MASHANTUCKET, Conn. — Wade Boggs can relate to Chuck Noland.
The Boston Red Sox will retire Boggs’ No. 26 this season, more than 23 years after the Hall of Fame third baseman played his final game with the organization. It’s been a long wait for Boggs, who joked Friday that he now understands what the main character of the movie “Cast Away” went through.
“Right now, I sort of feel like Tom Hanks. I’ve been on an island for 20 years and they found me,” Boggs said before the Red Sox Town Hall event at Foxwoods Resort Casino. “So now I get to come home and enjoy the lobster, and I’m back in the Red Sox family, where I should have been in 1992 when Mrs. Yawkey offered me a seven-year deal to finish out my career with the Red Sox and I wouldn’t have had to gone anywhere else to play.
“I’m back. It’s great to be back. It’s been nothing but huge positive feedback all along.”
Boggs spent 11 seasons with Boston, earning eight consecutive All-Star appearances with the club from 1985 to 1992. The five-time batting champion didn’t finish his career with the Red Sox — he spent five seasons with the New York Yankees and two seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays before calling it quits — but he certainly cemented himself as one of the best pure hitters in Boston history.
“When I got drafted at 17, my dad said, ‘You got drafted by Boston in the seventh round. Fenway Park was built for you,’ ” said Boggs, whose .369 career average at Fenway is the greatest in the ballpark’s illustrious history. “And truer words were never spoken, because I played the wall like a fiddle.”
Boggs isn’t sure why it took so long for Boston to retire his number, though Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said Friday part of it stemmed from previous guidelines the organization followed with regard to such matters. He’s sure glad the Sox came around on the idea, though, and he’s not taking the honor for granted.
“It’s not a right that everyone has their number retired,” Boggs said. “I understand that various other players have had their number retired by the Red Sox, but believe me, it’s a tremendous privilege that you can have your number retired by an organization and no one else will ever wear it again and you live in immortality up on the façade.”
Brock Holt, who has worn No. 26 for Boston the last three seasons, removed his jersey and gave it to Boggs during an on-stage ceremony at Friday’s Town Hall event, drawing a huge ovation from the Foxwoods crowd. An emotional Boggs said it was the greatest day of his life outside of marrying his wife and his children being born. The public tears suggest he wasn’t kidding.
“It means a lot. It means the world to me,” Boggs said before the ceremony. “In my opinion, it’s the greatest honor an athlete can have to receive. That’s the final piece of my baseball puzzle, was having my number retired by the Red Sox. Right now, my puzzle’s complete.”
Boggs’ stint on “the island” finally is over. And not a moment too soon.
Tune in to Red Sox Town Hall on NESN on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m.
