On This Date in Sports August 7, 1999: Wade 3K
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Wade Boggs finishing up his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, becomes the first player to get his 3,000th hit with a home run. Boggs milestone moment off Chris Haney at Tropicana Field. Despite Boggs's blast, the Devil Rays lose to the Cleveland Indians 15-10. It ended a stretch of three milestones in three days. Mark McGwire hit #500, and Tony Gwynn getting hit #3,000 the previous two days.
Wade Boggs was born June 15, 1958, in Omaha, Nebraska. Boggs moved around several times as a kid, a son of a military family, before settling in Tampa in 1969. At Plant City High School, Wade Boggs starred in football and baseball and was offered several scholarships but chose to play baseball when the Boston Red Sox drafted him in the seventh round of the 1976 draft.
Wade Boggs was a slash and burn hitter who did not have much power, but he moved through the Boston system and debuted in 1982. A left-handed hitter with a good swing to the opposite side made him the perfect hitter for Fenway Park as he often hit the ball off the Green Monster, batting .349 as he finished third in Rookie of the Year balloting. A year later, Wade Boggs won his first batting title with a .361 average. This would start a six-year stretch, in which he led the American League in batting average five times; the lone exception was 1984.
Wade Boggs became a perennial All-Star, with 12 straight appearances in the mid-summer classic as he also had seven straight seasons of 200 hits. Boggs was not much of a power hitter, as he only had two seasons where he reached double-digits in an 18-year career, with 24 being his career-best in 1987, a season in which home runs were up throughout baseball.
The 1992 season would be tough for Wade Boggs, as he failed to hit .300 for the first time in his career, batting .259 as he was in the final season of his contract with the Red Sox. Unhappy with his contract offers with Boston, Wade Boggs stunned Red Sox Nation when he signed with the rival New York Yankees. Boggs would have a bounce-back season for the Yankees in 1993, batting .302. Wade Boggs's final All-Star season would come in 1996. That season would see the Yankees win their first World Series in 18 years. A decade earlier, Boggs crying in the dugout would be one of the lasting memories of the 1986 World Series in Boston. Now a champion with the Yankees, he hopped on a horse with a mounted police officer to celebrate a title with New York.
Following the 1997 season, Wade Boggs, on the verge of turning 40, was left unsigned by the Yankees, who sought a younger third baseman. At the same time, the Tampa Bay Devils Rays were born and looked to build their fan base by bringing in familiar names that were natives of the Florida Gulf Coast, including Boggs. Though not a home run hitter, Wade Boggs hit the first home run in the history of the Rays in their first game on March 31, 1998.
By the time the 1999 season arrived, it was clear; Wade Boggs was just about done. Now 41-years of age, he was seeking his 3,000th hit as he played on bad knees on a second-year expansion team. Tony Gwynn, a San Diego native who played his entire career with the Padres, also entered the year his 3,000th hit. Both he and Boggs debuted during the 1982 season and became perennial batting champions and .300 hitters. As Wade Boggs was winning five batting crowns in six seasons in the American League, Gwynn won eight batting titles in the National League. Both were closing in on 3,000 hits at the same time. Tony Gwynn reached the milestone on August 6th with a single off Dan Smith of the Montreal Expos.
While Gwynn got four hits in Montreal, leading the Padres to a 12-10, Wade Boggs, who entered the game with 2,997 hits, was held off the board and had to wait one more day to make his mark in baseball history. Just two days earlier in a game, Mark McGwire had his 500th home run against Gwynn’s Padres.
On a Saturday night at Tropicana Field, the Devils Rays managed by Larry Rothschild were in last place with a record of 45-64. The Indians, meanwhile, were atop the Central Division with a record of 65-43 under Mike Hargrove. The Tribe struck first as Manny Ramirez hit a three-run home run off Bobby Witt in the first inning. The Indians added three more runs on an RBI single by Manny and a two-run home run by Jim Thome in the third. In the bottom of the inning, Tampa got on the board as Wade Boggs singled in Dave Martinez for hit #2,998. Fred McGriff followed with a bases-clearing double to make it 6-4.
The Indians would answer with four runs off Bryan Rekar in the fourth as Omar Vizquel, Thome, and Richie Sexton all drove in runs to give Cleveland a 10-4 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Boggs inched closer to 3,000 with an RBI single as the Rays scored twice to cut the deficit to 10-6. Manny Ramirez added another RBI in the fifth, as Paul Sorrento answered for Tampa, making the score 11-7 after five innings of play.
Chris Haney pitched for Cleveland in the sixth inning and gave up a one-out single to Terrell Lowery. Next up was Wade Boggs, who hit one into the stands of Tropicana Field for career hit 3,000. Coming home, Boggs kneeled and kissed home plate as the score stood at 11-9.
Both teams continued to score, as neither team had much pitching, with the Indians winning 15-10 as Manny Ramirez had five RBI, while Jim Thome had four. Wade Boggs would get one more turn at bat and was walked in the eighth inning.
Wade Boggs would only get ten more hits, as he played just three more weeks, as continued knee pain led him to shut it down in his final season on August 27th. The home run, which was his second of the 1999 season, was the final of his career. Wade Boggs, who was more known for doubles and singles, had just 118 career home runs while finishing with a career average of .328 as he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2005.