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?
