The Red Sox selected Wade Anthony Boggs in the 7th round of the 1976 Amateur Draft. He would spend six years in the Minor Leagues, showing the sort of discipline for which he became so well known throughout his career. Problem was, he displayed little power. Had he never found his power stroke, and by “power stroke” I mean ability to notch extra-base hits of any kind, he never would have amounted to much of a Major League hitter – more like a niche offensive weapon that could post higher on-base totals than slugging numbers. But something changed for Boggs at Pawtucket in 1981. He started hitting doubles in huge bunches. He had 41 of them, added 5 home runs and after five consecutive Minor League slugging below .400, Boggs posted a .460 slugging percentage. He was ready for the Show.

Boggs played more games at 1st base than he did at 3rd in 1982, chiefly because the Sox employed Carney Lansford, who had won the 1981 batting title. Playing here and there when Manager Ralph Houk could find some time for him (he had 381 plate appearances), Boggs posted an impressive line of .349/.406/.441 in his rookie season. After the Red Sox traded Carney Lansford to Oakland for Tony Armas in December of 1982, Boggs had a full-time Major League gig as the 3rd Baseman for the Boston Red Sox. He would amass a career that few (2? 3, maybe?) Red Sox position players have matched.

In each season from 1983 through 1990, Wade Boggs led Major League Baseball in number of times reached base. He was a pain in the ass at the plate. He would lay off pitches outside the zone, foul off tough pitches on the corners and stay within himself on every swing. If it was on the outside half of the plate, he could flick his wrists and scrape the Green Monster for a double. If the pitcher tried to bust him inside, his hands were quick enough to pull the ball for a line-drive single to right field. If the pitcher made a bad mistake, Boggs had the pop to jack a ball, too. He finished his career with a respectable total of 118 home runs. In 1987, he hit .361/.463/.588 and finished the season with 26 home runs. It was one of the finest seasons a Red Sox slugger ever had. That Boggs managed those totals while playing 3rd Base made his 1987 year every bit as valuable as even some of Ted Williams’ best seasons.

In 1992, his last season with the Sox, Boggs posted a mediocre line of .259/.353/.358. That it was due in large part to a strikingly low BABIP (batting average on balls in play) or that sometimes guys just have down years seemed lost on the Red Sox, as they never gave much consideration to bringing Boggs back for 1993. He would join the New York Yankees, and though he struggled in 1993, he would post fantastic seasons in the strike-shortened seasons of 1994 and 1995. He would play an important role on the 1996 World Champion Yankees, with an OB/SLG of .389/.389 in over 500 plate appearances. Still, when Charlie Hayes and not Boggs corralled the final out of the 1996 World Series, it was clear that Boggs was nearing the end. He had a terrible 1997 with the Yanks and played out the string with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, his hometown team. He collected his 3,000th hit with Tampa, on a home run of all things, the first to ever do that.

Wade Boggs is going to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, but you wouldn’t really know it from reading the Boston newspapers or listening to the Sports Radio airwaves. For those that like to get wrapped up in off-the-field issues and discuss how big of a problem a player as productive as Manny Ramirez is to the Red Sox, the greatness of Wade Boggs will never register. He had a reputation for walking too much (HA!) and just hitting singles to pad his own stats, almost as if many deduced that a .450 on-base was detrimental to a team’s winning effort. The media jumped on him for his flaws and his quirks – and he had plenty of each of those. He had a very public adulterous affair with which the media, local and national, had a field day. He used to take batting practice and run sprints at the very same time before night games. He rode that friggin’ horse around Yankee Stadium, straddling a Police Officer, for crissakes. And hilariously, he bent down and kissed home plate at the Trop after his 3,000th hit, a home run. I think his demeanor affected the media’s perception of him, as he never finished in the top-3 for MVP voting, despite having a number of season in which he was pretty clearly the frontrunner for the honor. The quirks and personal shortcomings were all peripheral as far as I was concerned. Between the lines and at the plate, he was a force.

There was one particular incident in which I felt the media did Boggs a real injustice. After Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, there is a very famous video image of Boggs weeping uncontrollably in the visitors’ dugout of Shea Stadium. He took a lot of heat for that, some saying he was an emotional wreck while others said he was doing it for show. What many forget, however, was that Boggs lost his mother during the 1986 season. When you lose someone dear to you, you must carry on, and Boggs did. But often at the very first moment you have to think about all you have been through, it can hit you like a tidal wave. That moment came for Boggs at the conclusion of the World Series. So Boggs loses his mother, grinds out a pennant race, wins one of the most exciting LCS series of all time and then loses the World Series in an unthinkably heartbreaking manner. It just all hit him at once, and he deserved more understanding.

Boggs, with his career line of .328/.415/.443, enters Cooperstown on Sunday as one of the very finest 3rd Baseman of all-time. I hope there is a supportive Boston contingent there to congratulate him. He is a deserving hall-of-famer in every respect, and Sox fans everywhere should be proud that his plaque will feature Boggs sporting a cap with the old-english “B” on it. It always seemed his personal failures and multitude of quirks garnered more attention than his remarkable baseball abilities. For one weekend we all owe it to Boggs to cast aside the nonsense and honor him for his accomplishments.