A gift fit for a king.
The name Wade Boggs will likely echo through the sports world forever. His stellar career in the MLB made him a first-ballot hall of famer, resulted in 12 All-Star appearances, and he’ll go down in history as one of the best players to ever put on the Boston Red Sox uniform.
But more importantly, Boggs will be remembered as one of the best damn beer drinkers in the history of the world.
You’ve likely already heard the “Wade Boggs once drank 73 beers on a cross-country flight” story before, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll let you hear it from the man himself. As the story goes, the Red Sox were flying to Los Angeles, so Boggs made use of his free time and downed an inordinate amount of beers… and continued to throw back brewskis after the plane had landed.
As he explained in an interview a couple of years back:
“It was on one of those flights from Boston to LA, and playing blackjack on the plane with a bunch of guys and just started. And actually didn’t know one of the guys was counting, and he says ‘Boggsy did you realize you’re about at 45 right now?’
And I think we had another hour to go on the flight and I said ‘Oh wow, really? Okay.’ So we ended up with 73 for the flight, and then we just went out and had a good time in California, so went to 107.
So that was the one day, and the next day got a post, Mark Langston was pitching and went 2-3 for two doubles off of him, so like they say in Hollywood the rest is history.”
107 beers in one day… his BAC must have been off the charts.
And then to play the next day and go 2 for 3 with two doubles? That might be the greatest athletic achievement ever. Wade Boggs pushed his body to its limits (at least you would think), and then proceeded to do regularly scheduled Wade Boggs baseball activities.
It’s a statistic that Boggs won’t ever live down, and one that inspired two fans to create a custom 73-rack case of beer. During Fanatics Fest, the pair walked right up to the living baseball legend and asked if he’d sign the unique piece of sports memorabilia.
If only it was a real product… but cool to see that Wade Boggs was happy to get in on the joke, and confirm that he deleted over six dozen beers on a six-hour flight:
Hilarious that Boggs mentioned the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia needs to sign it too.
The legend of the 73 beers was definitely helped by the long-running comedy series’ episode that focused in on the “Boggs Challenge.” The hit show’s Season 10 premiere was titled “The Gang Beats Boggs,” and featured the cast doing their best to replicate the former baseball player’s 37,000-foot feat.
It even featured a hilarious cameo from Boggs himself, and if you’ve never seen It’s Always Sunny before, I can’t recommend the Boggs episode enough:
