Date of birth: 15 June 1958
Primary position: Third Baseman
Elected to Red Sox Hall of Fame: 2004
Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: 2005
It was rare indeed to see Wade Boggs swing away at the first pitch, in sharp contrast to former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, and his patience and steady play at the plate helped him collect over 3,000 hits in his 18-year career in baseball, spending his first eleven seasons with Boston. Methodically, he was as consistent at the plate as he was in his everyday routine, perhaps one of the most superstitious players ever to wear a major league uniform. As part of his game preparation, he would eat a meal of chicken, earning the moniker “Chicken Man” from teammate Jim Rice; he would also perform drills at the same exact time every day, whether it was taking ground balls, stepping into the batting cage, or running wind sprints before the start of the game.
As a rookie in 1982, Boggs impressed the Boston organization enough (118 hits, .349 average) that they shipped Carney Lansford, who had won a batting title with the Red Sox in 1981, to Oakland and moved Boggs permanently to third base. Boggs responded by averaging .352 at the plate for the next seven years and winning the American League batting title five times. He also collected 200 or more hits in each of those seasons, the only player in the 20th century to accomplish this feat (Wee Willie Keeler had eight straight seasons between 1894 and 1901). He continued his Red Sox career through 1992 and finished with a .338 average, second only to Ted Williams in the franchise record book; he also sits third all-time on the team in on-base percentage at .428 and fifth with 2,098 hits.
Boggs played seven more seasons with the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays and ended his career with 3,010 hits to his credit. In recognition of his career accomplishments, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 on 91.9 percent of the ballots.
Career Batting Statistics through 2018 Season
| Season | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BB | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 338 | 51 | 118 | 5 | 44 | 35 | 1 | .349 |
| 1983 | 582 | 100 | 210 | 5 | 74 | 92 | 3 | .361 |
| 1984 | 625 | 109 | 203 | 6 | 55 | 89 | 3 | .325 |
| 1985 | 653 | 107 | 240 | 8 | 78 | 96 | 2 | .368 |
| 1986 | 580 | 107 | 207 | 8 | 71 | 105 | 0 | .357 |
| 1987 | 551 | 108 | 200 | 24 | 89 | 105 | 1 | .363 |
| 1988 | 584 | 128 | 214 | 5 | 58 | 125 | 2 | .366 |
| 1989 | 621 | 113 | 205 | 3 | 54 | 107 | 2 | .330 |
| 1990 | 619 | 89 | 187 | 6 | 63 | 87 | 0 | .302 |
| 1991 | 546 | 93 | 181 | 8 | 51 | 89 | 1 | .332 |
| 1992 | 514 | 62 | 133 | 7 | 50 | 74 | 1 | .259 |
| TOTAL | 6213 | 1067 | 2098 | 85 | 687 | 1004 | 16 | .338 |
Awards and Recognition with Boston
Batting Champion (.361), 1983
Batting Champion (.368), 1985
Batting Champion (.357), 1986
Batting Champion (.363), 1987
Batting Champion (.366), 1988
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1983
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1986
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1987
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1988
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1989
Silver Slugger Award (3B), 1991
Memorable Moments for Wade Boggs
- 8 June 1976 - Boston selects high school pitcher Bruce Hurst in the first round of the amateur draft. In the seventh round, the Red Sox select high school infielder Wade Boggs.
- 26 April 1982 - Future Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs collects his first major league hit in a 3-2 win for the Red Sox over the White Sox in Chicago.
- 22 June 1982 - Rookie Wade Boggs hits his first major league home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to give Boston a 5-4 win over Detroit at Fenway Park.
- 6 December 1982 - With the emergence of Wade Boggs at third base, Boston sends 1981 American League batting champion Carney Lansford and two others to Oakland for outfielder Tony Armas and catcher Jeff Newman.
- 25 July 1985 - Wade Boggs extends a 28-game hitting streak in a 5-3 Red Sox win over the Mariners at Fenway Park.
- 26 July 1985 - By going 0-for-3 in Boston's 6-2 win over Seattle, Wade Bogg's consecutive-game hitting streak ends at 28.
- 21 September 1985 - Wade Boggs sets a new American League mark with his 185th single in the fifth inning of Boston's 7-6 win over Detroit. With the same hit, he also surpasses Tris Speaker for the single-season franchise mark for hits with number 223 and finishes the season with 240 total base-knocks.
- 8 June 1986 - Wade Boggs goes hitless in Boston's 7-3 loss to Milwaukee. Boggs, over the past 162 games for the Red Sox, has played in all but two games, batting exactly .400 during that stretch.
- 25 September 1989 - In Boston's 5-4 win over New York, Wade Boggs becomes the only player in modern baseball history to record seven consecutive 200-hit seasons. He also finishes the season with over 100 walks for the fourth straight year, the first player in history to have 200 hits and 100 walks in four consecutive seasons.
- 10 April 1990 - Wade Boggs is intentionally walked three times by Detroit at Fenway Park, tying the record for most in a nine-inning game.
- 1 October 1991 - With a pair of doubles in Boston's 8-5 loss to Detroit at Fenway Park, Wade Boggs reaches the mark of 40 two-baggers for the seventh straight season, only the second player in baseball history to accomplish the feat.
- 17 May 1992 - Wade Boggs collects his 2,000th career hit in a 3-1 loss to the Angels at Fenway Park.
- 15 December 1992 - Wade Boggs, after eleven season in Boston, signs a free agent deal with the Yankees.
- 4 January 2005 - Former Boston third baseman Wade Boggs is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 26 May 2016 - The Red Sox retire Wade Bogg's number 26 during a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park ahead of a 8-2 loss to the Rockies. The former third baseman played 11 seasons with Boston and had been elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005 on his first ballot, but a tumultuous relationship between the player and the club had delayed this recognition for several years.
- 1 October 2016 - Right fielder Mookie Betts goes 2-for-4 in a 4-3 Red Sox loss against the Blue Jays at Fenway Park. The two hits give him 214 for the season, putting him in third place behind Wade Boggs (240 in 1985) and Tris Speaker (222 in 1912) for the most hits by a Red Sox player in a single season.