Billy Beane made his major league debut on Sept. 13, 1984. That year, on-base percentage officially became a statistic – the dawn of Moneyball, however, would not come for another decade-and-a-half. But for some, that yet to be known style of play was the only way to play.
One of those who played this style ahead of his time: Wade Boggs.
By the time Wade Boggs made his major league debut on April 10, 1982, he was nearly 24 years old, with six seasons and 662 games of professional baseball under his belt. Despite the fact that he had a .318 batting average and a .412 on-base percentage (which technically didn’t even exist at this point) during that six-year stretch, his stealthy talent went largely unnoticed.
But why?
Well, because during those same 662 games, Boggs had virtually no power. He hit just nine home runs with a .386 slugging percentage. And old school, unwritten baseball rules required that punch-and-judy singles hitters be able to steal bases. But Wade was not fast enough, averaging fewer than five steals-per-season during his time in the minors.
When Boggs finally did get his big league opportunity, it didn’t take long for his unsung minor league success to translate to the major league level. On July 1, 1982, in what was just his 58th career at-bat (65th plate appearance) he led off a game against the Tigers with a single to centerfield off Milt Wilcox, lifting his lifetime batting average to .328 – Wade’s career would span 9,122 more at-bats (10,675 plate appearances) and his lifetime batting average would never again dip below that mark.
Modern statistics tell us that Wade was the American League’s most valuable position player in 1986, 1987, and 1988, and the league’s second most valuable player in 1983, 1985, and 1989. He won five batting titles during that stretch and six on-base percentage crowns. In 1985, he reached base safely in 152 games (of 161 played). This still stands as a major league record; moreover, in the games he failed to reach base safely, he knocked in a run in three and had just one plate appearance in another. He led all of baseball in times safely on base for seven straight seasons from 1983 to 1989. During that stretch, he also became the first player to record seven straight 200-hit seasons since Wee Willie Keeler had eight straight from 1894 to 1901. In 1986, he became the first player with at least 200 hits and 100 walks in a season since Stan Musial in 1953. He would go on to repeat that every season through 1989, four-straight, a feat unmatched throughout baseball history.
Stats aside: Wade Boggs maintained a .463 on-base percentage from 1986 to 1988. Joe DiMaggio maintained a .463 on-base percentage during his record hit-streak from Game No. 1 to Game No. 56.
Yet somehow, he remained overlooked, underrated, and underappreciated. During that same stretch, he never finished higher than fourth in MVP voting. In fact, he did not receive a single first-place vote in ANY of the seasons mentioned above.
Wade Boggs’ unique skillset was so undervalued, that the beloved Bostonian was not even tenured a contract by the Red Sox after a flukey, down 1992 season. This even despite the fact that he had been promised a contract, prior to the season, that would make him a member of the Red Sox for life.
What’s a fluke? If you ask Boggs that, he would likely tell you a flounder; Wade is an acute angler and actually holds the International Game Fish Association world record for largest bluefish ever caught (87 centimeters). He will, in all likelihood, one day join Ted Williams as the lone members of both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame. But if you ask me, what’s a fluke? I would say Wade’s 1992 season. Which was, perhaps, one of the most unlucky seasons in baseball history, during which he saw his batting average on balls in play drop below his career mark of .360, way down to .261 on the season.
Wade Boggs would play through the 1990s. His final game on Aug. 27, 1999, finishing with 3,010 hits – at a time when 3,000 hits guaranteed enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Wade Boggs received his Hall of Fame call on Jan. 4, 2005, and on July 31, 2005, he was inducted, as a first ballot Hall of Famer.
But is it possible that the talents of Wade Boggs, again, a first ballot Hall of Famer, were still underappreciated? (Aside from his beer drinking abilities, of course).
I contend that they were.
It was not until May 26, 2016, that the Red Sox righted a longtime injustice, retiring Wade’s No. 26 jersey. This, after allowing the likes of Wes Chamberlain, Lee Tinsley, Alejandro Pena, Aaron Sele, Orlando Merced, Chris Snopek, Rob Stanifer, Sean Berry, Lou Merloni, Freddy Sanchez, Ramiro Mendoza, Scott Podsednik, and Brock Holt to don the iconic number. Sure, there were rules in place regarding having your number retired in Boston – basically, a ballplayer had to finish their career with the Red Sox – but the Sox manipulated those rules to retire No. 27, for Carlton Fisk.
Sox aside: no Boston player has worn Roger Clemens’s No. 21 since he last played for the Red Sox in 1996.
And not only this, but months prior to Wade’s number retirement ceremony, I made a discovery. His National Baseball Hall of Fame plaque had an error on it! Stating, “reached base safely in 80 percent of games played,” which is perhaps an even greater injustice than the Red Sox allowing Lou Merloni to wear No. 26, as Wade Boggs reached base safely in 85.2 percent of games played. This plaque error was hardly immaterial, as 5.2 percent of games played represents 127 games during his career – he played 126 games during the entire 1995 season!
This past summer, I decided to make the National Baseball Hall of Fame aware of this blunder, sending them an email, hoping that they would update his plaque.
Much like the Red Sox, the National Baseball Hall of Fame did decide to correct a longtime injustice. They updated Wade Boggs’ plaque. It now reads that he “reached base safely in 85 percent of games played.” (Technically still 0.2 percent off, but we can deal with that degree of rounding).
But the question remains, how did this guy get overlooked so many times throughout his career? How was a skillset that would garner $30 million-or-more per year in modern baseball so undervalued?
Billy Beane made his major league debut on Sept. 13, 1984, the same year that on-base percentage officially became a statistic – Beane took over as the Athletics General Manager the year before Wade Boggs retired.
Simply put, Wade Boggs was Moneyball before Moneyball.
