Boston Red Sox: Ranking top 10 players from the 1980s
By Drew Athans
Wade Boggs
The 1980s as a decade had several great hitters who flirted with .400 including Tony Gwynn, George Brett, and the Red Sox own Wade Boggs. Boggs was an obsessive student of hitting in the same mold as Ted Williams, although while Williams hit for power and average, Boggs eschewed power for average.
Boggs’ career spanned the years 1982-1999 and he spent the majority of that (1982-1992) with the Red Sox. During the nine seasons of the 1980s he spent in Boston, he put up some truly incredible numbers at the plate. The third baseman hit over .300 in every one of those seasons and had the following averages, in order, from 1982-1990: .349, .361, .325, .368, .357. .363, .366, .330, .302. In five of those seasons (1983, 1985-88) he led the league and won the AL batting title.
For the decade, Boggs finished with a .347 average, 70 HR (aided by a 24 home run outburst in 1987, otherwise hitting fewer than ten per season), 586 RBI, 841 BB, a .435 OBP, and 921 R. Boggs left the Red Sox after 1992 and played five seasons with the Yankees (where he won a World Series in 1996) and wrapped up his career with two seasons in Tampa where he collected his 3000th hit.
While Boggs wasn’t able to win a World Series in Boston, the Red Sox retired his number (26) and he wears a Sox cap on his plaque in Cooperstown. There’s no denying Boggs was one of the greatest Red Sox players (and their best hitter) of the 1980s.