Wade Boggs | |||
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Third baseman | |||
Born: Omaha, Nebraska |
June 15, 1958 |||
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MLB debut | |||
April 10, 1982, for the Boston Red Sox | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
August 27, 1999, for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .328 | ||
Hits | 3,010 | ||
Home runs | 118 | ||
Runs batted in | 1,014 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Member of the National | |||
Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
Inducted | 2005 | ||
Vote | 91.9% (first ballot) |
Wade Anthony Boggs (born June 15, 1958) is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He spent his 18-year baseball career primarily with the Boston Red Sox, but also played for the New York Yankees, with whom he won the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with whom he reached 3,000 hits. His hitting in the 1980s and 1990s made him a perennial contender for American League batting titles. He is 33rd on the list of career leaders for batting average among Major League Baseball players with a minimum of 1000 plate appearances. Boggs was elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.
With 12 straight All-Star appearances, Boggs is third only to Brooks Robinson and George Brett in number of consecutive appearances as a third baseman. In 1997, he ranked number 95 on the Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Boggs, a 1976 graduate of Plant High School in Tampa, Florida, currently resides in the Tampa Palms neighborhood of Tampa.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest of three sons of Sue and Winfield K. Boggs, Wade had a regimented military upbringing. Winfield and Sue met in 1946 at a military base in Georgia. Winfield served with the Marines in World War II and flew for the Air Force in the Korean War while Sue piloted mail planes in World War II. The Boggs family lived in several different places (including Puerto Rico and Savannah, Georgia) before settling in Tampa, Florida when Wade was 11 years old. He attended Plant High School in Tampa, where he played baseball and was an All-State football player as a senior. Boggs played quarterback until senior year when he switched positions to avoid injury and thereby protect his baseball career. His success as a left-footed placekicker and punter earned him a scholarship offer from the University of South Carolina. He graduated from Plant High School in 1976 and was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round of the 1976 MLB draft on the advice of veteran scout George Digby. He signed with the club for $7,500.