January 4, 2005
Wade Boggs Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Wade Boggs, once a member of the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Devil Rays, but most beloved in the hearts of New Yorkers as a NY Yankee (especially since he was a part of a World Series team), has been voted almost unanimously to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Some of his stats: His career batting average is .328, and he's batted in 118 home runs and 1,014 runs in over 2,439 games. But who could forget that magical moment when, after the Yankees won the 1996 World Series, Boggs got onto a police horse and rode around the stadium. It would have been one thing if Boggs was riding the horse alone, but he bumped along riding behind a police officer. This made Gothamist laugh well into 1997.
Boggs is a superstitious player. And here are some more stats and this is a Yankees.com story about his numbers.
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What hat is he wearing?
i'm thinking he's going into the hall as a member of the red sox.
unfortunately
No, I bet he'll go in as a Yankee. Through he spent all those years in Boston, there was a lot of grumbling about what a selfish player he was, and when he left for NY, there was little love lost. And he got his Series with the Yankees, so I think that'll seal the deal.
Does anyone remember when Wade Boggs pitched? It was for the Yanks, but I don't remember the year. It was in the 9th inning, and Joe Torre put him in so he could rest Wetteland (I think) for the next day. Needless to say, the Yanks had a sizable lead, and then went on to win despite Boggs' unintentional knuckleballing. The funny bit is that he struck someone out.
Well, if he goes into the Hall of Fame as a Red Sox player, there will always be the indelible image of him as a Yankee on a horse; in fact, I think there should be a lifesize cutout of that next to his plaque or whatever.
I think he will definitely go in as a Red Sox - as does the Yankees.com article linked above. He played most of his career there, won all of his batting titles there, and got 70% of his hits as a Red Sox.
As for his pitching, I only read about it, but his knuckleballing was probably not unintentional. He apparently had a very good knuckleball and worked on it on the sidelines.