Wade Boggs
WADE BOGGS will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible after the conclusion of the 2004 major league season. He won five American League batting titles in six years from 1983 to 1988. In that span, he had averages of .361, .325, .368, .357, .363, and .366. Boggs collected 200 or more hits in a season seven consecutive seasons from 1983 to '89, with a career-high 240 hits in 1985. With the Boston Red Sox, he also led the Junior Circuit in on-base percentage six times. In 1993, Boggs signed with the New York Yankees and won a World Series title with the Bronx Bombers in 1996 - taking a victory lap around the warning track aboard a NYPD horse. In 1998, he signed with his hometown team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, for that franchise's inaugural season. In '99, he became the 23rd player to reach the coveted milestone of 3,000 career hits, becoming the first to reach that mark with a home run. Boggs ended his 18-year career with 3,010 hits and a remarkable .328 batting average.
