Seriously, why does Wade catch so much crap from fans? It can't just be because of his girlfriend, your average NBA benchwarmer is involved in 3.7 sex scandals a season so I think we're all pretty jaded towards that sort of thing right now. It can't possibly be the drinking, see: Mickey Mantle. Was it the Hall of Fame cap thing? You'd think that a guy who had worse OCD than Nomar Garciaparra in his playing routines would be pretty beloved. The man was of Cheers and the Simpsons for Pete's sake! He should be universally admired for his mustache alone!
The only theory I can come up with is that he no longer has a natural fan base. Padres fans love Gwynn. Royals fans love Brett. Brewers fans love Yount. Red Sox fans loathe Boggs. His number isn't even retired. Why? He signed with the Yankees. If he signs with the Dodgers instead he would still be beloved and there would probably be a popular chain of Boggs restaurants in Massachusetts that sold only fried chicken and Miller Lite. So for an extra year on his contract Boggs ended up a pariah in the town where he should have been a saint.
So what about the Yankees? He won a couple of gold gloves and a World Series with them. Why can't the Yankee fans pick up the slack? Unfortunately for Wade, in the Book of Yankee Lore, Wade Boggs is waaaaaaaay down on the all-time Yankee list somewhere between Hank Bauer and Urban Shocker. There's just too many other Great Yankee players out there, Wade gets lost in the shuffle. Hell, 99% of Yankee fans will identify Wade with the Red Sox anyway. They all bought packs of Topps in the '80s, they know which team name Wade had on his cards.
Wade hung on to the league by his fingertips with a couple of seasons with the Devil Rays. He was able to muddle through enough at bats with Tampa to get that 3000th hit, which got him in the Hall on his first ballot instead of getting passed over for years like many of his contemporaries. Wade's jersey has been retired by the Rays and not the Sox, which make you think maybe Wade was right about the cap thing. Still, how many Rays fans remember he was on the team back in the bad old days where a couple dozen washed up former stars passed through the roster in their first few years of existence? Probably not many. Here's some proof for you all that Wade was a Ray.
So instead of being venerated for his bat and 'stache, Wade gets bad video game knockoffs just for signing a contract. You think players will ever understand that there is more to a contract than just money and years?
7 comments:
As a young Red Sox fan growing up in the 90's, Wade was the first player I ever detested in ANY sport. Only jerks go and play for the Yankees!
Now Mike Stanley, on the other hand, was a different story.
I'm with you. Even though Wade was a Ray (and I follow the Rays!) he'll always be a Red Sox to me. He got his 3000 hit as a Ray, but neither he nor the team were much to get too excited about. He left Boston for the Yanks, so he pretty much imploded his following there. He's basically a man without a team.
Tom Seaver and Pete Rose tell Mike Douglas about the creation of free agency in baseball. More films and pictures to come.
You should post the video of "Super Gum"...LOL
You should post the video of "Super Gum"...LOL
There are many reasons to not like the Boggs.
1) The obvious; career Boston guy gets picked up as (yet another) Yankee rental and gets his Series ring with the enemy.
2) He commonly took ends of seasons off to preserve a fat lead in batting average to pad his personal career statistics.
2a) The guy put on the early "Saved By the Bell" color scheme Devil Rays jersey just to give them an artificial milestone to borrow and celebrate (see 2 above).
3) Four words: Hair. Restoration. Solution. Salesman.
4) Instant winner of every Bill Buckner lookalike contest.
5) Everyone has been tired hearing about his frickin chicken dinner thing since about 1987.
Oh, and almost forgot. #6 (or maybe #2b) is the fact that Boggs reportedly went to the Rays for his 3000th hit, and to be compensated to have his Saved by the Bell hat logo on his Hall of Fame plaque. Classy move.
Just another reason why he's a man without a team:
Left Boston: jilted, then forgotten after the hurt passes;
Became a Yankee: rental guy like Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, and Jose Canseco. They all put on pinstripes, but nobody thinks of them as serious Yankees;
Finished a Devil Ray: short-term lease for an expansion team looking for some reflected (day) glow. Kinda like the 1962 Mets getting Casey Stengel to manage their disaster.
Although most people forgot it, the whole cheat-on-his-wife Margot Adams thing was handled poorly, and looking like a jerk kind of became his M.O.
There, that must be enough.
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