June 10, 2011

Drinking beer and bass fishing have always gone hand-in-hand. So, one would guess that any individual who takes his drinking very seriously would naturally be a passionate lure jerker. Boggs proves this theory true.

(taken from http://www.waltreynolds.com/boggs.html)

"After getting his 3,000th major league hit, what does future Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs look forward to doing? Going fishing...and as much as possible!

At a special Wade Boggs Day, Tampa Bay Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli presented Boggs with this Mercury 200 hp OptiMax powered deluxe 19-foot Ranger 518 SVX bass fishing boat. The $50,000 custom-designed craft included carpeting, done in Devil Rays colors, with a Wade Boggs signature and a Devil Rays logo. The design required more than 1,000 man-hours of work.

When not bass fishing in the lakes and rivers near his home in the Tampa Bay area, Boggs supports numerous charity fishing events including the Mercury Outboards Redbone celebrity series in the Fla. Keys for cystic fibrosis research and Chuck LaMar's Mercury Grand Slam celebrity fishing tournament in Tampa Bay for pediatric cancer research."

Although he drives a badass boat, Boggs the bass fisherman is clearly as laid back and easy going as one would expect (remember, this is the same guy who would regularly, and casually, toss back 60 beers on a cross-country team flight). Below is a story posted by someone on talksox.com that recounts the likable nature of Wade the fisherman:

(taken from http://www.talksox.com/forum/talk-sox-forum/12389-wade-boggs-story.html)

"My friend went to a Bass Fishing tournament on Friday. While I was having some drinks after work, my friend called to tell me that Wade Boggs had been at the tournament and that he was drinking with Boggs. He asked Boggs to say hello to the biggest Sox fan he knew. Boggs took the phone and was very friendly, but it was noisy where I was and where he was, so I really could n't hear much of what he had said. My friend had told me that Boggs was in the picture he had sent me earlier in the day. He had sent me a picture of his prize winning fish. After speaking to Boggs, I checked the picture. Boggs was not in the picture. I sent a text to my friend telling him that Boggs was not in the picture. My friend insisted that he was. Now I am starting to think that someone is pulling my leg with a prank. I text my friend a question for Boggs to verify his identity. I told him to ask Boggs the significance of 7:17. My friend has no clue, so he can't answer it. My friend is cracking up and he tells Boggs that I suspect that he is a fraud. He read the text wrong and asks Boggs: "what is 7 for 17?" Boggs looked at him like he was nuts and says "is he talking about the time I went 7 for 7?" I text my friend: "not 7 for 7. Ask him about 7:17 pm." He shows Boggs the text, and Boggs says "Oh, I went to the batting cage at 5:17 and ran my wind sprints at 7:17." He asked my friend for his phone so he could call me and verify his identity. They fumbled the hand off and dropped the phone breaking it to smithereens. Boggs says tell me his number and I call him on my phone. My friend of course doesn't have my cell phone # memorized because it is programmed into his phone. We had a pretty good laugh the next day."

June 9, 2011

This Day in Boggs History!


Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Wade Boggs' strange injury involving a hotel room, cowboy boot and a cheaply upholstered couch. Apparently he was trying to pry off his tightly fitting cowboy boots in the hotel, "lost his ballance" and fell ribs first onto a couch.

Before the alleged accident Boggs was on track to hit .400 for the season. Maybe if he didn't wear such god-damn tight fitting Cowboy Boots he would have reached that milestone.

No doubt Boggs was at least 83 Miller Lite's deep...which I'm sure is the real reason he lost his balance. Everyone knows you don't take off Cowboy Boots standing up, that is just insane.

(Below is an excerpt take from original story: www.hardballtimes.com by Chris Jaffe)

In a hotel in Toronto on June 9, 1986, Boggs tried to use his foot to pry off the cowboy boot from his other foot, only to have things go rather badly. Instead of losing his boot, he lost his balance and fell ribcage-first into the arm of a couch. Ooph. And just like that, the world-class hitter looked like a Keystone Cop. It would be purely funny, except Boggs felt like he could barely breathe after hitting the couch. He bruised his ribs badly and could barely take a deep breath. He could only pinch hit in the next game (where he drew a walk). After playing all the next three games (with only two hits), Boggs had to leave a game early on June 15 because his ribs weren’t getting better. By this time, his average was down to .380, and he wound up missing six games. When Boggs finally came back, he wasn’t quite the same and ended the year with a .357 mark, nowhere near .400, but still enough to lead the league.