Hall of Famer Wade Boggs became the tenth Red Sox player to have his number retired by the team. The third baseman’s number 26 joins 1 (Bobby Doerr), 4 (Joe Cronin), 6 (Johnny Pesky), 8 (Carl Yastrzemski), 9 (Ted Williams), 14 (Jim Rice), 27 (Carlton Fisk), 45 (Pedro Martinez), and 42 (Jackie Robinson) on Fenway’s historic right field facade.
On September 3, 2007, Ichiro Suzuki, with a home run against Yankees starter Roger Clemens, collects his 200th hit of the season for the seventh consecutive year. The Mariner outfielder joins Wee Willie Keeler (Orioles and Brooklyn Grooms/Superbas, 1894-1901) and Wade Boggs (Red Sox, 1983-1989) as only the third player to accomplish the feat, and…
2005 – Wade Boggs, a five-time batting champion, and Ryne Sandberg, a nine-time Gold Glove Award winner at second base, are elected to the Hall of Fame. Boggs becomes the 41st player elected to Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility, while receiving 474 of the record number of 516 votes cast (92%). Sandberg receives 393 votes, six more that the needed number. Relief pitchers Bruce Sutter (66.7%) and Goose Gossage (55%), and outfielders Jim Rice (59.5%) and Andre Dawson (52%), are the only other players to be named on at least half of the ballots cast. All four will be voted in over the next five years.
Bill Carrigan, skipper of the 1915-16 World Series champion teams, infielders Billy Goodman (1947-57) and Pete Runnels (1958-62), southpaw Bruce Hurst (1980-88), Pawtucket Red Sox owner Ben Mondor, and former GM Haywood Sullivan are inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. Also enshrined for their contributions to the team are Cooperstown Hall of Famers Wade Boggs (1982-92), Jimmy Collins (1901-07), and right-hander Dennis Eckersley (1978-84).
Wade Boggs of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays becomes the first major leaguer to hit a home run for his 3,000th hit
The Tigers spoil the Devil Rays’ major league debut, beating the American League’s newest team, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in Tampa. After Hall-of-Famers Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Al Lopez, and Monte Irvin throw out ceremonial first pitches, Wilson Alvarez, the losing pitcher, hurls the first pitch in franchise history – a ball to Detroit’s center fielder Brian Hunter.
Wade Boggs makes his pitching debut, throwing 16 knuckleballs and one fastball in a 12-4 loss to the Angels at Anaheim Stadium. The Yankee third baseman, a future Hall of Famer, hurls a scoreless eighth inning, giving up no hits, walking one batter, and striking out Todd Greene swinging to end the frame.
1996 – At Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Braves jump to a 6 – 0 lead, but the Yankees mount the biggest comeback in their long World Series history with a three-run home run by Jim Leyritz that ties the game in the 8th inning. After Bernie Williams is intentionally walked with runners on first and second base in the 10th, Steve Avery walks Wade Boggs to bring in the deciding run.
VINTAGE BASEBALL MEMORABILIA Vintage Baseball Memorabilia May 13, 1995 – Frank Castillo allows 3 hits in 8 1/3 innings and Shawon Dunston hits a 3-run homer as the Chicago Cubs beat San Diego Padres‚ 5-0. Two of the Padre hits are by Tony Gwynn‚ who has hit .402 in his last 162 games stretching…
1992 – The episode of the animated series The Simpsons entitled “Homer at the Bat” gets its first broadcast on FOX. In the episode, Springfield Nuclear Plant owner C. Montgomery Burns hires a team of major league ringers in order to win a bet he placed on a softball game against a rival businessman. In the end, though, it’s the hapless Homer Simpson who saves the day with a walk-off hit-by-pitch. A number of contemporary major league stars, many of them future Hall of Famers lend their voices and likeness to the show, which is considered one of the classic episodes of the series.