KNOCKING on history's door

Sporting News, The, August 2, 1999 by Marc Topkin

Wade Boggs, one of the best hitters of his generation, is poised to join the game's elite in the 3,000-hit club

His son, Brett, will be the bat boy and will retrieve the prized piece of lumber. His wife, his daughter and his dad will be cheering in the stands with a handful of lifetime friends. The tears will flow freely.

Details are coming into focus as Wade Boggs doses in on 3,000 hits. But as for the specifics--the swing, the trajectory, the direction and destination of the hit that formally and officially will crown his career--Boggs doesn't want to think about it.

"I want to walk to the plate at 2,999 and just let everything fall where it may," Boggs says. "I don't want to sit there and say, `OK, this is the way it's going to be, and this is the way it's going to turn out,' and then sort of have like deja vu after it already happens. I just want to just enjoy the moment when it happens because it's going to be a special moment. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into trying to get there. I just feel it's the last piece of the puzzle that my career needs. I've done just about everything else."

Through last Sunday, Boggs, 41, had 2,989 career hits. and was batting .295 for the season. He is not quite as spry as he used to be, and he is not playing every day, sharing duties at third base with Herbert Perry. Boggs knows how close he is to making history, but he goes to the plate with the same simple plan he has always utilized.

"I just try really not to think about it, just focus in on the day at hand and not too far down the mad," Boggs says. "AU you can do is try to hit the ball hard; after that, ifs not really in your hands any more."

This summer, Boggs isn't the only player eaded for the record book. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr., both of whom--like Boggs--have spent some time on the disabled list this season, are close to 3,000 hits (through last Sunday, Gwynn needed 13 hits and Ripken 40). But Boggs says there is no race to be the 22nd member of the elite club. "If we were battling it out to be the first player to have 3,000 hits, then that would mean something because, naturally, you always want to be the first to do something that no one else has done," he says.

Boggs claims no preference as to where he gets his 3,000th hit. A single off the wall at Fenway Park would have been nice, but the Devil Rays don't play in Boston again this season. A liner over third at Yankee Stadium would be nice, but the Devils Rays don't play in New York again until the end of September.

The best place might be Tropicana Field, with the little kid who grew up in Tampa making history in front of his hometown fans. "I'd like to have a 10-game homestand and come home needing three hits," he says. Boggs might have to settle for a six-game homestand in early August against the Indians and Orioles, or the seven-game road trip that follows that homestand.

Reaching 3,000 hits will mean a lot, but it won't mean the end of Boggs' career. He says he feels good, better than when he was in his late 20s; is still having fun; and, most important, continuing to play at the level he expects from himself. At this point, Boggs plans to play in 2000.

"I'm not using 3,000 hits as the termination point of my career," he says. "I've got more people to pass on the list."

Triple threats

As the Boggs-Gwynn-Ripken trio eases to the 3,000-hit mark, it's worth noting that, like Jon Bon Jovi, many of their hits were produced in the '80s. Along with those numbers, the fellas also collected a lot of hardware (batting titles, Gold Gloves, etc.). So as the trio reaches 3,000 in a "Blaze of Glory" (warning: last Bon Jovi reference), consider these numbers from 1980 to 1989:

Player             G      AB      R      H     2B    3B
WADE BOGGS       1,183   4,534   823   1,597   314   36

   '80S hardware: Five All-Star selections, five A.L. batting
titles, A.L. rookie record for highest batting average (100 or more
games)--.349 (1982)

Player             G      AB      R      H     2B    3B
TONY GWYNN       1,060   4,078   617   1,354   192   51

   '80s hardware: Five All-Star selections, four N.L. batting
titles, three Gold Gloves

Player             G      AB      R      H     2B    3B
CAL RIPKEN JR.   1,315   5,055   793   1,402   266   24

   '80s hardware: Seven All-Star selections, A.L. MVP (1983), A.L.
Rookie of the Year (1982)

Player           HR    RBIs  Avg.   BB    SO    SB
WADE BOGGS        64   523   .352   754   339    14

   '80S hardware: Five All-Star selections, five A.L. batting
titles, A.L. rookie record for highest batting average (100 or more
games)--.349 (1982)

Player           HR    RBIs  Avg.   BB    SO    SB
TONY GWYNN        45   416   .332   382   233   221

   '80s hardware: Five All-Star selections, four N.L. batting
titles, three Gold Gloves

Player           HR    RBIs  Avg.   BB    SO    SB
CAL RIPKEN JR.   204   744   .277   553   635    19

   '80s hardware: Seven All-Star selections, A.L. MVP (1983), A.L.
Rookie of the Year (1982)