His 3,000th hit -- a home run, of all things -- came in his hometown of Tampa while he was wearing those hideous colors of the Devil Rays. He won his World Series ring with the New York Yankees and rode a police horse around the warning track in Yankee Stadium -- wearing those hated pinstripes.
But Wade Boggs made the Hall of Fame by hitting singles and doubles for the Red Sox from 1982 through 1992. And if the hardball god is true, Boggs surely will walk into Cooperstown as a Red Sox.
He was anything but boring, a hitting machine who tortured the opposition and sometimes had a hard time making friends in his own clubhouse. Boggs was Ichiro without the speed. He was Ted Williams without the power. He borrowed from Cobb, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, too. He named his only son after George Brett, and high school senior outfielder Brett Boggs no doubt will be selected in June when big league teams get around to their annual draft.
Wade Boggs was born in Nebraska, son of a career Marine who ran things by the clock. This sense of timing and being on time never abandoned young Wade. Think Nomar was baseball's original Rain Man? Forget about it. Boggs was doing the "Wapner at Five” routine long before Nomar got to Fenway Park. Boggs did everything at the same time every day. He ate chicken every day. Even though he's not Jewish, he drew the symbol for the Hebrew word "chai" in the batter's box before every plate appearance.
Young Theo and the Minions would have loved Boggs. He saw more pitches than anybody. He almost never swung at the first pitch. His on-base percentage was off the charts. He scored runs.
Wade's dad went to the Tampa library and checked out Ted Williams's "The Science of Hitting" when Boggs was in high school. The kid learned his lessons well. He was a good enough high school punter to get football scholarship offers, but at the urging of scout George Digby, the Red Sox drafted Wade out of Plant High in the seventh round in 1976. Boggs hit .263 for Elmira of the New York-Penn League in 57 games that summer. He would not be held under .300 again until 1992, his final season with the Red Sox.
Boggs spent six full years in the minors -- which makes it even more amazing that he was able to reach 3,000 hits. He stroked 200 or more hits in seven consecutive seasons. There was at least one June-to-June stretch over two seasons in which he batted .400 over 162 games. He could have hit 25-30 homers a year, but he wouldn't let his average suffer. He was also stingy about moving runners over at the expense of his average. He took hundreds of grounders every day and made himself a Gold Glove fielder.
