Wade Boggs

Wade Anthony Boggs grew up in Tampa with a copy of Ted Williams' The Science of Hitting that his father gave him and a conviction that hitting a baseball was a discipline, not a talent. He played 18 major league seasons, collected 3,010 hits, batted .328 for his career, won five American League batting titles including four in a row from 1985 through 1988, posted seven consecutive seasons with 200 or more hits, led all of baseball in on-base percentage for five straight years, and on August 7, 1999, became the first player in major league history to hit a home run for his 3,000th hit. Tommy John said of him in 1991, "For pure hitting, Boggs is the best I've ever seen. He's a phenomenon, a pure hitting machine. I've never seen anything like him." The BBWAA elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2005 with 91.9% of the vote.

Tampa

Boggs was born on June 15, 1958, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father Winfield served as a Marine in World War II and flew planes for the Air Force in Korea. His mother Sue Nell piloted mail planes. The family lived in Puerto Rico and Savannah, Georgia, before settling in Tampa when Wade was about 11. Boggs attended Plant High School, hit .522 as a junior, and earned all-state honors as a quarterback in football before switching to placekicker to protect his throwing arm. The University of South Carolina offered a football scholarship. He chose baseball instead.

Boggs married Debbie Bertucelli in December 1976. The Boston Red Sox drafted him in the seventh round of the 1976 draft. He spent six years in the minor leagues before reaching Boston in 1982 at 24. In 1981, while playing for Pawtucket, he participated in the longest professional baseball game in history, a 33-inning contest against the Rochester Red Wings that started on April 18 and did not finish until June 23. Cal Ripken Jr. played for Rochester.

Boston

Boggs batted .349 in 104 games as a rookie and won his first batting title in 1983 at .361, finishing 22 points ahead of Rod Carew. He won four consecutive titles from 1985 through 1988, joining Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Carew as the only players to accomplish that. His .368 average in 1985 was the highest by a Red Sox hitter since Williams batted .388 in 1957, and his 240 hits that year were the most in baseball in 55 years.

Boggs collected 200 or more hits in seven consecutive seasons from 1983 through 1989, an American League record later surpassed by Ichiro Suzuki. He reached base safely in 85% of his career games and posted a .415 on-base percentage for his career. He ate chicken before every game throughout his playing days, earning the nickname "Chicken Man" and eventually publishing a cookbook called Fowl Tips. He fielded exactly 150 ground balls in practice, ran sprints at 7:17 p.m., and drew the Hebrew word "Chai" in the batter's box before each at bat despite not being Jewish. "Believe me, I have a few superstitions, and they work," he said at his Hall of Fame induction.

Boggs hit 24 home runs in 1987, a career high, and batted .363 while leading the league in walks, on-base percentage, and doubles. His bat produced runs through precision rather than power, and the consistency of his output from 1983 through 1989 placed him alongside the greatest contact hitters in the game's history.

The World Series

The Red Sox reached the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets. Boggs doubled and scored in the 10th inning of Game 6 to give Boston a 5-3 lead before the Mets rallied to win on Mookie Wilson's grounder through Bill Buckner's legs. The Red Sox lost the series in seven games. Cameras caught Boggs crying in the dugout afterward. He later said the tears were not for the loss but for grief over his mother, who was killed four months earlier when a cement truck driver ran a red light in Tampa.

Boggs signed with the New York Yankees as a free agent before the 1993 season. He won two Gold Gloves at third base in 1994 and 1995, his first Gold Gloves at age 36, and made his 12th consecutive All-Star team in 1996. The Yankees won the World Series that fall, sweeping the Atlanta Braves after losing the first two games. In Game 4, Boggs pinch-hit in the 10th inning with the bases loaded and drew a walk off Steve Avery, forcing in the go-ahead run. After the final out he celebrated by climbing onto a police horse and riding it around the outfield at Yankee Stadium despite a self-described fear of horses. It was his only championship.

3,000

Boggs signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998, returning to the city where he grew up. He hit the first home run in franchise history on Opening Day, March 31, 1998. On August 7, 1999, at Tropicana Field against the Cleveland Indians, Boggs faced left-hander Chris Haney with a 2-2 count and drove a hanging breaking ball over the right field wall for his 3,000th hit. He was the first player in major league history to reach the milestone with a home run.

Boggs pointed skyward near second base, honoring his mother, then knelt and kissed home plate. The crowd of 38,215, a season high at Tropicana Field, stood for the ovation. "I finally put my flag in that mountain," Boggs said. "Now I've finally done something that nobody else has ever done, and that's hit a home run to get to 3,000." Manager Larry Rothschild recalled that Boggs returned to the dugout and said, "Let's go win a game."

Boggs played 10 more games before retiring. He finished with 3,010 hits, 578 doubles, 118 home runs, 1,014 RBI, and a .328 batting average across 18 seasons. He won five batting titles, eight Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, and one World Series ring, and made 12 consecutive All-Star teams from 1985 through 1996. Both the Red Sox and the Rays retired his number.

The Hall of Fame selected a Red Sox cap for his plaque after reports surfaced that the Devil Rays had offered compensation for Boggs to choose their cap instead. Boggs disputed the account. The incident prompted the Hall to change its policy, removing the player's choice on cap selection going forward. "I was told in the minor leagues that I'll never play third in the big leagues," Boggs said in his induction speech. "That I don't hit for power so I'm not going to play in the big leagues. I'm not fast enough." He paused. Then he listed his numbers.