Boggs a late bloomer

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Wade Boggs was always one to recognize a bad omen.

A bat out of place here, a missed chicken dinner there. Things that could not be tolerated by a man with as much hitting skill as anyone to ever step on the diamond.

Seems silly now, even to Boggs. So when his first visit to Cooperstown as a Hall of Famer began with former Boston Red Sox tormentor Jesse Orosco right over his shoulder, Boggs just brushed it aside.

Maybe January’s Hall of Fame election landslide convinced Boggs that his success had little to do with luck.

“When I walked in here and looked at (the picture of Orosco in a Mets uniform) I went: ‘Awwwww,’ ” said Boggs, who met the media on that May morning in a Hall of Fame theater designed to honor the game’s great relief pitchers. “Mercy! I was going to throw something at him.”

Instead, Boggs glanced down at his 1996 World Series ring and remembered that while Orosco has a photo in Cooperstown, he will soon have an eternal plaque in the Hall of Fame.

Making a name

Wade Anthony Boggs was widely acknowledged as the game’s best pure hitter in the 1980s. Starting in his rookie season with the Red Sox in 1982, Boggs never hit less than .325 over the next eight years. In that span, Boggs won five American League batting titles, strung together seven straight 200-hit seasons and led the league in on-base percentage five times.

Not bad for a former seventh-round draft pick who languished in Boston’s minor league system for six years. After being drafted in 1976, Boggs would play 662 minor league games before surfacing at Fenway Park.

“After hitting .320, .330 for a couple years and not getting called up, I wondered what was wrong with me,” said Boggs, who at 6-foot-2 and 190-pounds lacked the power scouts like in corner infielders and the foot speed to play outfield. “But I was in spring training in Triple-A in 1981 and Ted Williams came down. And he started looking at my bio and he says: ‘Kid, you know you walk twice as much as you strike out. You know, it’s a lot easier to hit in the majors than it is in the minors.’

“That’s when I decided that I could hit in the majors.”

But Boggs still needed to find a position. Red Sox manager Ralph Houk kept the 23-year-old Boggs on the big league roster in 1982 as a utility infielder, and soon inserted Boggs into the everyday lineup at third base when Carney Lansford went down with an ankle injury. Boggs responded with a league-best .349 batting average, the highest by an A.L. rookie appearing in at least 100 games. And though Boggs missed qualifying for the batting title by a little more than 100 plate appearances, the son of a career military officer had finally found a home.

“My bat got me to the majors, but I wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame today if I couldn’t field,” said Boggs, who turned a perceived weakness into Gold Gloves in 1994 and 1995. “Every spring training I would sit there and talk to Ted Williams about hitting, but he didn’t like my philosophy – an inside-out swing – and he tried to get me to change. But I couldn’t do it.

“But Johnny Pesky, I give him all the credit in the world for me winning two Gold Gloves. He’s still got blisters on his hands from all the ground balls.”

Pesky, a former Red Sox infielder turned coach, worked with Boggs relentlessly. Boggs was known to take exactly 150 ground balls during batting practice – one of several superstitions he adhered to throughout his career, including eating chicken before every game, keeping four touching bats in his locker and taking batting practice before night games at exactly 5:17 p.m.

Of course, the superstitions had a little help – like Boggs’ dogged work ethic and better-than-perfect 20/12 vision. The result: 12 straight All-Star Game appearances, 3,010 hits, 1,412 walks to just 745 strikeouts and a career .328 average for one of the sweetest-swinging lefties.

Taking his place

Boggs easily became the 41st member of the Hall to enter in his first year of eligibility in January, taking home 91.86 percent of the Baseball Writers Association of America vote. Boggs and Ryne Sandberg will be enshrined at the Hall today as the Class of 2005.

Boggs will enter the Hall wearing a Red Sox cap, but had his share of success after he left Boston. While with the Red Sox, Boggs was part of three post-season runs that ended in failure – most notably the 1986 World Series, when he cried on the bench after Orosco recorded the final out in that epic seven-game battle.

He came to the Yankees as a free agent in 1993, and drew a crucial game-winning walk against Atlanta in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series that turned the tide in New York’s favor.

After the Yankees won the Series in six games, Boggs took a victory lap around Yankee Stadium atop a police horse.

“It took 10 years to get back to the World Series, and you know it’s sort of the twilight at the end of your career and you want to make it count,” Boggs said. “That’s why you wear the ring every day.”

Closing moments

Boggs finished his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998-99, collecting his 3,000th hit on Aug. 7 of his final year.

“Going into the Hall of Fame is overwhelming, but I’m glad it’s going to be overwhelming,” Boggs said. “It’s a whole lot better than waiting to get in.”