Maybe it's just me (judging by Twitter, it's definitely not just me), but I could have gone my entire life without seeing Wade Boggs day at Fenway Park.
Let me start by listing the stupid (and wrong) reasons I've seen people throw out there for not wanting his number retired:
- He played for the Yankees and rode a horse once.
- I don't care that he played for the Yankees, and frankly, the horse thing was genius.
- He was a selfish player because he walked a lot and refused to hit HRs.
- Check his Baseball Reference page. I don't care if he was selfish, the guy was an offensive beast. If he played today, he'd be the best offensive player in baseball.
- He wore his Yankees Championship ring at Fenway!
- If I had a championship ring, I'd have it surgically attached to my finger and I'd annoy the crap out of everyone with it.
If you've used any of those reasons to complain about his number being retired, you're wrong.
There's only one reason why I'd have never retired his number: He wanted to go into the Hall of Fame as a Tampa Bay Ray (technically a Devil Ray, but still).
When he agreed to become the Rays first hall of famer, he lost his right to have his number retired at Fenway. I don't care what his reasons were. I don't care how much the Rays paid him for it. And I don't care that the Hall of Fame put the kibosh on it. The fact that Boggs even considered agreeing to do it was a slap in the face to all Red Sox fans.
Our slap back should have been continuing to allow guys like Lou Merloni and Brock Holt to wear #26.
Or maybe I'm just irrationally negative about everything because JBJ's hitting streak came to an end tonight? Either way, screw Wade Boggs.
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