It is almost time for the World Series, and that means some of baseball’s most iconic names are back in the spotlight.
While the Boston Bruins, and the New York Yankees postseason dreams are over, it is early 20 years since one of their most iconic names claimed his solitary championship.
GettyWade Boggs legendary story of drinking beers on a place was remembered in an episode of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’[/caption]
GettyBoggs finished his career in Tampa Bay and was inducted into the Devil Rays Hall of Fame[/caption]
Beer, chicken, baseball and Wade Boggs – a combination nearly as American as the red, white and blue.
The legendary MLB Hall of Famer was a world champion in 1996 as the Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves.
Only the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs are left standing with the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup on the line.
But they will be hard pressed to emulate the stories of Boggs who played 18 seasons in the league, with a personality that was as big as his appetite for chicken and beer.
Fitting then that he goes by the username chickenman3010 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Legend has it, Boggs once drank 73 beers on a single flight from Boston to Los Angeles – legend that is, according to the man himself.
Comedian Bert Kreischer had Boggs on his podcast, ‘Bertcast’, where the Hall of Famer explained himself and told the legendary tale.
“We’re leaving Boston, Sunday day game and we’re leaving Boston and we’re flying to LA,” Boggs said.
“So you pack some roadies to the airport and you got them in your case. Depending on traffic you don’t want to leave yourself short.
“So you get on the plane and I was playing blackjack with some other players and was taking a couple sips… I’ll take another one, I’m dealing, take a couple sips, take another one.
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Getty“I was two-sipping beers and we’re probably over Nebraska or somewhere like that and the card game is going well, and one of the players looks at me and goes, ‘Boggsy, you realize you had like 51 beers.’
“I go, ‘Really didn’t seem like it.’ Okay all right cool, he says we’ve still got another hour to go. I said well let’s see how many we can get then.
“The final tally was 73.”
You would think the story would be over after 73 beers were consumed, but Boggs wasn’t done.
“We get off the plane and five or six of us decided to go down to the Red Onion down in Laguna Beach,” added Boggs.
“I wound up having a total of 107. That was the final total for the day.
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“The next day we’re facing Mark Langston and I wound up going two for three with two walks and two doubles off of Langston.”
Just a casual day consuming 107 beers, and then the next day going 2-for-3 with two doubles against a four-time All-Star.
Immortalized in ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘The Simpsons’
Boggs story was remembered on ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and the episode called ‘The Gang Beats Boggs,’ where the gang — Charlie, Mac, Dee, Dennis, and Frank — board a flight aiming to beat Boggs’ record.
“It’s Wade Boggs’ drinking record, OK?” says Charlie. “The man’s a legend. He drank 50 beers on a cross-country flight and then absolutely destroyed the Seattle Mariners the next day. That’s why we’re doing this — to honor his memory.”
“The number of beers is actually highly disputed,” Mac responds. “Some say 50; some teammates said 60. Some said as many as 70 beers.”
Bogs meets Charlie Day’s character via a hallucination during the episode and cleared things up with the actor.
“He pulled me aside,” said on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon. “And he said, ‘Charlie, really it was 107.’”
That was the life of Boggs and why he found himself in Cooperstown, New York.
And if you haven’t figured it out by now, Boggs was called “Chicken Man” because he would eat chicken before every game.
But if you’ve learned anything reading a little about Boggs, it’s that a diet of chicken and beer ends up get you in the Hall of Fame.
Or maybe not. After all, there was only one Boggs, who was a 12-time All-Star who has had his jersey retired for both Boston and Tampa Bay.
In a colorful career he was inducted into both teams Hall of Fame as well as the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Like many sports stars of the 1990s he also enjoyed a cameo in the World Wrestling Federation where he taught Mr Perfect how to play baseball and was part of the softball crew recruited by Mr Burns in the classic episode of The Simpsons ‘Homer at Bat’.
Perhaps fittingly, Boggs character got into a bar fight with Barney Gumble.
These days Boggs is active on social media, and back in February announced he was cancer-free having been diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 2024.
‘An extremely emotional day I can’t thank my doctor’s Dr. Engleman and Dr. Heidenberg enough also to everyone for your thoughts and prayers Debbie and I are pleased to announce I am cancer free,’ Boggs said on X.
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