We’ve had a few questions come up about Boggs, and why we refer to tasty Miller Lites as Boggs. Well my friends, open your ears and I’ll pour in a tale.
I heard the legendary story over my car radio as I was heading down I-5 to work about a year ago, listening to Mitch in the Morning on 950 KJR, as usual. For some reason or another, Mitch was gone that day so Steve Sandmeyer was hosting the show, and former Mariners and Yankees pitcher Jeff Nelson was sitting in as his sidekick.
Sandmeyer was killing some time by making small talk about baseball and about Nelly’s career and exploits as a major leaguer.
The conversation turned to some of the funniest things Nelly had seen in his career when Sandy asked something like “who was the best with the ladies out of everyone you were around in baseball?” Nelson said that it was tough to say for sure, but that he figured it was probably Andre Dawson, the former Expos, Cubs, Red Sox, and Marlins slugger.
The two shared a laugh about the Hawk’s game, and then Sandmeyer stumbled upon the most compelling question ever articulated in an interview: “who would you say drank the most beer out of everyone you ever played with?” The following colloquy sheds some light on one of drinking’s biggest stars and on one of the greatest drinking feats of all time.
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: No, I know…I know how crazy that sounds, and I wouldn’t believe it myself unless I saw him do it…..numerous times. And he drank nothing but Miller Lite.
Sandy: How in the hell did he have time to drink that many beers. For God’s sake, how many times did he have to go to the bathroom?
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 eachother, 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.
Sandy: Unbelievable. That’s absolutely unbelieveable.
Nelson: Yeah, I know, I’m not kidding though, let’s call up somebody and they’ll tell you man, they’ll tell you I’m not lying.
Sandy: Alright, who should we call up. Let’s take a commercial break, and then we’ll call up somebody and see if we can’t get to the bottom of this….This is absolutely amazing.
[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: Hey Paul, good to hear from you man, I haven’t talked to you in a while.
Sorrento: Yeah, what’s it been like, two, three years?
Nelly: Yeah. Hey, Paul, just to clarify now, I didn’t speak to you over the commercial break, and I haven’t talked to you about anything since we last talked a few years ago right?
Sorrento: Yeah, right.
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)
So there you have it, that’s the wonderful tale of Wade Boggs’ incredible drinking feats. So one day when a few of us at tasty booze were hanging around crushing some ice cold Miller Lites, and after I told them the story of Wade Boggs, we decided from then on that we would call a Miller Lite a Boggs in honor of the man who drank ‘em the best.






















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I tip my hat to Wade…the greatest Boggs drinker ever.
By the way Happy Birthday Hank.
And the legend continues. I was just reading throught the Wikipedia page for Wade Boggs and found this.
Shortly after his election to the Hall of Fame, Boggs appeared on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” and refuted an urban legend that he had once consumed 64 beers on a cross-country flight from Boston to Los Angeles. He did not divulge the actual number of beers consumed, but did admit to having “a few Miller Lites”.
Hank, great story. I like it better in person. Remind, how much of my hard earned tax dollars just went to you recanting that story?
……Legendary……..
wade is my hero.
Quite possibly one of the funniest articles I have ever read! Wade Boggs is the MAN!
Boggs didn’t eat fried chicken before every game. He ate chicken, but not necessarily fried. Sometimes it would be fried, but most days it would be prepared differently. According to him.
Boggs played for the Yanks. No wonder he was a boozer! Hard for anyone to suit up for those clowns without tipping back a few. Just ask Paul O’Neill! hahahaha
Check out this awesome story submitted by one of our readers about his first hand experience with Wade and his ability to down the boggs.
A True Boggs Story - Reader Submitted
When Wade played for the Red Sox he lived in the Granada Highlands in Saugus.
After a Sat. day game at Fenway-Wade would go to the Palace Nightclub in Saugus,MA one of those multi clubs under one roof. He would sit at a 50’s themed bar called Fenders with his wife Debbie and other players. Boggsie would bang down easily 60-70 beers from 9pm til closing at 1am. The beers would be bought by customers and mgmnt.
Wade was fantastic to fans signing autographs,posing for pics. He was a great tipper at the bar. At the end of the night he’d roll off a couple $100’s. He tipped everyone at the end of the season too when he left for FLA. Great guy. He brought in Greenwell,Jody Reed,Clemens, everyone.
I have no clue how he functioned the next day and go 4 for 4. I’d be in the hospital
getting a blood transfusion! He must have a weird genetic gene that takes care of his alcohol.
I once saw Boggs inhale over 1000 beers in an hour and a half.
I remember this one time at band camp, we built a beer bong. It was over 600 feet long. We attached a trumpet to the end and filled it up. Then I climbed a 600 foot tower. Boggs took the beer bong and downed the whole thing, and in record time.
Boggs was at my house for a pool party once. We filled the entire pool with Miller Lite. And guess what? Boggs drained it. He drank every drop. And my kids got to see it! Boggs is the greatest man of all time.
True Story!!!!! The Only guy to every drink more beers than ole Boggsie was one Earl Dumplings in Boulder, CO. Earl, warmed up the night with a case of mikes hard (as an appetizer) then promptly went to town on 47 grenades of mickeys before he slammed 19 broads in various maneuvers/positions and called it a day. Mind you this was a Tuesday night duration was a total of 17 minutes and Boggs was once quoted as saying “Earl Dumplings can not only consume more drinks than I, but he is also notorious for the “three way HJ!”"
Wade Boggs doesnt have a horse cock. Horses have a Wade Boggs Cock!
Simply awesome
maybe if mattingly drank some miller lite, he would’ve stuck around another year and finally had that ring….
How many Miller LITE you need to drink before you get some sort of effect from 0.5% alcool?
I was a caddy at the St. Agnus links outside of Boston and I did a round for Boggs for one time. He hired me to hold his clubs and an extra caddy to carry 10 six-packs and by the 9th hole we had downed all the beers. He sent the caddy for a refill and by the end of 18, he down 123 beers. BTW, great tipper.
From wikipedia :
Boggs claimed that he once avoided being harmed by an assailant with a knife by willing himself invisible.
LOL
You people realize this story is pretty embellished, right? I don’t doubt the guy drank constantly, but 50 beers in even 10 hours would put his BAC at over .70 .
BILL BRASKY!!!!!!
Been to Boggs’ home in Tampa, beer everywhere.
Great guy.
When I saw Boggs at a bar in Chicago and had the bartender line up 50 Miller Lites to see if the story was true. Boggs gracefully refused the challenge. The patrons at the bar all gave him crap about it and after a few insults from some people, finally agreed to a drink-off. Only this time, I challeneged him to a beer bong of Grey Goose and the bar tab.
I beer bonged a 1/2 bottle of GG in about 3.8 seconds. I’m sure Boggs crapped his pants. In any fashion, he took it like a champ, finishing in about 5 seconds. He passed out about 10 minutes later. That’s when I took a sharpie and drew a smiling penis with a vain on his cheek.
Yeah Boggs, I got you good. I hoped you paid our bill before you got carried out.
Wade Boggs is the reason tat Chuck Norris doesn’t drink.
Wade Boggs, Paul Sorrento, Miller Lites
also from wikipedia: Boggs was portrayed in an episode of Futurama as a head in a sports museum. When Hank Aaron XXIV drinks out of Wade Boggs’s jar he says, “Wade Boggs, goes down smooth!”
now i guess we know why.
and although i like the ‘boggs’ term, in the parlance of our times i still prefer ‘Oat Soda’ as the proper nomenclature for Miller Lite.
Does anyone have any audio of this interview? I would love to hear it!
You seen my baseball?
I created a shirt to honor the power of Boggs and this article.
http://www.zazzle.com/pd/find/qs-wade%20boggs
My buddy made this sign for the Pitt/VT Gameday show in 2004 when we went…the rest is history…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgzEAeOREX0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Gx8OmO9Rk&feature=related
I once stayed at the same hotel in Florida the Yankees were at for Spring Training. Boggs settled in at the bar around 8 that evening (everyone at the hotel then harassed him for autographs all night, which he gave graciously); I remember getting off the elevator, probably 9am the next morning, and who was still at the bar, in the same stool, still chatting up tourists? Wade Boggs.
I wonder if any other players have had impressive hits/beers ratios?
We had the pleasure of meeting and drinking with Mr Boggs in Key West last year. He and his wife, Debbie could not have been more gracious. We had a blast, a memorable night, and I’m sure he would remeber my Fiance shirt, “It’s five o’clock somewhere” that my fiance offered to him. Thanks Wade, and “Happy Bitrhday” from John and Marianne.