 100th RBI. It was the sixth consecutive season he reached at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI, making him the eighth player in MLB history to achieve such a streak, and the only Houston player to do so. Five days later, also against Pittsburgh, he scored his 100th run, joining Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth as the only players in MLB history with six consecutive seasons of 30 homers, 100 RBI and 100 runs scored. On September 30 at Chicago, Bagwell walked for his 100th of the season, thus making him the only player in MLB history to register six consecutive seasons of at least 30 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored, and 100 walks. The Astros won the NL Central division title and faced the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. In spite of Bagwell reaching base in eight of 12 plate appearances by single or by walk, he did not score any runs, and the Braves swept the Astros in three games.

Playing with sound health until 2001, an explosive pain started to progress in his left shoulder during the season. Bagwell underwent surgery to remove bone spurs and to reconstruct a partially torn labrum on October 26, 2001. He had also began to develop arthritis in his right shoulder, which gradually worsened and diminished his playing ability.

Other milestones (2002–03)
For the first three months of the 2002 season, Bagwell labored greatly with throwing; he still had not fully recovered from the shoulder surgery of the previous offseason. Even after it improved, it was noticeably less strong than two years prior. In July, he batted .349 with six home runs and 23 RBI. Before a game against the San Diego Padres on August 27, he met with an 11-year-old bone cancer patient named Stephen Rael who asked him to hit a home run for him. Bagwell replied, "I'm going to try, but I'm not Babe Ruth." In the fifth inning, he hit a pitch from Mike Bynum over the left field wall and pointed to the child in the stands as he rounded third base. He later said, "I hit the home run, and he felt it was for him. I'm glad for that. It made it special." From August 10–24, Bagwell produced a season-high 15-game hitting streak, marking the 12th consecutive season with at least one double-digit hit streak, a club record, and second to Roberto Alomar with 14 among all then-active players. In September, he batted .343 with 11 multiple-hit games.

During a 3–2 loss to the Montreal Expos on April 26, 2003, Bagwell's infield single gave him 2,000 hits for his career, joining Biggio as the only Astro to achieve this mark. Bagwell collected the assist for the final out of a combined no-hitter and 8–0 win over the Yankees on June 11. He scooped a ground ball batted from Hideki Matsui and relayed it to Billy Wagner covering first base, the final of a record six pitchers participating in the feat. Playing the Cincinnati Reds on July 20, 2003, Bagwell hit two home runs for the 400th of his career off Danny Graves, becoming the 35th player in MLB history to do so. ESPN's "The List" ranked Bagwell as the second-most underrated athlete of the top four North American professional sports leagues in August 2003, and Biggio third.

Milestones of 1,500 RBI, 1,500 runs scored and 200 stolen bases (2004)
When he hit his sixth career grand slam against Milwaukee on April 9, 2004, Bagwell tied a club record. He recorded his 200th career stolen base on August 30 against Cincinnati to become the tenth player in MLB history to reach that plateau while hitting 400 home runs. On September 18, 2004, Bagwell collected his 1,500th career RBI with a single in the third inning against the Brewers. Two innings later, he homered for his 1,500th run scored, becoming just the 29th player in MLB history and the first Astro to reach both milestones. Bagwell finished with 27 home runs, stopping a streak of eight consecutive seasons with at least 30, but extending a streak of 12 with at least 20.

The Astros faced the Braves in the playoffs for the fourth time in Bagwell's career in the 2004 NLDS. In Game 3, on October 7, he hit his first career postseason home run off Mike Hampton in the first inning in a 4–2 extra-inning loss. After three failed attempts to advance past the first round of the playoffs earlier in Bagwell's career — all to the Braves (1997, 1999, and 2001) — and seven overall in 43 years of franchise history, the Astros defeated the Braves for their first-ever playoff series win. The quartet dubbed the "Killer B's" — this time with the additions of Carlos Beltrán and Lance Berkman — ignited the Astros' offense, batting .395 (34-for-86) with eight home runs, 21 RBI and 24 runs scored. The Astros scored an NLDS-record 36 runs in all and Bagwell batted .318 with two home runs and five RBI. They advanced to Bagwell's first National League Championship Series (NLCS) to face the Cardinals. St. Louis defeated Houston in seven games to advance to the World Series.

Health issues and World Series drive (2005)
In February 2005, Bagwell and Biggio were jointly inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Shortly after the 2005 season began, the chronic arthritic condition in his shoulder that had begun in 2001 finally sidelined him, rendering him inactive for three-quarters of the season. The former Gold Glove winner was now a defensive liability with a severely limited throwing arm; he had to "push" the ball instead of throwing it. Teams began taking advantage of his defensive weakness. Once possessing great ability to throw out the lead runner at third base ahead on bunt plays, Bagwell found it difficult to practice with the other infielders between innings.

Concurrently, Bagwell's offensive production suffered, and pressure mounted on Astros management to bench the perennial All-Star; the club had started the season with a 15–30 won–loss record. He hit his last major league home run against Maddux on April 29, tying him for the most against any pitcher with seven. Bagwell continued to play through the pain until, after going 0-for-5 in a loss to the Pirates on May 4, it became so unbearable that he asked manager Phil Garner to remove him from the lineup the following day. He had hit just .250 with three home runs in 88 at-bats. The Astros placed him on the disabled list a few days later, and shoulder surgery followed.

The Astros dramatically improved after their poor start to finish 74–43 over their final 117 games and capture the NL wild card. Rendered unable to throw from his surgery, Bagwell was activated in September as a pinch hitter, and he played a symbolic role in the successful drive to capture their first-ever National League pennant and World Series appearance. Moreover, the Astros secured the pennant against their division rival St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, reversing the outcome from the year prior against the same club.

After having played 4,714 games and their entire major league careers together in Houston, Bagwell and Biggio appeared in their first World Series in 2005. Bagwell was the Astros' designated hitter in the first two games against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, and was a pinch hitter in the two games played in Houston at Minute Maid Park. His last official major league plate appearance was in the seventh inning of Game 4, when he pinch-hit for pitcher Brandon Backe and grounded out. The White Sox won this contest to sweep the Astros and secure the championship. The White Sox outscored the Astros by a combined six runs, the lowest scoring differential in World Series history.

Together with Biggio, Bagwell received Baseball America's Lifetime Achievement Award after the 2005 season.

Comeback attempt and retirement (2006)
On January 23, 2006, the Astros indicated that they would file a claim on an insurance policy on Bagwell's health to collect approximately $15.6 million of the $17 million in salary owed to him for the 2006 season. Days earlier, orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews had performed a physical examination on Bagwell and determined that he had become "completely disabled" and was unable to play baseball again. Because of the language of the policy, the Astros could not release him without losing their settlement, nor could he take the field. The decision effectively eliminated his chances of playing again in the Major Leagues. On March 28, Cigna rejected the claim, contending that because Bagwell had played during 2005 World Series he could not have become more disabled during the period of baseball inactivity characteristic of the offseason.

Nonetheless, Bagwell still reported to spring training hoping he could contribute in some way during the upcoming 2006 campaign, and to test the injured shoulder. His mere presence in camp put the Astros' insurance claim into further question, creating an awkward situation between the player and the team. He appeared in several games, batting .219 with two RBI. He never had to make any difficult throws that would place notable stress on his shoulder, as the other infielders shifted toward him. As expected, the Astros put him on the 15-day disabled list in late March with bone spurs in the shoulder. Bagwell disclosed that he was only in good enough condition to play every several days, rather than every day. He was eventually paid the full amount of his contract. The Astros and the insurance company settled the claim in a confidential arrangement the same day he announced his retirement.

The Astros declined to pick up Bagwell's $18 million club option for 2007, instead buying it out for $7 million. He filed for free agency in November 2006 but announced his retirement one month later. Owner Drayton McLane and general manager Tim Purpura stated that he would remain in player development department of the Astros organization, as one of the assistants to the general manager.

After retirement
Bagwell made his first public appearance at Minute Maid Park since the end of his career on June 28, 2007. Former teammate and long-time friend Biggio had just logged his 3,000th career hit in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies. Bagwell, who was in the dugout, emerged to congratulate him. The Astros fans, who had momentarily quieted after cheering Biggio for his achievement, erupted into cheers again the moment Biggio dragged Bagwell onto the playing field and to the first-base line. "The thing with Baggy is that he and I worked so hard here for this city and for this organization," Biggio remarked. "We made so many sacrifices as far as playing the game and giving your body to a city, a team." Together, they bowed to the crowd as Bagwell raised Biggio's arm, and returned to the dugout. Biggio was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.

The Houston Astros officially retired Bagwell's jersey number 5 on August 26, 2007, prior to the start of a game versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the eighth player in Astros history to have his number retired. Two of Bagwell's closest friends and former teammates, Biggio and Brad Ausmus, spoke on his behalf. Said Ausmus, "He was the quintessential teammate. He was a superstar who always put the team before himself. And between him and Bidge (Biggio), they always shouldered the blame we struggled and tried to deflect the credit when we won." Yastrzemski, Bagwell's childhood hero, delivered a special message: "Congratulations, Jeff, on your number being retired. I begged the Red Sox not to trade you when you were in the minors with us. Boston's loss was Houston's gain. See you in Cooperstown." Three first bases were used in the game, each embossed with a commemorative insignia and inscription, "No. 5, Jeff Bagwell jersey retirement, Aug. 26, 2007." One was given to Bagwell and the other two were auctioned to raise funds on behalf of the Astros in Action Foundation.

In 2009, Bagwell received the Bill Shea Distinguished Little League Graduate Award.

Bagwell, along with Craig Biggio were on hand to witness the Astros win their first-ever World Series championship at Dodger Stadium on November 1, 2017. Both were elated at their franchise's first championship with Bagwell saying, "I'm ecstatic. They're great kids, they play hard, they never gave up. To see them win, the celebration, excitement, relief...the city of Houston, I'm sure, is going crazy right now. I couldn't be more proud of the guys that represent the Houston Astros right now." Both Bagwell and Biggio received World Series rings from the Astros during the World Series ring ceremony before an April 3, 2018 game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Continued employment by the Astros
As part of a personal services contract Bagwell signed with the Astros, he served as a coach in spring training of 2007.

On July 11, 2010, the Astros hired Bagwell to be their hitting coach, replacing Sean Berry. At the time of the switch, the Astros had the second-worst average (.237) in the majors and the worst OBP (.295). At the end of the season, the team marginally improved, but was still last in the league in OBP (.303) and SLG (.362) and Bagwell announced he would not return as hitting coach.

After a five-year gap in contact with the Astros organization, Bagwell accepted a formal invitation from manager A. J. Hinch to be a guest instructor in spring training of 2015.

Bagwell is currently employed by the Astros as a special advisor to team owner Jim Crane.

Allegations of steroid use and National Baseball Hall of Fame
Bagwell was eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time in 2011. Speculation abounded that some baseball writers initially refrained from voting for Bagwell on the premise that he used performance-enhancing drugs, since most of his playing career took place during what is commonly referred to as "the steroid era." In spite of the speculation, as of 2016, no concrete evidence has surfaced linking him to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. However, one report indicates that he disclosed use of androstenedione to a Houston Chronicle reporter in 1998. At that time, neither the FDA nor MLB had banned its use. Bagwell has not been connected with any of the 104 positive samples in the 2003 survey tests that were leaked. Bagwell was not among the 89 players named in the Mitchell Report released in 2007.

Longtime Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox said the following about Bagwell: "Jeff Bagwell was [in Houston] for so long and starred every year. For me a guy that dominated like that for one team, even in the league stats through the years. His are up there with anybody's. I would put him in right away. So he would get my vote on the first ballot." Still, in spite of the speculation that Bagwell used performance-enhancing drugs, San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Bruce Jenkins opined that Bagwell did not have the credentials to be in the Hall of Fame. In July 2015, he acknowledged "that many are suspicious of Bagwell—without proof, as you say. I've always voted for the best players — Bonds, McGwire, Clemens, etc. — so that's not a factor for me. I always found Bagwell just a bit short of Hall of Fame material."

In 2011, Bagwell received 242 votes, or 41.7% of total ballots cast; the threshold for entry is 75%. In his second year on the ballot, he received 321 votes, or 56.0% of the ballots cast. In 2016, he received his highest percentage of the vote to that time, 71.6%. On January 18, 2017, Bagwell was voted into the Hall of Fame with 86.2% of the vote in his seventh year of eligibility. He was inducted on July 30, 2017.

Highlights
Per Baseball-Reference.com, Bagwell's 79.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) ranks sixth-most all-time among first basemen, trailing only Lou Gehrig, Albert Pujols, Jimmie Foxx, Cap Anson, and Roger Connor. He spent the first nine seasons of his career (1991–99) playing home games at the Astrodome, notorious for its reputation as the toughest park in which to hit when baseball was still played there. However, during those nine years, his production at home was nearly identical to his production on the road. In that same period of time, his 160 OPS+ was fourth behind Bonds, McGwire, and Frank Thomas; his 56.7 WAR was third behind Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. From 1994 to 2000, a span including his age-26 through age-32 seasons, he averaged 41 home runs and 41 doubles per 162 games while batting .309, .433 OBP, and .593 SLG for a 167 OPS+.

Over his career, Bagwell batted at least .300 six times, amassed a 1.000 OPS five times, collected at least 30 home runs eight times, 100 RBI eight times, 100 runs scored nine times, and 100 walks seven times. He is the only player in history to achieve six consecutive seasons (1996–2001) with each of 30 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored, and 100 walks. Bagwell had seven seasons with 30 home runs and 100 walks; the only players with more are Gehrig, Ruth, Williams, Jim Thome, and Thomas.

Bagwell is one of 12 players in MLB history to hit at 400 home runs and attain a career on-base percentage of at least .400. The only National League first baseman to reach the 30–30 club, he is the only first baseman in history to do it twice. He is also one of only two players in history to have two 40-30 seasons (Barry Bonds being the other). Bagwell is also the only first baseman to reach both 400 home runs and 200 stolen bases. He is just one of 21 players in history to win both a Rookie of the Year Award and an MVP. His 1,529 RBI during the span of his playing career ranked second in the Majors and first among right-handed hitters. He was in the top 10 in the MVP voting five times. From 1994 to 2003, he led all first basemen in stolen bases, doubles, hits, runs, walks, and extra-base hits, was second in games and RBI, and was third in home runs. He is the Astros' all-time leader in home runs and RBI and is the first Astro to win an MVP.

In addition to stealing over 200 bases in his career, Bagwell contributed significantly around the field as a whole. During one series against Pittsburgh in 1994, the Pirates shifted while he batted, and Bagwell responded with seven opposite-field hits. A standout defender at first base, he won the 1994 Gold Glove award. Remarked The Sporting News, "he's an extraordinary fielder who excels at charging bunts and throwing runners out at second and third. Although he has average speed, he's one of the game's smartest baserunners. ..." From 1999 to 2000, his 295 runs scored led the major leagues and set a National League two-season record.

Personal life
Since his playing career ended, Bagwell has spent much of his time with his family while sporadically taking coaching and special assignment positions for the Astros. He is married to Rachel Bagwell, his third wife, with whom he has five children in a blended family. Rachel had three children prior to meeting Jeff. Before his marriage to Rachel, Jeff had two daughters, Blake and Bryce. Bagwell married his first wife, model Shaune Bagwell (née Stauffer), in 1992. He later married Ericka Bagwell, with whom he had his two daughters. Rachel Bagwell was the widow of Greater Houston-area hand surgeon Dr. Michael Brown, the owner and founder of Brown Hand Center.

In spite of his professional success, Bagwell has stated that he "doesn't enjoy too much of the spotlight" that follows. While giving a tribute to him during the retirement ceremony of his uniform number, longtime friend and former teammate Brad Ausmus noted several little-known facts. "He liked soccer as much as ... baseball" while growing up in Connecticut. He hit three fewer home runs than his boyhood idol, Carl Yastrzemski — 452 to 449. "His baseball card says he's six feet tall. He's closer to 5' 10"." Both Bagwell and Ausmus hit 32 triples in their careers. After his playing career, Bagwell was seen with significantly longer hair. Remarked Ausmus, "I want to confirm he does not have hair extensions."

In January 2015, Bagwell reportedly sold his home in the Memorial neighborhood of Houston.

Darryl Kile, a former teammate with the Astros, died of a heart attack on June 22, 2002, while an active player for the Cardinals, before a game against the Cubs. The Darryl Kile Good Guy Award was established in his honor, annually for one player on both the Cardinals and the Astros. Bagwell was the first recipient for the Astros in 2003. Ken Caminiti, another former teammate of Bagwell's, died on October 10, 2004. Bagwell delivered a eulogy at his funeral.

Bagwell is a recovering alcoholic. He struggled with addiction for several years until 2017.

title: Jeff Bagwell


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Talk:Roman usurper

This describes a phenomenon, not a thing. I propose a move to Roman usurpers. Sverdrup 17:10, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

This is an excellent article! Very well done!

 * Its already a redirect. Thanks! I enjoyed writing it a lot. Muriel

One weakness in this article (& I hate criticizing what Muriel has written; while I agonize how to write various articles, she just writes them) is that the discussion ends with Diocletian. Usurpers plagued the Roman Empire through the 4th century & into the first decades of the 5th. My reading of Ammianus Marcellinus suggests that many of the usurpers were capable or gifted men who believed that they were forced to seek the purple to save their own lives. (If the emperor is going to sentence you to a savage death for some minor offence, why not commit treason, insurrection, & the deaths of a few highly-placed beauracrats while you're at it?). Usurpers stopped appearing in the West (although revolts & usurpers plagued the Byzantine Empire for centuries afterwards) in the 5th century, apparently when it became clear that being Emperor had far more liabilities than assets. (Would you want to be Emperor in the years following the death of Valentinian III?) -- llywrch 00:09, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * No! Definetely not, God protect me from the purple! Good point, Llywrch. The article stops there because i didnt get sources for the later. I'm rewriting all the emperors and at the moment I'm struggling with Gallienus. I plan to expand if somebody doesnt get there first. And by all means criticize, i rather like healthy criticism. If nobody does it, how am i going to improve? Muriel Victoria 13:13, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

For usurpers of the 4th Century, see the articles I wrote on Magnentius & Procopius (usurper); for the 5th, there is the article on Constantine III of Rome. (From what I remember, the other articles are too slight to be of help -- although Magnus Maximus & Eugenius are interesting stories.) But the tale that probably explains the mindset of numerous usurpers -- not only of the 4th Century, but probably of the 3rd -- is the tale of Silvanus the Frank (Ammianus Marcellinus, 14.5). He was an honest soldier who found himself falsely implicated in treachery, & had no way out than to listen to his men & declare himself emperor -- only to be killed after 28 days when he became too much of a liability for his followers.

As for Gallienus, good luck. I've looked at that article several times, trying to figure out how to add material to it. (There needs to be something about the countless coins of his reign which are described as copper "washed" with silver, & how they are typically interpreted as evidence of hyperinflation during his reign -- although this interpretation is no longer as favored as it once was.) -- llywrch 21:29, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Merge?
This page is supposed to talk about "Roman" usurpers, but yet the leading sentence refers to "Usurpers". The Usurper contains little information. Worse yet, both pages link to one single page in other languages. I propose a merge into "Usurper". 石川 (talk) 10:55, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Or if not, a lot of redirect has to be done, and the leading paragraph needs to be rewritten. And Usurper needs to be expanded, but that's another story. What do you guys think?石川 (talk) 10:57, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Usurpation is the wrong word
A usurper is someone who gains power in a constitutionally illegitimate way. But the office of emperor did not exist in the Roman constitution (at least, not till the dying days of the Empire in east.) They maintained the polite fiction that Rome was still a res publica, and the emperor was merely princeps, the first among equals.

As there was no constitutional office of emperor, equally well there was no constitutional succession. The only fairly reliable method of guaranteeing succession was to retire whilst still fairly healthy so as to be able to enforce transition to a chosen successor (although even this method didn't work out so well for Constantine I); otherwise succession occurred through a wide range of means, running the gamut from the conventionalised and quasi-legal down to assassination. The acquisition of the de facto auctoritas of Augustus through acclamation by the army was neither more nor less illegal than any other method. As such, "usurper" is not the right word to describe these men. -- 202.63.39.58 (talk) 04:47, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

 * I agree completely. This is a false positive, to indicate or imply that there was any issue of legitimacy in becoming a Roman emperor, period. You became the emperor because you were able to achieve its selection. Plenty of ascensions were contested, which is why the Romans have civil wars, and wars over the ascensions to power. There was no issue of legitimacy because the only people who could contest the selection are those others with armies... This article needs to distinguish at its opening that this is a post-Roman and modern European conception of the assumption of power in Roman... Stevenmitchell (talk) 11:37, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Roman usurper


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Paul Jackson (producer)

Kevin Paul Jackson (born 2 October 1947), credited as Paul Jackson; sometimes as K. Paul Jackson, is an English television director, producer and executive, known for his production roles within the BBC, ITV, and previously, Carlton and Granada. His most famous television work includes The Two Ronnies and The Young Ones, and as the original producer for the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. In 2006, Jackson was named Director of Comedy and Entertainment at ITV.

Early life
Jackson was born in London in 1947, the son of BBC Light Entertainment Producer T. Leslie Jackson, whose credits included the 1950s series This Is Your Life and What's My Line. He graduated from the University of Exeter in 1970.

BBC
Jackson began his career with the BBC, joining it in 1971 as an assistant floor manager. Over the next 11 years he was promoted, becoming a director, producer and eventually executive producer, working on a range of the best-known shows of the time - the Larry Grayson incarnation of The Generation Game, Blankety Blank, Top of the Pops and the last series of Steptoe and Son all feature among his credits. However, it is for a quartet of programmes that he is particularly known: The Two Ronnies (which he produced and directed, and for which he won three BAFTA nominations); Three of a Kind (the show featured Tracey Ullman and Lenny Henry and was a winner of the BAFTA award for best entertainment show and a Rose of Montreux); The Young Ones (winner of a BAFTA for best comedy); and Carrott's Lib, a series transmitted live.

He also produced and directed Ben Elton's first solo TV project, Happy Families, with Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry amongst others and the follow-up series to The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap.

Freelance career
In 1982, Jackson left the BBC and went freelance, producing The Cannon and Ball Show for LWT and two series of Girls on Top (starring Tracey Ullman, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax) for Central Television. Eighteen months later, he set up Paul Jackson Productions, one of the newly created independent producers made possible by the arrival of Channel Four. The company made Coming Next, a sketch show with Hale and Pace, Chris Barrie and several other series. One series gave Ruby Wax her first solo outing, Don't Miss Wax, which was produced for Channel Four. At this time Jackson was a member of the council of IPPA, a forerunner of Pact, the body which established terms for trade between independent producers and the BBC and other broadcasters.

PJP was eventually taken over by Noel Gay Television, a company chaired by the British entertainment executive, Bill Cotton. Jackson served as the managing director and the company produced Red Dwarf, the long-running and internationally successful comedy series, the pilot episode of Bottom (Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson) and, working with LWT, the hugely influential Channel Four variety show, Saturday Live. Saturday Live featured such comedy stars as Lenny Henry, Pamela Stephenson, Michael Barrymore, Peter Cook and Barry Humphries and brought to prominence talents such as Ben Elton (as a performer), Fry and Laurie, Harry Enfield and Julian Clary. The company also held the contract to provide all entertainment programming for the short lived UK satellite service, British Satellite Broadcasting and produced shows featuring then unknown names such as Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans and Jack Dee, as well as The Happening, a precursor to the long-running BBC show Later... with Jools Holland. In 1988 Jackson also co-produced the Oscar-winning short film, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, starring Steven Wright and Rowan Atkinson.

Carlton Television
In 1991, Jackson was a member of the five-man team which prepared Carlton Television's successful bid for the London weekday franchise in the franchise round of that year. He served as a director of programmes for the bid, and was made managing director of the company the night it went on air on 1 January 1993. He later became managing director of Carlton Television Productions, but after the company's merger with Central Television in 1994 Jackson felt this model was at odds with the independent production model on which Carlton had been built and he left barely a year later.

Return to BBC
In 1996 Jackson was appointed head of BBC Entertainment, overseeing the combined output of all the BBC's television, radio and online content, the only time one person had responsibility for all three areas; and was subsequently promoted to Controller of BBC Entertainment. His time running the department saw the arrival on screen of comedies such as People Like Us, The Royle Family, Marion and Geoff and The Office. He also introduced Ant & Dec to prime time television, with their series Friends Like These. Jackson also oversaw the return of the Parkinson series for its second long and successful run at the heart of the BBC's Saturday night schedule.

Granada Television
In 2000 Jackson became the CEO of Granada's Australian operations. He turned an underperforming joint venture with local broadcaster Network 7 into a successful independent producer which remains successful. In 2005, after a brief period back in the UK, he went to Los Angeles to take control of the five separate entities that were now all owned by the newly merged ITV. Jackson was CEO and President of Granada USA and executive produced many hit shows including the Gordon Ramsay vehicle Hell's Kitchen for Fox, Hit Me, Baby, One More Time for NBC (both shows making the number one spot in the US ratings during their first season) and Game Show Marathon for CBS as well as Nanny 911 also for Fox, and numerous cable shows for networks including MTV, VH1, WE and A+E.

ITV
In 2006, Jackson returned to the UK as Director of Comedy and Entertainment for the ITV network, intending to return comedy back to the ITV schedule. As well as cementing Harry Hill's TV Burp into the heart of the network's Saturday nights, Benidorm, Headcases, Ladies of Letters and No Heroics were all commissioned by Jackson's new team, alongside one off comedy films starring talent such as Catherine Tate, Shane Richie, Timothy Spall, Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers as well as writers such as Caroline Aherne, Richard Herring and Irvine Welsh.

Britain's Got Talent, which secured the decade's highest audience for an entertainment show, was also commissioned during this period. At the end of 2008, after three years at ITV, Jackson returned to making shows. He became CEO of Eyeworks UK, a London-based entertainment producer. In their first year they produced two films featuring Nadya Suleman including The Octomom, and a series for Channel Five starring Justin Lee Collins.

Other interests
Jackson was the founding chairman of the charity Comic Relief and chairman of its parent organisation, Charity Projects. He remained as chairman for twelve years before following Jane Tewson, one of the founding partners, to Pilotlight, a new venture where he also chaired the board of trustees. Subsequently, he served as trustee of the UK volunteering charity, Timebank, acting as chairman from 2000 to 2002 and from 2006 to the present day. While Jackson was in Australia he served as a trustee of Pilotlight Australia. He has at various times been a board member of The International Emmys, The Aspen Comedy Festival, Frappa and the Entertainment Master Class, as well as serving on the board of Natpe during his time in Los Angeles. From 1994 to 1996 Jackson was the chairman of the Royal Television Society and for four years from 2006, chaired their Craft and Design awards. He is currently on the board of the Riverside Theatre Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and the Institute of Directors.

The University of Exeter awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 2004. He held the post of visiting professor in the School of English at the institution for five years. He has for the last ten years been a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, including five series of his talk show, In Conversation With.... Four series of Britain In A Box and various one offs such as LA Stories, the companion piece Soho Stories, The Sit Down Comedian and The Godfathers of Comedy.

title: Paul Jackson (producer)


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W. Clement Stone

William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) was an American businessman, philanthropist and New Thought self-help book author.

Biography
Stone was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 4, 1902. His father died in 1905 leaving his family in debt. In 1908 he hawked newspapers on the South Side of Chicago while his mother worked as a dressmaker. By 1915 he owned his own newsstand. In 1918 he moved to Detroit to sell casualty insurance for his mother.

Stone dropped out of high school to sell insurance full-time. He received a diploma from the YMCA Central High School in Chicago. He took courses at Detroit College of Law (now, Michigan State University College of Law) and Northwestern University.

Much of what is known about Stone comes from his autobiography The Success System That Never Fails. In that book, he tells of his early business life, which started with selling newspapers in restaurants. At the time, this was a novel thing to do, a departure from the typical practice of boys hawking newspapers on street corners.

At first, restaurant managers of restaurants tried to discourage him, but he gradually won them over by his politeness, charm, persistence and the fact that most restaurant patrons had no objection to this new way of selling papers.

In 1919, he graduated to selling insurance policies in downtown business offices. His mother managed his new career. Then in 1922, he opened his own small insurance agency, Combined Registry Company, in Chicago. By 1930, he had over 1000 agents selling insurance for him across the United States.

In 1947, after his business had grown significantly, Stone built the Combined Insurance Company of America, which provided both accident and health insurance coverage. By 1979, his insurance company exceeded $1 billion in assets. Combined later merged with the Ryan Insurance Group to form Aon Corporation in 1987, and Combined was later spun off by Aon to ACE Limited in April 2008 for $2.56 billion.

Stone considered his success to be an example of the rags-to-riches protagonists in the Horatio Alger's stories he admired. He mentored Og Mandino, an alcoholic who became the Executive Editor of Success Unlimited Magazine.

In 1951, Stone founded the interfaith group "The Washington Pilgrimage", which later became the "Religious Heritage of America". It successfully advocated the Eisenhower administration to add the "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Stone contributed up to $10 million to President Richard Nixon's election campaigns in 1968 and 1972; they were cited in Congressional debates after the Watergate scandal to institute campaign spending limits. According to Tim Weiner, in One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon, in 1972 President Nixon's lawyer, Herbert Kalmbach, helped raise money for Nixon's presidential campaign by selling ambassadorships to large donors, including "W. Clement Stone, [who] pledged $3 million." Stone wanted to become ambassador to Great Britain, "which already was occupied by Ambassador Walter Annenberg, who gave $254,000 in order to stay on" (p. 160).

Stone associated with Napoleon Hill to teach the Philosophy of Personal Achievement "Science of Success" course. Stone wrote: "One of the most important days in my life was the day I began to read Think and Grow Rich in 1937. Stone said that the Bible was "the world's greatest self-help book".

Stone died on September 3, 2002, in Evanston, Illinois.

Books

Stone emphasized using a "positive mental attitude" to succeed. Stone adopted the motto of his mentor, Napoleon Hill, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve (with PMA)." In 1960, Stone teamed up with Napoleon Hill to author Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. The book Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude includes the following testimonial from the Rev. Robert H. Schuller on the inside front cover page: "Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude is one of the ten books that has most impacted my faith and my philosophy...no person's education is complete without the concepts articulated in it so wisely and so well." Norman Vincent Peale said that Stone and Hill "have the rare gift of inspiring and helping people...In fact, I owe them both a personal debt of gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings." Stone and Hill also founded a monthly digest magazine, entitled Success Unlimited. In 1962, Stone wrote the Success System That Never Fails, in which he suggested how to become successful and have a healthy, productive lifestyle. In 1964, he and Norma Lee Browning collaborated on writing The Other Side of the Mind.

Publishing
Stone founded Success Unlimited Magazine in collaboration with Napoleon Hill in 1954. They "conceived of the idea of a monthly magazine to supply mental vitamins to revitalize those seeking self-help and wished inspiration..."

In 1965, W. Clement Stone became Chairman of the Board of Hawthorn Books. Stone intended to use the publishing house as a vehicle to supplement his magazine Success Unlimited. Then, in 1967 the publishing company was purchased outright by the Clement Stone interests. Hawthorn Books was then later sold in 1977 to W. H. Allen. (as cited by the Harry Ransom Center ).

In 1981, the magazine dropped "Unlimited" from its name and adopted the title Success until it stopped publication in 2001, shortly before Stone's death in 2002.

Philanthropy
Stone gave over $275 million to charity including civic groups, mental health and Christian organizations. Stone was once quoted as saying, "All I want to do is change the world".

Among his philanthropic activities were his long-time support of the Boys Clubs of America (now Boys and Girls Clubs of America), and the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. The Stone Student Center was dedicated on June 24, 1967, on the campus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Stone donated one million dollars to Rev. Robert H. Schuller to begin construction on the Crystal Cathedral. The W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation was established by Stone and his wife to support humanitarian, mental health, religious and community causes. In 2009 the Foundation gave $3,805,625 to worthwhile causes. The foundation also gives college scholarships; one of the beneficiaries is the demographer, pollster, and political pundit Elliott Stonecipher of Shreveport, Louisiana, who entered the "Boy of the Year" competition in the late 1960s at the national Boys Clubs competition.

Stone was a supporter of The Napoleon Hill Foundation, which he directed for forty years, and to which his estate contributes funding. Stone celebrated his 100th birthday with a gift of $100,000 to the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Stone provided much of the initial funding for the self-help organization, GROW. Stone was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and was a Freemason.

W. Clement Stone once stated, "Regardless of what you are or what you have been, you can still become what you may want to be."

Other
In 1969 and 1970, Stone served as a Republican member of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, having been appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death in office of Harold A. Pogue. In 1970, Stone ran unsuccessfully for reelection as a trustee.

In 1973, Stone was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College.

title: W. Clement Stone


text:
Sutherland

Sutherland (Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later combined into Ross and Cromarty) to the south and the Atlantic to the north and west. Like its southern neighbour Ross-shire, Sutherland has some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe, especially on its western fringe where the mountains meet the sea. These include high sea cliffs and very old mountains composed of Precambrian and Cambrian rocks.

The name Sutherland dates from the period of Norwegian Viking rule and settlement over much of the Highlands and Islands, under the rule of the jarl of Orkney. Although it contains some of the northernmost land in the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland ("southern land") from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness. In Gaelic, the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich MhicAoidh (or Dùthaich 'IcAoidh) (MacAoidh's country) in the northeast, Asainte (Assynt) in the west, and Cataibh in the east. Cataibh is also sometimes used to refer to the area as a whole. The northeast corner of Sutherland, traditionally known as the Province of Strathnaver, was not incorporated into Sutherland until 1601. This was the home of the powerful and warlike Clan Mackay, and as such was named in Gaelic, Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh, the Homeland of Mackay. Even today this part of Sutherland is known as Mackay Country, and, unlike other areas of Scotland where the names traditionally associated with the area have become diluted, there is still a preponderance of Mackays in the Dùthaich.

Much of the population of approximately 13,000 inhabitants are situated in small coastal towns, such as Helmsdale and Lochinver, which until very recently made much of their living from the rich fishing of the waters around the British Isles. Much of Sutherland is poor relative to the rest of the UK, with few job opportunities beyond government-funded employment, agriculture and seasonal tourism. Further education is provided by North Highland College, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands. The Ross House Campus in Dornoch was the first establishment in the United Kingdom to provide a degree in golf management. The Burghfield House Campus, also in Dornoch, is the home for the Centre for History teaching undergraduate and postgraduate history degrees to students around the UHI network and worldwide.

Geography
The inland landscape is rugged and very sparsely populated. Despite being Scotland's fifth-largest county in terms of area, it has a smaller population than a medium-size Lowland Scottish town. It stretches from the Atlantic in the west, up to the Pentland Firth and across to the North Sea in the east. The sea-coasts boast very high cliffs and deep fjords in the east and north, ragged inlets on the west and sandy beaches in the north. The east coast contains the sea lochs of Loch Fleet and Dornoch Firth. The remote far northwest point of Sutherland, Cape Wrath, is also the most northwesterly point in Scotland. Several peninsulas can be found along the north and west coasts, most notably Strathy Point, A' Mhòine, Durness/Faraid Head (the latter two formed by the Kyle of Durness, Loch Eriboll and the Kyle of Tongue), Ceathramh Garbh (formed by Loch Laxford and Loch Inchard), and Stoer Head. The county has many fine beaches, a remote example being Sandwood Bay, which can only be reached by foot along a rough track. The number of visiting tourists is, naturally, minimal.

Sutherland has many rugged mountains such as Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro, and Ben More Assynt, the tallest peak in the county at 998 m (3,274 ft). The western part comprises Torridonian sandstone underlain by Lewisian gneiss. The spectacular scenery has been created by denudation to form isolated sandstone peaks such as Foinaven, Arkle, Cùl Mòr and Suilven. Such mountains are attractive for hill walking and scrambling, despite their remote location. Together with similar peaks to the south in Wester Ross, such as Stac Pollaidh, they have a unique structure with great scope for exploration. On the other hand, care is needed when bad weather occurs owing to their isolation and the risks of injury.

There are a large number of inland lochs in the county. The most prominent being:

Owing to its isolation from the rest of the country, Sutherland was reputedly the last haunt of the native wolf, the last survivor being shot in the 18th century. However, other wildlife has survived, including the golden eagle, sea eagle and pine marten amongst other species which are very rare in the rest of the country. There are pockets of the native Scots Pine, remnants of the original Caledonian Forest.

The importance of the county's scenery is recognised by the fact that four of Scotland's forty national scenic areas (NSAs) are located here. The purpose of the NSA designation is to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection from inappropriate development. The areas protected by the designation are considered to represent the type of scenic beauty "popularly associated with Scotland and for which it is renowned". The four NSAs within Sutherland are:

 * The Assynt-Coigach NSA has many distinctively shaped mountains, including Quinag, Canisp, Suilven, Cùl Mòr, Stac Pollaidh and Ben More Assynt, that rise steeply from the surrounding "cnoc and lochan" scenery. These can often appear higher than their actual height would indicate due to their steep sides and the contrast with the moorland from which they rise. Assynt lies within Sutherland, whilst Coigach lies within Ross and Cromarty.
 * The Dornoch Firth NSA also straddles the boundary between Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty, and covers a variety of landscapes surrounding the narrow and sinuous firth.
 * The Kyle of Tongue NSA covers the mountains of Ben Hope and Ben Loyal, as well as woodlands and crofting settlements on the shoreline of the kyle itself.
 * The North West Sutherland NSA covers the mountains of Foinaven, Arkle and Ben Stack as well as the coastal scenery surrounding Loch Laxford and Handa Island.

Islands

 * A' Chleit
 * A' Ghoil-sgeir
 * Am Balg
 * An Calbh
 * An Cruachan
 * An Dubh-sgeir
 * An Garbh-eilean
 * Boursa Island
 * Calbha Beag
 * Calbha Mòr
 * Clach Mhòr na Faraid
 * Clobh-sgeir
 * Cùl Eilean
 * Dubh Sgeir
 * Dubh-Sgeir Mhòr
 * Dubh Sgeirean
 * Duslic
 * Eilean a' Bhreitheimh
 * Eilean a' Bhuic
 * Eilean a' Chaoil
 * Eilean a' Chonnaidh
 * Eilean a' Ghamhna
 * Eilean a' Mhadaidh
 * Eilean an Achaidh
 * Eilean an Aigeich
 * Eilean an Eireannaich
 * Eilean an Ròin Beag
 * Eilean an Ròin Mòr
 * Eilean an t-Sithein
 * Eilean Àrd
 * Eilean Choraidh
 * Eilean Chrona
 * Eilean Clùimhrig
 * Eilean Dornaidh Oscair
 * Eilean Dubh an Teoir
 * Eilean Dubh Chal Cinn
 * Eilean Dubh Dhrombaig
 * Eilean Dubh na Fionndalach Bige
 * Eilean Dubh nam Boc
 * Eilea Garbh
 * Eilean Hoan
 * Eilean Iosal
 * Eilean Meall a' Chaorainn
 * Eilea na h-Aiteig
 * Eilean na Coille
 * Eilean na Bearachd
 * Eilean na Rainich
 * Eilean na Saille
 * Eilean nam Boc
 * Eilean nan Airbhe
 * Eilean nan Ròn
 * Eilean nan Uan
 * Eilean Port a' Choit
 * Eilean Rairidh
 * Eilean Riabhach
 * Eileanan Dubha
 * Garbh-eilean
 * Glas Leac (several islands with this name)
 * Handa Island
 * Meall Beag
 * Meall Earca
 * Meall Mòr
 * Meall Thailm
 * Na Cluasnadh
 * Na Glas Leacan
 * Neave Island (also known as Coomb Island)
 * Oldany Island
 * Ox Rock
 * Rabbit Islands
 * Seana Sgeir
 * Sgarbagh
 * Sgeir a' Bhuic
 * Sgeir a' Chlaidheimh
 * Sgeir an Trilleachain
 * Sgeir Iosal
 * Sgeir Leathan
 * Sgeir Liath
 * Sgeir nan Gall
 * Sgeir Ruadh
 * Sgeirean Cruaidhe
 * Sgeirean Glasa
 * Soyea Island

Transport

The A9 road main east coast road is challenging north of Helmsdale, particularly at the notorious Berriedale Braes, and there are few inland roads. The Far North Line north-south single-track railway line was extended through Sutherland by the Highland Railway between 1868 and 1871. It enters Sutherland near Invershin and runs along the east coast as far as possible, but an inland diversion was necessary from Helmsdale along the Strath of Kildonan. The line exits to the east of Forsinard.

Helmsdale on the east coast is on the A9 road, at a junction with the A897, and has a railway station on the Far North Line. Buses operate about every two hours Mondays-Saturdays and infrequently on Sundays from Helmsdale to Brora, Golspie, Dornoch, Tain and Inverness in the south, and Berriedale, Dunbeath, Halkirk, Thurso and Scrabster in the north. These are on route X99 and are operated by Stagecoach Group, but tickets can be bought on the Citylink website. Various other Stagecoach buses link the other towns of eastern Sutherland, such as Lairg and Bonar Bridge to Tain and Inverness. The western areas of the county are less well served by public transport, however the Far North Bus company does provided scheduled services connecting Durness to Lairg (bus 806), and from Durness to Thurso via the towns of the north Sutherland coast (bus 803).

There are no commercial airports in the county. There is a small general aviation airstrip south of Dornoch, the former RAF Dornoch, which sees little traffic.

Highland Clearances
Sutherland, like other parts of the Highlands, was affected by the Highland Clearances, the eviction of tenants from their homes and/or associated farmland in the 18th and 19th centuries century by the landowners. Typically, this was to make way for large sheep farms. The Sutherland Estate (consisting of about two thirds of the county) had the largest scale clearances that occurred in the Highlands, much of this being carried out in 1812, 1814 and 1819–20. In this last period (the largest of the three listed), 1,068 families were evicted: representing an estimated 5,400 people. This population was provided with resettlement in coastal areas, with employment available in fishing or other industries. However, many instead moved to farms in Caithness or left Scotland to emigrate to Canada, the US or Australia.

It was the villages produced by this policy that formed the last Gaelic speaking communities to be found on the east coast of Scotland, as discovered by Nancy Dorian in the early 1960s, and there are still some native speakers of the East Sutherland dialect of Gaelic in this area.

Local government
In 1890 Sutherland became a local government county, with its own elected county council, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. At that time, one town within the county, Dornoch, was already well established as an autonomous burgh with its own burgh council. Dornoch, a royal burgh, had its own Burgh Council but did not serve as the county's administrative centre. The County Offices for Sutherland were based at Drummuie in Golspie.

In 1975 the Local Government council and the burgh council were superseded under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The 1973 act also created a new two-tier system, with Sutherland becoming part of Highland region. The county was divided between districts entitled Caithness and Sutherland, two of the eight districts within Highland. The Tongue and Farr areas of the county of Sutherland became part of the Caithness district (which also included the entirety of the county of Caithness); additionally the Kincardine area of the county of Ross and Cromarty was merged into the new Sutherland district. Shortly after its creation, however the boundary between the districts of Sutherland and Caithness were redrawn to follow that between the counties.

In 1996 local government in Scotland was again reformed, by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, which created 32 unitary council areas. The Highland council region became the Highland unitary council area, and the functions of the district councils were absorbed by the Highland Council. The new Highland Council then adopted the former districts as management areas and created a system of area committees to represent them. Until 1999 the Sutherland management and committee areas consisted of seven out of the 72 Highland Council wards. Each ward elected one councillor by the first past the post system of election. In 1999, however, ward boundaries were redrawn, but management area boundaries were not. As a result, area committees were named for and made decisions for areas which they did not exactly represent. The new Sutherland committee area consisted of six out of the 80 new Highland Council wards.

In 2007 new multi-member wards were created for elections under the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system. Some local decisions are delegated to the Sutherland County Committee, which consists of all councillors representing Sutherland.

Civil parishes
In 1894 Parish councils covering rural areas of the county were established. In 1931 the parish councils were superseded under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929.

Civil parishes are still used for some statistical purposes, and separate census figures are published for them. As their areas have been largely unchanged since the 19th century this allows for comparison of population figures over an extended period of time. (Refer to map: ) The following individual parish population figures, giving a total population of 12,650 at the 2011 Census for the 13 Civil Parishes (1930 boundaries), were extracted from Census Table QS112SC using the interactive Standard Outputs system at the Scotland's Census website.

Of the 871 civil parishes in Scotland listed on the General Register Office for Scotland website, 13 are identified on the Wikipedia list of civil parishes in Scotland as being in Sutherland. In addition, the list states that Reay used to be partly in Sutherland, until 1891.

 * Assynt: 1,011
 * Clyne (see Brora): 1,765
 * Creich: 1,106
 * Dornoch: 2,402
 * Durness: 345
 * Eddrachillis (with Kinlochbervie and Scourie): 674
 * Farr: 945
 * Golspie: 1,641 (previously known as Culmallie)
 * Kildonan (main settlement Helmsdale): 725
 * Lairg: 887
 * Loth (see Lothbeg): 139
 * Rogart: 458
 * Tongue: 552

Eddrachillis and Tongue were formerly part of Durness parish, being separated in 1724. The other eleven parishes are ancient in origin.

Community councils
Although created under local government legislation (the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973) community councils have no statutory powers or responsibilities and are not a tier of local government. They are however the most local tier of statutory representation. Here is a list of Highland Community Councils (scroll to Sutherland). Under the 1973 act, they were created in terms of community council schemes created by the district councils which were created under the same act. The Sutherland district scheme was adopted in 1975. Statutory status for community councils was continued under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, and the Sutherland scheme is now the responsibility of the Highland Council.

Settlements
• Achriesgill

• Altnaharra

• Armadale

• Assynt

• Bettyhill

• Bonar Bridge

• Brora

• Clashmore, Assynt

• Creich

• Dornoch

• Drumbeg

• Durness

• Embo

• Evelix

• Golspie

• Helmsdale

• Inchnadamph

• Invershin

• Kildonan

• Kinbrace

• Kinlochbervie

• Lairg

• Lochinver

• Melvich

• Portgower

• Portskerra

• Pulrossie

• Rogart

• Rosehall

• Scourie

• Skelbo

• Skerray

• Stoer

• Strathy

• Tongue

Abandoned settlements
Allnabad

Constituency
The Sutherland constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom represented the county from 1708 to 1918. At the same time however the county town of Dornoch was represented as a component of the Northern Burghs constituency. In 1918 the Sutherland constituency and Dornoch were merged into the then new constituency of Caithness and Sutherland. In 1997 Caithness and Sutherland was merged into Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

The Scottish Parliament constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross was created in 1999 for the newly established parliament. The constituency was extended for the 2011 election to include more of Ross-shire, and was so renamed Caithness, Sutherland and Ross. In the Scottish Parliament, Sutherland is represented also as part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region.

Sutherland in popular culture
In M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth mystery series, the fictional towns of Lochdubh and Strathbane are located in Sutherland.

Rosamunde Pilcher's last novel Winter Solstice is largely set in and around the fictional Sutherland town of Creagan, located in the Sutherland town of Dornoch.

The ship captained by Horatio Hornblower in C. S. Forester’s book A Ship of the Line is called HMS Sutherland.

The short story "Monarch of the Glen" by Neil Gaiman is set in Sutherland, and includes a discussion on the origin of the name.

It is still common to refer to the entire Gaelic-speaking world with the phrase "Ó Chataibh go Cléire" (from Sutherland to Cape Clear) or "Ó Chataibh go Ciarraí" (from Sutherland to Kerry). Cléire and Ciarraí are Gaelic-speaking regions in the far south-west of Ireland.

Notable people with Sutherland connections

 * George Mackay Brown (1921–1996), "Bard of Orkney", whose mother was born in Strathy
 * John Lennon (1940–1980), a frequent visitor to Durness
 * Norman MacCaig (1910–1996), Edinburgh-born poet, who wrote about the region of Assynt, which he visited many times over a period of forty years.
 * Patrick Sellar (1780–1851), lawyer and factor
 * W. C. Sellar (1898–1951), humourist who wrote for Punch, best known for the book 1066 and All That
 * William Young Sellar (1825–1890), classical scholar
 * Joe Strummer (1952–2002), frontman of the Clash; born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey; his mother, Anna Mackenzie, was a crofter's daughter born and raised in Bonar Bridge
 * Donald Ross (1872–1948), golfer and golf course designer, born in Dornoch. Ross's most famous designs are Pinehurst No. 2, Aronimink Golf Club, East Lake Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club, Oak Hill Country Club, Glen View Club, Memphis Country Club, Inverness Club, Miami Biltmore Golf Course and Oakland Hills Country Club; all in the United States of America.

title: Sutherland


text:
Talk:List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

Rewriting the listings
I'm working to adjust the page to include writers and directors, as well as reworking the column ordering, just like I've done on List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes. I based my changes on the featured list, List of 30 Rock Episodes. I also rewrote the entire page header, added in DVD release info (along with a picture of the Region 1 DVD set). Comments would be appreciated. Aatrek (talk) 20:29, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Seasons 1-3 need to be fixed! Where are the episode numbers columns featured in Seasons 4-7? Episode numbers make quick reference much easier, for any television series. This needs to be addressed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.101.8.82 (talk) 19:02, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm working on it, albeit a bit more slowly than I expected. I'm almost finished with List of TOS episodes (on it's way to becoming a Featured List), and then I'll finish TNG over here. If everything goes well, I expect the list here to resemble the TOS list. -- Aatrek / TALK 19:37, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I just noticed this talk thread (after reworking season 1). I found this article in pretty poor shape, format-wise, and it's been a year since the last update here, so I'm going to tackle applying the template to Seasons 2-7 as with Season 1. Since there doesn't appear to be a universally-used format (even among featured episode lists), a uniform one is better than a non-uniform one, at least until something better can be found. --Fru1tbat (talk) 19:41, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Listing 308 "The Price" has a typo that needs to be fixed: "Troi falls in love with a charismatic negotiator who vies for rights to a wormhole. But several different groups are after the wormhole as it 5 be the only known stable wormhole in existence. Guest star Dan Shor as Dr. Arridor." I will change "5 be" to "may be" as in the episode it is stated: "The first and only stable wormhole known to exist." Based on the ending, I do think "may be" is better than "is." Its all relatives (talk) 08:07, 2 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Oops. Regular expressions are wonderful. Unless a month name happens to be a normal word as well... --Fru1tbat (talk) 22:32, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

- I don't know what the wikipedia style standards are but can we remove the quote marks from around the episode title names? It makes it especially difficult to select just the title names for copying. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.204.141 (talk) 05:31, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Recent edits
In case anyone is paying attention, I have made edits to this list to mirror those of the featured List of Stargate SG-1 episodes. I hope to bring this list up to feature-standard. Cheers, Fang Aili talk 18:44, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Episode ledes
The lede sections of pretty much all the episodes from season 2 onwards are in this format:

""Elementary, Dear Data" is the 29th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. The third episode of the second season."

That sentence fragment at the end is very ugly and unwieldy. I'd be in favour of going through and changing them to something along the lines of this:

""Elementary, Dear Data" is the third episode of the second season of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 29th episode overall."

Does anyone have any objections to this, or alternative suggestions? Euchrid (talk) 22:17, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Errors
The "Pamela Davis" teleplay author of Night Terrors links to a fictional soap opera character in Wikipedia. It should link to a real person. I don't know who but it's not correct the way it's currently listed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ncr100 (talk • contribs) 06:18, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Featured actors?
Seems a very bizarre thing to have in an episode listing and to me it borders on original research. Is there an official source these supposed featured actors can be linked to to help authenticate them? Otherwise they should not be there. Mmm commentaries (talk) 12:05, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree, it feels strange and seems like OR. I recommend striking this information. 87Fan (talk) 17:06, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree as well. I'm taking on this list, so I'll update as I go. Shatner (talk) 17:04, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

I have to disagree, being able to see a brief plot synopsis along with the characters who are key to each episode makes the article much more useful and informative. 212.159.114.107 (talk) 12:25, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

 * Informative, maybe, but it's still WP:OR. The short plot synopsis should clearly indicate which characters feature prominently. Leave calling them out separately for the fan wikis. --Fru1tbat (talk) 12:29, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Episode Viewership Incorrect
The "Episode Viewers (Millions)" column cites a Nielsen ratings chart. It is true that, for example, All Good Things pulled a 17.4 Nielsen rating, but that doesn't mean 17.4 million people were watching. It meant that 17.4% of U.S. households with a television were watching.

To convert this to millions of viewers, you need to know both (a) the number of U.S. households with a television in each year 1987-1995 and (b) the average U.S. household size in each of those years. Since I don't have that data, I simply leave it as a note to the next editor. --BCSWowbagger (talk) 07:56, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

 * I noticed this as well. It may not be possible to find or accurately calculate viewership numbers. We could use an auxiliary column in Template:Episode table to display something along the lines of "Nielsen Rating (U.S.)" instead of "Viewers". Thoyt (talk) 06:33, 11 June 2023 (UTC)