Archive for May 8th, 2008

May 08

[WADE BOGGS] Wade Boggs, The God Of Baseball Drinking

Tossing back a few Boggs, Wade Boggs Cork Gaines 10 Comments »


There are a lot of things to be embarrassed about as a Rays fan (Rainbow Warriors unis, The Hit Parade, 9 last place finishes in 10 seasons, Dick Vitale). But the one that has always bothered us more than the others is the retirement of Wade Boggs’ number 12. When people bring this little diddy up to us, we just shake our head in shame. He spent only two of his 18 seasons wearing purple, green, blue, yellow and chartreuse. Of Boggs’ 3,010 career hits, only 210 came with the Devil Rays. He did that in three separate seasons with the Red Sox. In 1999, he had as many GIDPs as doubles (14) and never posted an OPS+ of 100 with the Rays).

Still, with the Rays playing in Toronto, we are reminded of one of the most amazing baseball stories we have ever heard. The following story is why we love Wade Boggs so much and why we refer to beers as “Boggs” (even if we still think it is idiotic that his number is retired).

[An excerpt from Drunk Jays Fans]

For your enjoyment, a conversation between Steve Sandmeyer and Jeff Nelson on 950 KJR:

Sandy: Who would you say drank the most beer out of everyone you ever played with?
Nelson: Easy, Wade Boggs…..easy
Sandy: (laughing) Really!? Wade Boggs?
Nelson: Oh, yeah, without a doubt. I’ve never seen anyone drink as much beer as he did in my life.
Sandy: (laughing) Get outta here, alright, give me an example, like how much did he drink?
Nelson: Oh, I’d say, on a typical road trip, east coast to west coast [Nelly played with Boggs on the Yankees], say a road game to Seattle……Wade would drink anywhere between 50 and 60 beers.
Sandy: NO WAY!! 50 or 60 beers. That is impossible.
Nelson: I’m not kidding you Steve. Seriously. Wade was the kind of guy who was always the first one at the club house. So he’d get to the clubhouse, and he’d bring a six pack with him. He’d be there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as we were all packing our stuff up out of our lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade would sit there and drink that whole six pack….Now, at the time, we were flying out of New Jersey, so it was somewhat of a drive from Yankee stadium to the airport in New Jersey. Wade would drink another couple of beers on the bus to the airport. At the time, we were flying this older airplane, it couldn’t make it across the country without refueling, and it wasn’t the fastest airplane in the sky. So we would stop in North Dakota or something. Wade would drink about a half rack between New Jersey and North Dakota, and it would take about a half-hour to an hour to refuel once we got there, so he’d have a few more beers while we were grounded in North Dakota…Once we got back up in the air, Wade would drink another 10, 11, 12 beers on the way out to the west coast. The whole flight from coast to coast ususally took us well over 7 hours. We’d touch down at Sea-Tac, hop on the bus headed to the Kingdome, and Wade would have another beer or two on the bus. Then, all of us would get to the Kingdome and unpack our bags and sit around and BS with each other, and Wade would have a beer in his hand the entire time. He was always one of the last people to leave the club house too. So I’d say that all in all, he drank over 50 beers on the trip, and this wasn’t just an isolated incident, he did that almost every time.

[commercial break: When the commercial end, Paul Sorrento, a former Mariner and Devil Ray, and Boggs’s and Nelly’s former teammate, is on the phone]

Nelly: Alright Paul, we’ve been talking about Wade Boggs up here today in Seattle.
Sorrento: (laughing) Yeah, ole Wade huh.
Nelly: Yeah, alright Paul, I need you to answer one question for me, truthfully now….How many beers would Wade Boggs drink on an east coast to west coast road trip?
Sorrento: Oh, jeez, (exhaling like a flat tire) I don’t know, like 70.
Nelly, Sandberg, Sorrento, Hank: (Rolling on the ground laughing)

This story spawned the “The Boggs Head” on Drunk Jays Fans.

This story never ceases to amaze us. I drink more than my fair share of beer, to the point that most of my friends hate drinking with me because they say I have been cursed with a “high tolerance”. And I’ll be honest, one of my favorite things is “Drink-all-day Day”, but I doubt I have ever even come close to 70 beers in one day. A truly amazing feet. And Boggs did this on a regular basis.

So this weekend, when we toss back a few “Boggs” we will toast the god of baseball drinking, Wade Boggs…and curse the Rays for retiring his number.

Have A Wade Boggs Weekend [Drunk Jays Fans]
The Boggs Head [Drunk Jays Fans]

May 08

[THE ARCHIVES] One Year Ago On Rays Index

The Archives Cork Gaines No Comments »

One year ago on Rays Index we told you that Juan Salas had been caught injecting himself with IEDs.

Juan Salas Caught Injecting Himself With Idiot Enhancing Drugs [Rays Index]

May 08

[THE HANGOVER] The Baseball Gods Had Already Spoken…And They Said ‘Lose’

Al Reyes, Andy Sonnanstine, Ben Zobrist, Carlos Pena, Cliff Floyd, Eric Hinske, Gary Glover, Joe Maddon, Scott Kazmir, Willy Aybar Cork Gaines 1 Comment »


THE GOOD: The Red Sox lost…The Yankees lost…The Orioles lost…So the only team that the Rays lost ground to last yesterday was the Jays. Oh and the O’s are now in their rightful place, last place…

THE BAD: Shaun Marcum faced the minimum through the first 6.2 innings. The only hit prior to the 9th inning was a double single by Dioner Navarro in which he was promptly thrown out at second base because people that chubby should only sprint 90 feet at a time….For the second game this series, the Rays struck out at least 10 times, led by the Sombrero-loving Carlos Pena. Three nights ago it was a regular sombrero with 3 Ks in 4 at bats, Two nights ago it was the golden sombrero with 4 Ks in 4 at bats. And last night it was a regular sombrero again with 3 Ks in 4 at bats…We are still trying to figure out how Vernon Wells caught up to and actually caught Aki Iwamura’s long drive to center in the 7th…We know it was only 1 run in 6.2 innings, but we are not giving Matt Garza credit for a ‘good’. We can’t quite figure it out, but he either walks too many or strikes out too few. Maybe both?

THE TELLING: We like to call this a “tip your cap” game. When the baseball gods gathered yesterday morning and reviewed yesterday’s matchups they declared that the Jays would win. At that point there was just nothing that the Rays could do. It was predetermined. For you Maddon players out there, it is like when you are rolling through a season and your Bucs squad sits 10-0 and all of the sudden the computer opponent goes into “49ers Dynasty Mode” in which it can do nothing wrong and you can do nothing right. Your undefeated team is guaranteed to fumble at least two kickoff returns that will both be returned for touchdowns, and no matter how many of your “sure-thing” plays you run, nothing goes right. Sometimes, when the gods speak, it is not in your favor.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • Our apologies for the lack of Live Blog-A-Baloos. They will return with full-force next week. Not sure what day yet. Any suggestions? And next week’s will be held here.
  • Joe Maddon and Carlos Pena had a closed-door meeting that lasted for 20 minutes following last night’s game. During the meeting, which was heated at times, Maddon threatened to bench the slugger if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass…Oh, who are we kidding. This is Papa Joe we are talking about. They hugged it out and Papa Joe sang El Gato sweet nothings, and told him some tales of lollipops and daffodils. [Rays Report]
  • More injury updates from Marc Lancaster: Ben Zobrist had his first rehab start for Vero Beach. He DH’d and went 1-3…Cliff Floyd played in another extended spring game as a DH and should rejoin the team within a week…Willy Aybar also played DH in the same game but is still a ways off. Which begs the question: Why is he playing in an extended spring game, if his hamstring is no where near ready to come back? Is there more to his injury?…Al Reyes and Gary Glover played catch (we assume Reyes played the role of ‘Dad’). Reyes has a bullpen session scheduled for today, while Glover will do the same on Saturday…Scott Kazmir had “spectacular” command in his bullpen session yesterday. [Rays Report]
  • Bugs & Cranks wonders if Joe Maddon was trying to bait the Jays fans with his comments of their booing of Eric S#!tske. [Bugs & Cranks]
  • And Drunk Jays Fans, proprietor of the aforementioned nickname, S#!tske, are a little perturbed that there is a chance that Eric Hinske does not know why he is being booed in Toronto…For the record, we understand. But we also love that the Toronto fans are fanning the fire that is Eric S#!tske, because right now? Hinske is The S#!tske. [Drunk Jays Fans]
  • The Strike Zone sees Andy Sonnanstine as a strong candidate to win 20 games. [The Strike Zone]
  • Jays fans didn’t take losing to Andy Sonnanstine too well. [primoz forever]
  • One blog takes a shot at the upcoming auction at the Trop for “extraordinary baseball experiences”…We gotta admit, they are pretty ridiculous. Also, the name of the website It Is High, It Is Far, It Is…caught is pure awesome. For those not familiar, it is a reference to John Sterling, Yankees broadcaster/blowhard and his home run call, which he uses for anything approaching the outfield wall. And it doesn’t matter if the home run was actually a line drive that just cleared the fence. He will still use the same idiotic call…P.S. The slogan for the website is “The road to the New York Yankees’ 27th World Championship”. Might as well have made that the name of the site, because the “road” is going on 8 years and it does not look like the number is changing anytime soon. [It Is High, It Is Far, It is...caught]
May 08

[DOWN ON THE FARM] David Price Starts First Extended Spring Training Contest

David Price Cork Gaines No Comments »

Pawtucket 12, Durham 7. Kevin Lynn got the start in place of JK Ryu who went on the DL. Lynn gave up 5 runs in 5 innings…Reid Brignac was 2-4 with his 8th double. He also committed his 4th error…Fernando Perez was 0-4 with 3 strike outs, and Justin Ruggiano was 1-3 with a triple and a walk…Dan Johnson was 2-4 with 3 RBI including a 2-run single in the 9th when the game was already decided.

Montgomery 16, Birmingham 10. (Just curious…are we contractually obligated at this point to point out that the Biscuits “missed an extra point”? Just wondering, because in the world of overused sports cliches, the “high-scoring baseball game, as a football score” is right there near the top. Just behind “crafty lefty” and just ahead of anything Joe Magrane says)…James Houser’s suspension for hitting Matt LaPorta was only for 3 games, so he did not miss a start. He should have as he could not manage to pick up the W despite receiving a touchdown and three field goals worth of run support (see what we did there; much better on the hypothetical kicker’s ego). Houser needed only make it through the 5th inning, but he could not and was knocked out with 1 out in the 5th after allowing 6 runs on 10 hits…3 different players had 3 RBI apiece, including Erold Andrus, Gabby Martinez and Rashad Eldridge… John Jaso had 3 hits, including 2nd double and an RBI…Erold Andrus added his 12th double and Sergio Pedroza knocked his 10th double.

Lakeland 8, Vero Beach 4. Heath Rollins struck out 7 and walked none, but fell to 1-2 after allowing 4 runs in 5 innings on 9 hits…Ben Zobrist DH’d and went 1-3 with an RBI in his first rehab start.

Augusta 4, Columbus 3. Glenn Gibson struck out 6 in 5 innings, but walked 3 and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits…Maiko Loyola was 3-4 to raise his average to .287 and stole his 14th base.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

  • David Price had his first extended spring training start yesterday. He worked 3 innings and allowed 1 run on 2 opposite field singles and no walks. He struck out 4. [Rays Report]
  • A resounding ‘YES!’…Just further evidence why we wait until a player has done something…anything at AA or AAA before praising their “prospectness”. [Drays Bay]