A Visit from the Chicken Man

Continued from page 21

Boggs’ unique role in the longest game in the history of organized baseball, a 33 inning game in which the Pawtucket Red Sox defeated the Rochester Red Wings by the score of 3-2, played April 18-19, 1981 then temporarily suspended, then concluded on June 23, 1981. When the game was adjourned after 32 innings at 4:07 AM on April 19 (Easter Morning), there were 19 fans in the stands. When the game was resumed on June 23, it was before a packed house of 5,746 and 140 members of the press. Boggs played third base for Pawtucket that game, going 4-12 with a double and an RBI. Playing at third base for Rochester was future Hall of Famer Cal Ripkin, Jr. who went 3-12. Although this game was mentioned briefly among the later questions asked at the luncheon, a detail of the game that was not discussed was that in the top of the 21st inning, Rochester scored a run to go ahead by a score of 2-1. At this point it was around 2:00 A.M. In the bottom of the inning, Boggs drove in the tying run with a double. After the game he would say, “When I doubled in the tying run in the 21st inning, I didn’t know if the guys wanted to hug me or slug me.”

So exactly what of Wade Boggs did Phillies fans get to see over his career? Interleague play was only initiated in 1997, when Boggs was in his last year with the Yankees. That year he appeared in one game against the Philles before a crowd of 50,869 at Veterans Stadium on September 1, 1997 in which Curt Schilling struck out 16 Yankees in 8 innings on the way to a 5-1 Phillies victory. Boggs went 2 for 4 with a double, driving in the Yankees' only run. Boggs would not appear in either of the other two games in the series, which turned out to be a 3-0 Phillies sweep on their way to a last place finish. The 1998 Boggs, then with Tampa, would go 0-10 in three games in Philadelphia, which the Devil Rays won two of three. In 1999, Boggs he would go 1 for 8 in three games played in Tampa, two of which were won by the Devil Rays.

Collectively in 7 games against the Phillies, Boggs would go 3 for 22 for a batting average of .136 - the worst batting average that Boggs would have against any team in baseball.

“The little game within the game.” Boggs once stated that, “The one thing that I love about hitting is that it's you against the guy 60 feet 6 inches away. One-on-one… It's you against the guy on the mountain….That's the neat thing that really gets you flowing and really excites you because you sit there and go OK who's on the mound today? Jack Morris, Tom Weaver, Steve Carlton, Dave Stewart, Dave Stieb….I mean you sit there and get fired up that night at night when you're getting ready to put your head on the pillow - that OK here we go and it's that confrontation that he's trying to figure out and that you're trying to figure out so it's the back and forth cat and mouse game that goes on between the little game within the game.”

In a discussion before the luncheon, Boggs talked of his history with various pitchers over the years, sharing his experiences of the “little game within the game.” He recalled how he “hit both Phil and Joe Niekro pretty hard.” Going to the books, in 27 at bats against brother Phil, Boggs had a .407 batting average with a .987 OPS. His batting average against brother Joe was easier to compute, as he went 5 for 5 against him with a home run - and an OPS of 1.600. He chuckled about giving Dave “Smoke” Stewart fits, as he not only had a batting average of .366 against him with an OPS of 1.159, but he managed to draw 17 walks off him in just 71 at bats. He had a .310 batting average against Tom Seaver and a .349 average against Jack Morris. Of pitchers who gave him problems, he said submarine pitchers used to give him fits, as he had trouble elevating the ball. He recalled how his at bats against Dan Quisenberry, against whom he had an average of .105, “resulted in just one ground ball to the third baseman after another.”

Although he had some success of Nolan Ryan. In only 14 times facing him, Boggs managed 4 hits and 5 walks for a batting average of .286 and an OPS of .974. However, Boggs account of the first time that he faced Ryan on April 30 of 1989, given in another interview, provides a real insight into the “little game.”

Relating how the game, where the Red Sox were the visitors, was highly charged because pitching for the Red Sox was Roger Clemens. It was Ryan's first season with the Rangers, having signed as a free agent after 10 seasons with Houston. It was the first time the Red Sox had seen him in a regular season game since the 1979 season when he pitched for the Angels.

When Boggs, the leadoff hitter, stepped up to the plate, he related how he began to dig in as was his normal routine, at which point Ranger catcher Gino Petralli said, “Don't dig in against him.” Boggs stated how he ignored Petralli’s words of advice and that moments later found himself down in the dirt in the batter’s box after Ryan’s first pitch buzzed him high and inside. Choosing to ignore the same advice from Petralli on the second pitch, Boggs related how he again dug in and again was picking himself up from the dirt after being buzzed on the second pitch.

At that point, Boggs stated how he took stock of the situation, dusted himself off, and made it a point to demonstrate that indeed he was not digging in on the third pitch. Relating that Ryan usually ignored whoever the hitter was that he was facing, Boggs described what he thought was a barely perceptible nod from Ryan along with a half smile, as if to acknowledge, “Ok, young man. You got the message.” There were no more buzzing of Boggs that evening (no more digging in either on Boggs' part). He ended up that at bat being walked on four pitches and would work another walk - going 0-2, striking out on three consecutive curve balls in his next at bat, then grounding out later in the game.

The little game within the game.

Brian C. Engelhardt, Esquire, retired from BB&T’s Legal Department and is a regular contributor to The Berks Barrister and the Berks County Historical Review. He has written for a number of publications by the Society for American Baseball Research and is the author of the insightful and dynamic, “Reading’s Big League Exhibition Games.”