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The Misadventures of Wade Boggs, Part 2 · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
0:30
Speaker 1: for tuning in. Previously on Ridiculous History, I'm getting what happened?
0:35
Speaker 1: What happened? I just wanted to do that voice because
0:37
Speaker 1: I love that kind of vo and I never I
0:39
Speaker 1: never get to do it except for weird ads. But
0:42
Speaker 1: you're right, this is something where we have a slight recap.
0:46
Speaker 1: We dove into an amazing story with our pale Matt Waxman,
0:50
Speaker 1: the creator of Trigger Ration. You remember this though it
0:53
Speaker 1: was it was Tuesday. Thanks to the magic of editing,
0:56
Speaker 1: it seems like it was only Tuesday. Way it was Tuesday. No,
1:01
Speaker 1: it's true, and it was really great and it wasn't
1:03
Speaker 1: something that were maybe it's gonna throw in as a
1:05
Speaker 1: little bit of in the side. Um after discussing really, uh,
1:09
Speaker 1: such an interesting and divisive character. Again, I came clean
1:11
Speaker 1: early on. It's not being like a sports guy. Um,
1:14
Speaker 1: But man, do I love a good scandal and a
1:17
Speaker 1: good sex addic story and this has got all that stuff.
1:20
Speaker 1: Man and he and that now we're gonna add in
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Speaker 1: copy is drinking. We barely even scratched the surface of
1:25
Speaker 1: the man's epic ability to throw back Miller lights. I
1:28
Speaker 1: think we might have hinted at it very briefly, but
1:30
Speaker 1: that is literally what today's episode is about, right, Miller Light,
1:33
Speaker 1: You're so good you can drink it with your mouth? Boy,
1:36
Speaker 1: did he ever drink it with his whole mouth and
1:38
Speaker 1: his whole heart? And Uh, just to reiterate, Miller Light,
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Speaker 1: you're welcome for that catch phrase. Please use it to
1:44
Speaker 1: your heart's content. That catchphrase has been co signed and
1:48
Speaker 1: green light by our super producer, Casey Pegram. And when
1:53
Speaker 1: we were doing this episode, this exploration of this sex
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Speaker 1: scandal and the halcy young days of sports reporting, we
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Speaker 1: knew we could not dive into the endeavor alone. That's
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Speaker 1: why we have our returning guest Matt Waxman, who, by
2:09
Speaker 1: the way, I sat patiently through this entire episode. Uh, Matt,
2:12
Speaker 1: how's it going, Thanks for staying with us, No, no problem,
2:15
Speaker 1: It's it's good to be on the show. Good to
2:17
Speaker 1: be back on the show. I mean again, like this guy,
2:19
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs is a total legend. And since we last talked,
2:22
Speaker 1: I actually went back and research and found more about
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Speaker 1: him that we need to touch on. So we're gonna
2:28
Speaker 1: hit the beer and stuff. But this guy also saved
2:31
Speaker 1: some African villagers back in two thousand and five, so well,
2:34
Speaker 1: let's hit it all, okay, I I think we start
2:37
Speaker 1: with the uh, the inebriated elephant in the room. Wade
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Speaker 1: Boggs is a drinking legend, and there is a an
2:48
Speaker 1: urban legend, perhaps a bit of modern mythology, about a
2:53
Speaker 1: a particularly boozy plane flight he took. Matt, could you
2:58
Speaker 1: give us just the quicken dirty of this? Like, what
3:01
Speaker 1: what's the gist of the story? All right? So I
3:04
Speaker 1: think we we we placed this story around the early nineties,
3:07
Speaker 1: and rumor had it that bugs drank a copious amount
3:11
Speaker 1: of beer. One I'm in a cross country flight after
3:14
Speaker 1: a game, and the number very I mean, first there
3:17
Speaker 1: was a number in the sixties. Then the number grew
3:21
Speaker 1: a little more than people that went to bugs, he
3:23
Speaker 1: kind of hemmed in hod and then later on on
3:26
Speaker 1: it's always sunny. It turned out he told Charlie Dave
3:28
Speaker 1: there's an official number. The number is a hundred and
3:31
Speaker 1: seven and that's how many beers he drank in one
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Speaker 1: cross country plight. Okay, that first off, how do you
3:38
Speaker 1: get more than three or four drinks. That can't be
3:41
Speaker 1: a commercial flight, can it. Now we're talking, definitely talking
3:44
Speaker 1: charter flight. I mean the socks back in these days
3:47
Speaker 1: flying their own charter And I think I think Bogs
3:50
Speaker 1: plays with the math a little. I mean a lot
3:52
Speaker 1: of people have looked at how this is even possible,
3:55
Speaker 1: and I think we should really, you know, sharpen our
3:57
Speaker 1: pencils and try and figure this out. So let's no,
4:00
Speaker 1: you gotta do you have a Pencilvania, you know I do.
4:03
Speaker 1: I've got like a sharp pair of scissors. I can
4:06
Speaker 1: scrawl it into the surface of my desk. I'm gonna
4:09
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, perfect, all right, all right, So let's
4:11
Speaker 1: try and figure this out. All right, So we need
4:12
Speaker 1: to get to A hundred and seven. I assume he's
4:15
Speaker 1: going in to l A X from Boston. So after
4:20
Speaker 1: the game, you know, that's when you're most thirsty. Locker
4:24
Speaker 1: room back then, all the guys were drinking beer in
4:26
Speaker 1: the locker room at the game. So I say, were easy.
4:29
Speaker 1: He puts away at twelve pack after the game, million
4:32
Speaker 1: around there, got it? Got it? Okay? So then bus
4:36
Speaker 1: ride from Fenway to Logan Airport, that's easy. Six beers.
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Speaker 1: I mean, I imagine that late at night. They're probably
4:43
Speaker 1: going at midnight. I'd say that's like a you know,
4:46
Speaker 1: a third thirty minute trips. I'd say six beers there.
4:50
Speaker 1: Then you know they're waiting to board the flight. You
4:52
Speaker 1: don't just walk right on. You gotta deal with the
4:54
Speaker 1: little security all that. I think we can put him
4:57
Speaker 1: down four in that thirty minutes. Maybe he's I'd say,
5:00
Speaker 1: I don't know, give him another twelve pack there. This
5:02
Speaker 1: is also like in the housey on, like pre nine
5:05
Speaker 1: eleven days, or you could easily waltz through security with
5:07
Speaker 1: like a couple of beers in hand, right, No, no
5:10
Speaker 1: problem there. Yeah. I think if you're way bus, you
5:13
Speaker 1: do whatever the f you want. Probably so, And one
5:15
Speaker 1: little quick question is to backtrack. So if you're in like, uh,
5:18
Speaker 1: you know, a tour van or like a sports you know,
5:22
Speaker 1: like passenger type van like that, Um is the laws
5:26
Speaker 1: of open containers not apply or these people just they
5:29
Speaker 1: just don't care, They just flo out the laws. I
5:32
Speaker 1: think I think the laws do apply, except if you're
5:35
Speaker 1: the greatest hitter on the planet, and then you do
5:37
Speaker 1: again whatever you want, Like I don't think wade bugs
5:40
Speaker 1: is like oh, fifty to speed limit like people are
5:45
Speaker 1: at least when they pull you over, pull you over
5:47
Speaker 1: for your autograph, not to give you a ticket exactly.
5:50
Speaker 1: And I get I think Wade Bugs is basically a
5:54
Speaker 1: cup So I think Wade bus kind of can do
5:56
Speaker 1: whatever he wants and just for just for really quickly.
5:59
Speaker 1: It's for a context to prove your hypothesis here, Matt,
6:03
Speaker 1: I did find a quote from a guy named Jeff Nelson,
6:07
Speaker 1: Um who I believe was one of his teammates, and
6:10
Speaker 1: he said Bogs was always the first player to the clubhouse.
6:14
Speaker 1: He would bring a six pack with them. He'd be
6:16
Speaker 1: there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as
6:19
Speaker 1: we were all packing our stuff up out of our
6:21
Speaker 1: lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade
6:24
Speaker 1: would sit there and drink that whole six back. Um
6:28
Speaker 1: that this is just like sort of was basically par
6:31
Speaker 1: for the course for Wade Bogs. Right, Yeah, we we
6:34
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit previously. I think I
6:36
Speaker 1: don't remember if it made to air. But Jeff Nelson
6:39
Speaker 1: is a former relief pitcher. You can read his comments
6:43
Speaker 1: about Bogs on some excellent Esquire articles, and he says
6:48
Speaker 1: it was absolutely normal for bogs to drink. I think
6:51
Speaker 1: he said fifty or sixty beers on a single flight,
6:54
Speaker 1: So that doesn't get us to the hundred and seven number.
6:58
Speaker 1: But right now, for everyone listening along at home, we're
7:01
Speaker 1: already at thirty and they're not on the plane. So
7:05
Speaker 1: knowing that, you know, in general, bugs would drink like
7:08
Speaker 1: plus or minus twelve beers, you know, in a right
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Speaker 1: after the game, before we even leaving the clubhouse. Can
7:14
Speaker 1: we start back from there? Uh, Matt, I just kind
7:17
Speaker 1: of lost track, and I want to make sure I've
7:18
Speaker 1: got my tally right. They counted thirty twelve and then
7:22
Speaker 1: six and then twelve right, perfect, perfect, Okay, So then
7:25
Speaker 1: you know they get on the flight, they got to
7:27
Speaker 1: do the whole security briefing. I think he's easy putting
7:30
Speaker 1: another six pack away there. I mean, I don't think
7:32
Speaker 1: there's any question. And we've got six before the plane
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Speaker 1: even is in the air. Perfect thirty six already. This is,
7:39
Speaker 1: by the way, most people. I am not a doctor,
7:42
Speaker 1: I'm not like a booze surgeon or whatever, but I'm
7:44
Speaker 1: pretty sure thirty six beers will put the uh, the
7:47
Speaker 1: average mortal man down for the counts, right, And these
7:50
Speaker 1: are not tall boys. These are like your typical twelve
7:53
Speaker 1: ounce pull tap cans right definitely at twelve ats B.
7:57
Speaker 1: I think if we went tall boys, then all of
8:00
Speaker 1: a sudden, our math gets real screwy. So let's go
8:02
Speaker 1: with the twelve ounce beer. And then the real math
8:04
Speaker 1: question is flight cross country. Look at five and a
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Speaker 1: half hours, let's make it six hours, just to make
8:10
Speaker 1: the math as easy as possible. How many beers can
8:13
Speaker 1: a living legend like Wade Bugs consume? I mean, at
8:17
Speaker 1: this point he's really cruising himself, and so I think
8:20
Speaker 1: he's really I would put him down for I'd say
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Speaker 1: nine beers an hour would be that seems realistic to
8:28
Speaker 1: me at this point. Yeah, nine beers an hour seems reasonable.
8:31
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable, but well I don't.
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Speaker 1: I think I, as a mere mortal, could probably do
8:36
Speaker 1: four beers in it, you know, maybe, but that's probably
8:39
Speaker 1: pushing it for me. Even so nine is on the
8:43
Speaker 1: is on the the edge of epic. I would say,
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Speaker 1: like twelve would be just like godlike and completely unrealistic,
8:49
Speaker 1: but nine, I'm like him that Yeah, okay, so I'm
8:52
Speaker 1: I'm doing some lazy math here, I know, uh, I
8:55
Speaker 1: know if it's a if we call it six hours,
8:57
Speaker 1: it's like a five hour or forty even of flight
8:59
Speaker 1: or something. And then just to make the math work.
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Speaker 1: From what Nelson said, it sounds spot on. It sounds impossible.
9:06
Speaker 1: Like the only way I could drink nine beers an
9:08
Speaker 1: hour on a plane, I'm gonna be super honest with you, guys.
9:11
Speaker 1: I could only do it if I was sitting on
9:13
Speaker 1: the toilet where I was drinking them in the bathroom,
9:16
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't have to keep getting up and walking.
9:18
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think we except we except nine. And
9:21
Speaker 1: I like the phrase edge of epic, And I also
9:23
Speaker 1: think the one thing we we've got to consider is,
9:26
Speaker 1: you know, even though we weren't there and we haven't
9:29
Speaker 1: heard this, you know, he boarded the plane holding two
9:32
Speaker 1: thirty packs, and you just can see him doing that.
9:35
Speaker 1: So you can see him walking up the stairs to
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Speaker 1: the plane. You can see him sitting down and having
9:40
Speaker 1: the three seats. He sits in the middle. He puts
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Speaker 1: one thirty on his right, one thirty in its left,
9:44
Speaker 1: and he says, this is my mission. So like we
9:47
Speaker 1: kind of know this is true, even though we don't
9:49
Speaker 1: know this is true. Well, I have to say. I
9:51
Speaker 1: love the unapologetic nature of this man's beer consumption too.
9:55
Speaker 1: He doesn't seem concerned at all, you know, being like
9:58
Speaker 1: someone in the public guy who's intentionally like, you know,
10:01
Speaker 1: a role model for like kids and stuff. But it's
10:04
Speaker 1: very clearly just flaunting his uh, his excessive drinking, almost
10:08
Speaker 1: like a superpower. I gotta give the guy props for
10:10
Speaker 1: that kind of moxie. Yeah, and I think Wade Bugs
10:13
Speaker 1: has been called a lot of things. Role model is
10:15
Speaker 1: probably the one thing I don't know about. I mean,
10:18
Speaker 1: role model for functional alcoholics maybe, But no shade to
10:23
Speaker 1: the man, because we're we're looking at the nuts and
10:26
Speaker 1: bolts of this. We're we're we're solving the mystery here
10:30
Speaker 1: with your help, Matt. So, if I've got my counts correct,
10:33
Speaker 1: then six hours nine beers an hour, that's fifty four
10:38
Speaker 1: beers just on the plane. Just how on earth is
10:42
Speaker 1: that possible? It seems impossible, it really does. But again,
10:46
Speaker 1: you're trying to put yourself in Wade Boggs's place, and
10:49
Speaker 1: that's like saying, like, why don't you have three thousand hits,
10:51
Speaker 1: Like it's just not right for you to picture yourself
10:54
Speaker 1: doing this stuff. There's a different guy. Yeah, I think
10:57
Speaker 1: I've got maybe the wrong mistress. I don't know. I
10:59
Speaker 1: was looking at my stats after we recorded the first episode. Alright,
11:04
Speaker 1: so we the plane lands, and then you know, Bogs
11:07
Speaker 1: is looking we we He cranks fifty four, so he's
11:10
Speaker 1: got six left, so I think he's hitting those last
11:13
Speaker 1: six as the plane is basically taxiing, so just to
11:16
Speaker 1: finish off the two thirties. That gets rid of all
11:19
Speaker 1: the beers. He no longer has to deal with any
11:22
Speaker 1: of this stuff. So he's got, uh, I've lost the jacks, Casey,
11:27
Speaker 1: I'll let you jump in here. Yeah, you guys, we're
11:28
Speaker 1: at right now. Okay, okay, we're getting there. Boy, we're
11:33
Speaker 1: so at this point, what is he like? Are they
11:34
Speaker 1: are there taxing? Are they about to descend this? Because
11:38
Speaker 1: he's not really necessarily like shooting for a number, he's
11:41
Speaker 1: not trying to beat a record or anything. He just
11:43
Speaker 1: organically got there, And I think that's right. I think
11:46
Speaker 1: he's just trying to get through these two thirty recks.
11:49
Speaker 1: He's got six left. He polishes off those last six,
11:52
Speaker 1: and then they get off the plane, but they're not
12:00
Speaker 1: yet to their destination, right, that's right, he still has
12:03
Speaker 1: the bus ride to go from l A X to
12:05
Speaker 1: the team hotel. Now I'm picturing he's got he gets
12:09
Speaker 1: it one last twelve pack for that ride, and he's
12:12
Speaker 1: really I assume he's, you know, he's not seeing great
12:14
Speaker 1: at this point. I think his goal is to hit
12:18
Speaker 1: these last twelve beers to get to one oh eight.
12:21
Speaker 1: But I think he realizes he's starting to slow down
12:25
Speaker 1: a little. So I'm giving him eleven of those final
12:29
Speaker 1: twelve and he just can't finish the whole thing off
12:32
Speaker 1: because it's the problem is it's too much beerre So
12:35
Speaker 1: I think he's one short there. I think that number
12:37
Speaker 1: if my math is correct, and you you you tell me,
12:41
Speaker 1: but I've got that being exactly the one oh seven number,
12:45
Speaker 1: which which bogs has claimed. And I think that this
12:48
Speaker 1: all makes a lot of sense to me. Um. And
12:50
Speaker 1: then one other thing we need to consider is in
12:53
Speaker 1: the last episode we mentioned that Boggs is very superstitious,
12:57
Speaker 1: was obsessed with the number seven. So I think when
13:00
Speaker 1: he got to one oh seven, he said, you know what,
13:03
Speaker 1: that's the perfect time to stop. I probably could go further,
13:06
Speaker 1: but let's end it here because one oh seven is
13:09
Speaker 1: just such an important number for me. I love that.
13:12
Speaker 1: I love that because I was thinking a similar thing
13:15
Speaker 1: to me. There's something so poetic about the beer un drank,
13:19
Speaker 1: the single beer left. I was wondering, like, I like,
13:22
Speaker 1: I like your argument about one or seven, because in
13:24
Speaker 1: my head, I was thinking maybe he saved it for
13:27
Speaker 1: after the game. He was like one cold win for
13:30
Speaker 1: after the game. But that doesn't make sense because he
13:32
Speaker 1: clearly has all the beer he wants forever. He would
13:35
Speaker 1: just have someone give him a thirty back, right, Yeah,
13:37
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I think at that point,
13:39
Speaker 1: like the ball boys were signing Bogs autographs, at that point,
13:43
Speaker 1: they were getting his beer. They were dealing with like
13:46
Speaker 1: all sorts of various mistresses, and there's no cell phones
13:49
Speaker 1: at this point, so I imagine these mistresses are calling
13:51
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, land lines that are getting
13:54
Speaker 1: relayed to bugs. So at this point, like he can
13:56
Speaker 1: get whatever he wants. You know, it's funny. I also
13:59
Speaker 1: was one ring about that aspect of it, because I
14:02
Speaker 1: love the imagy paint of him, like lugging these thirty packs,
14:05
Speaker 1: like you know, on on each shoulder, going up the
14:07
Speaker 1: little ramp onto the charter plane. But I gotta wonder too,
14:10
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think he had to bring his
14:11
Speaker 1: own or or was this just a known thing that
14:14
Speaker 1: like they had to have this on hand. They had
14:16
Speaker 1: to have enough beers for him to just you know,
14:18
Speaker 1: drink his fill. I I gotta think like socks charters
14:22
Speaker 1: at that point, like they just would just overstock them
14:26
Speaker 1: knowing that Boggs was coming, Like you just like got
14:29
Speaker 1: rid of all the coffee, You got rid of all
14:31
Speaker 1: the bottled water, all the sprite, all the all the
14:34
Speaker 1: first aid kits, you know, every parachutes and so like
14:39
Speaker 1: where they normally would be like a big inflatable slide
14:42
Speaker 1: in a plane that was just like stuffed with beer
14:44
Speaker 1: because way coming. No, that makes sense to me. There's
14:48
Speaker 1: probably also something like a writer too. I mean, given
14:50
Speaker 1: his success, I'm sure that they had like a bevy
14:53
Speaker 1: of things that they were expected to give him, beer
14:56
Speaker 1: being number one, but I'm sure they were like specific
14:58
Speaker 1: snacks maybe other Oh chicken obviously right, he's not gonna
15:02
Speaker 1: go get his own chicken. Could you kind of paint
15:04
Speaker 1: a picture for us, Matt about exactly how valuable a
15:07
Speaker 1: player he was, Like how above and beyond like he
15:11
Speaker 1: delivered for this team and how he would have been
15:13
Speaker 1: treated like in like royalty. Well, that's the funny thing,
15:16
Speaker 1: is like we're we're talking about this sort of urban
15:19
Speaker 1: legend and that is supposedly true, but like this is
15:23
Speaker 1: all overshadowed what a great baseball player Bogs was. Like
15:28
Speaker 1: that it's true, We're we're kind of burying the lead here.
15:31
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs was one of the great contact hitters of
15:35
Speaker 1: all time. I mean, just as a batting average hitter,
15:38
Speaker 1: he was incredible, almost without Pierre Tony Gwynn, the only
15:42
Speaker 1: guy who was sort of even close. And if you
15:44
Speaker 1: were to pick one guy who was going to hit
15:47
Speaker 1: four hundred for a season, you would have guessed back
15:49
Speaker 1: then Wade Bugs and Bogs was like he would go
15:53
Speaker 1: like a whole season with swinging and missing like a
15:57
Speaker 1: handful of times, like things that we've got normal guys
15:59
Speaker 1: doing a game. You know, I swung and missed four
16:02
Speaker 1: times in that game, game or whatever. Boggs could go
16:05
Speaker 1: like a whole season with that kind of number. So
16:07
Speaker 1: this was a player that like was one of the
16:10
Speaker 1: all time greats, even though we don't really think of
16:12
Speaker 1: him as an all time great for many reasons. Um
16:15
Speaker 1: also way. Bogs was totally obsessed with his own stats,
16:18
Speaker 1: as we mentioned in the last episode, and that really
16:22
Speaker 1: bothered a lot of people because it was like, if
16:24
Speaker 1: there was a guy on first, Boggs would try and
16:27
Speaker 1: hit a single rather than Oh, we need a home
16:30
Speaker 1: run or a double for you to try and drive
16:31
Speaker 1: that guy at home, and Bogs will be like, I'm
16:33
Speaker 1: trying to keep my batting average out. Um. So he
16:36
Speaker 1: was great, but he you know, there was some some
16:39
Speaker 1: dings on his resume as well as if like, is
16:42
Speaker 1: that like he's not being a team player by doing
16:46
Speaker 1: I got it, like he the back of his baseball
16:49
Speaker 1: card was almost more important to Wade Boggs than the
16:52
Speaker 1: win lost column for the team. That makes sense, I mean,
16:55
Speaker 1: And it's it's interesting because I took some time to
16:57
Speaker 1: look through Baseball Hall of Fame stuff about weight bugs,
17:02
Speaker 1: and this guy is no joke, Like he's a monster.
17:05
Speaker 1: And the part you're telling us, Matt, which I hadn't
17:09
Speaker 1: heard before, about him being sort of selfish, more so
17:13
Speaker 1: about his stats than about his team. It seems counter
17:16
Speaker 1: to the idea of good sportsmanship in a team sport.
17:20
Speaker 1: But there's no arguing that he got results. He had
17:23
Speaker 1: two thousand, four d thirty two career games, and he
17:26
Speaker 1: reached base easily of them, like the there I'm just
17:31
Speaker 1: looking at his average. Uh, some of the stats that
17:35
Speaker 1: you had given us earlier, like the point three to
17:38
Speaker 1: eight batting average, point four one five on base percentage
17:42
Speaker 1: like these are things other people can't do. Going back
17:45
Speaker 1: to that idea of him getting pulled over and somehow
17:49
Speaker 1: getting a citation for open container, the reason that's so
17:54
Speaker 1: laughably implausible to me is that I bet that police
17:57
Speaker 1: officer would have gotten on into a lot of trouble,
18:00
Speaker 1: especially if he delayed Bogs performing in a game. You
18:04
Speaker 1: know what I mean? I do? I mean again, the
18:07
Speaker 1: guy was for ten years, he hit over three hundred
18:10
Speaker 1: and you know, Ted Williams was considered the greatest Red
18:13
Speaker 1: Sox hitter without a doubt because he did it for
18:16
Speaker 1: average and power. But Wave Bogs is I mean David
18:21
Speaker 1: Ortiz again, Manny Ramirez didn't do it as long as bugs,
18:24
Speaker 1: and they may hit for more power, but Wave Bugs is,
18:27
Speaker 1: without a doubt, one of the four greatest hitters in
18:29
Speaker 1: mid sexes. I have to point out something I found
18:31
Speaker 1: in an article. Um I think it might have been
18:34
Speaker 1: from that Maxim article you were talking Esquire article rather
18:36
Speaker 1: that you were talking about ben But uh, there's a
18:39
Speaker 1: question pose that we haven't really addressed as to like
18:42
Speaker 1: how can someone drink that many beers and not have
18:45
Speaker 1: a blood alcohol level that's like literally lethal? Right? Um?
18:49
Speaker 1: And and the writer of this piece kind of goes
18:52
Speaker 1: into the specifics about it, saying there were a lot
18:54
Speaker 1: of skeptics saying this must be BS because you know,
18:58
Speaker 1: to drink that many beers, your blood alcohol would be
19:00
Speaker 1: so high that it would probably kill you, or you
19:02
Speaker 1: would get so drunk before that point you would have
19:04
Speaker 1: to stop. Um. But what isn't taken into account is
19:09
Speaker 1: uh tolerance, pure and uttered tolerance of alcohol. And like
19:13
Speaker 1: Bogs apparently you know, he was just drinking beer. That
19:16
Speaker 1: was his thing. Like you don't even hear about him, like,
19:18
Speaker 1: you know, getting hammered on like liquor. He's just he's
19:20
Speaker 1: a beer guy. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't,
19:22
Speaker 1: but according to this, he was a hundred ninety seven
19:25
Speaker 1: pounds cans of Miller light or twelve ounces and have
19:28
Speaker 1: four point two percent alcohol. So he drank you know,
19:31
Speaker 1: let's just say having this large tolerance that he has
19:34
Speaker 1: developed for alcohol over the years. Um, it's really difficult,
19:38
Speaker 1: they're saying, to actually make an estimate as to what
19:40
Speaker 1: his blood alcohol level would be. And again maybe I'm like,
19:42
Speaker 1: maybe this isn't even a good way of looking at it,
19:45
Speaker 1: because how does tolerance affect like the actual way your
19:48
Speaker 1: body processes booze? Like like I could saycond see you
19:52
Speaker 1: could like get used to it more. But isn't it
19:54
Speaker 1: no matter what's the same amount of alcohol in your system?
19:57
Speaker 1: Right Ben? Yeah, that's correct. I mean, is Liver is
20:00
Speaker 1: a superstar who has its own, uh storied career. I
20:05
Speaker 1: would also advance there's one intervening variable we may have
20:09
Speaker 1: not approached yet. It feels like over the span of
20:14
Speaker 1: this infamous flight, at least one beer's worth of alcohol
20:18
Speaker 1: was lost in the mustache. I mean, that thing doesn't quit.
20:21
Speaker 1: That's true. I'm starting. I almost called it his ground game,
20:24
Speaker 1: but his like his can game, had to get a
20:27
Speaker 1: little sloppy, you know, probably around beer eighty and so
20:31
Speaker 1: he's there's gonna be some spilla, there's gonna be Yeah, Well,
20:35
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think, Matt, I say, Well,
20:38
Speaker 1: first of all, one of the grave mustaches of all
20:40
Speaker 1: time but I would say also, you know, you start
20:42
Speaker 1: to get like when you drink that much. You know,
20:44
Speaker 1: we've all drank seventy eight beers. We haven't drink a
20:46
Speaker 1: hundred and seven. But when you start to drink that much,
20:48
Speaker 1: you finish like four fifths of a beer and then
20:50
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, next one, And so you can get
20:52
Speaker 1: a little lack of daisical with really finishing off every
20:56
Speaker 1: last drop of some So like I think of the
20:58
Speaker 1: hundred and seven, if you can probably say like three
21:02
Speaker 1: full beers of like backwash leftovers, maybe like the real
21:06
Speaker 1: the real numbers one up four, because he was probably
21:09
Speaker 1: also at the point where and no judgment here where
21:12
Speaker 1: his short term memory or his attention to which beer
21:15
Speaker 1: was the fresh one may have faltered a little bit.
21:19
Speaker 1: And what do you guys think he did with all
21:21
Speaker 1: the cans? Like he's thinking, yeah, is he is he
21:23
Speaker 1: have trash bags? Or is the steward is just coming
21:26
Speaker 1: over and just like with a trash bag and just
21:29
Speaker 1: hauling off ten twelve at a time. Like what do
21:31
Speaker 1: you guys think he's even doing with all these or
21:33
Speaker 1: is he like, oh, it's so many cans? The recycle
21:36
Speaker 1: money is enough that like I'll take keep them bring
21:39
Speaker 1: him with me. I uh, you know it's funny. We
21:42
Speaker 1: uh we did a story on another show about recycling
21:45
Speaker 1: that's gonna come out. I would say in this time,
21:49
Speaker 1: in as you said, the early nineties, there was probably
21:53
Speaker 1: instead of a bat boy, there was like a beer
21:55
Speaker 1: boy or a can boy or something. He was on
21:58
Speaker 1: the flight and her job was to stay out of
22:01
Speaker 1: the flight attendant's way and just keep keep the cans
22:04
Speaker 1: flowing like the spice and dune, you know what I mean,
22:08
Speaker 1: bring because they're just walking at that point, they're just
22:10
Speaker 1: walking to a seat with more beer and then walking
22:13
Speaker 1: back to throw away the empties and then walking back
22:16
Speaker 1: and he's done with the other beers. So you think
22:18
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn there's like a guy who's like in his
22:21
Speaker 1: like late forties that says, like to ninety three like
22:25
Speaker 1: Red Sox can boy. Well, I mean, if Snoop Dogg
22:28
Speaker 1: has a blunt roller, you know, then I don't know
22:31
Speaker 1: why Wade Boggs can't have a canboy. That's all I'm saying.
22:34
Speaker 1: He's earned it. You know. At this stage in researching
22:42
Speaker 1: Wade Bugs, I found another story and if we have
22:45
Speaker 1: tied one last Okay, so again, we've covered like so
22:50
Speaker 1: many different things that this guy has done that made him,
22:54
Speaker 1: you know, a legend. Each one of these things alone
22:56
Speaker 1: would make him a huge way Bugs of course, because
22:59
Speaker 1: he's wade Bug starts to get into exotic animal hunting
23:03
Speaker 1: and you know these the type all right, We've all
23:06
Speaker 1: seen the type with the photos. Like, none of us
23:09
Speaker 1: like this guy, but we all know that who this
23:10
Speaker 1: person is and what their motivations. So Wave Bogs is
23:14
Speaker 1: starting to get criticized for taking down all these elk
23:16
Speaker 1: and you know, putting them all up in his living room, etcetera.
23:19
Speaker 1: And he's like, no, no, no, guys, you don't understand, Like,
23:22
Speaker 1: I didn't just take down these animals because I enjoyed
23:26
Speaker 1: the sport of it. I got brought in because these
23:29
Speaker 1: animals were terrorizing the village. He's like, this crocodile had
23:34
Speaker 1: literally killed two kids, and I got brought in to
23:37
Speaker 1: kill the crocodile. Now I'm not making this up. This
23:39
Speaker 1: is in the seat St. Petersburg Times. There's a hippo
23:43
Speaker 1: that had killed three villagers and their first phone call
23:46
Speaker 1: when they were like, how do we kill this hippo?
23:48
Speaker 1: Way Bugs? So like, yeah, so this is like, I mean,
23:53
Speaker 1: every part of this guy is insane. I mean, the
23:57
Speaker 1: least interesting part of Wade bogs Is life is the
24:00
Speaker 1: fact that he's a Hall of Fame baseball player. Every
24:03
Speaker 1: part of this is cartoonish in a way that makes
24:08
Speaker 1: you think that he isn't a real person. And yet
24:10
Speaker 1: he's just this fifty five year old guy now who
24:13
Speaker 1: I assume lives in Florida and goes fishing a lett.
24:16
Speaker 1: But he's a real person who does exist, I believe.
24:19
Speaker 1: But if you told me all this stuff, I wouldn't
24:21
Speaker 1: believe it. Well, there's a joke, a running joke in
24:23
Speaker 1: the Always Sunny episode that they're doing this in Wade
24:26
Speaker 1: Bogg's memory, because surely this man is has died, um
24:30
Speaker 1: with with treating his body in this way and uh,
24:32
Speaker 1: and Mac keeps reminding Charlie that no, man, Wade Boggs
24:35
Speaker 1: is very much alive. And then there's a part at
24:37
Speaker 1: the end where they're the whole point of the episode
24:40
Speaker 1: is they're trying to beat Wade Boggs record, and they've
24:41
Speaker 1: got like hash marks on their shirt for how many
24:43
Speaker 1: beers they have, and they're on a commercial fly, which
24:45
Speaker 1: makes it even more ridiculous. Uh. They eventually get cut off,
24:48
Speaker 1: but on the way back, Charlie has like a vision
24:52
Speaker 1: and he thinks it's Wade Bogg's ghosts uh. And then
24:55
Speaker 1: Wade Bogg's ghost, which really dis hallucination, reminds Charlie that
24:58
Speaker 1: he's very much alive. Uh, and I believe he remains
25:01
Speaker 1: alive to this day. He talked to TMZ recently to
25:04
Speaker 1: kind of clear up this whole How many beers was it?
25:07
Speaker 1: And he didn't specifically reference to the cross country flight,
25:09
Speaker 1: but they just asked him kind of point blank, like
25:11
Speaker 1: what's the most beers you've drunk in a day? And
25:13
Speaker 1: he goes, probably over a hundred and then and then
25:17
Speaker 1: guy was like, how does one do this? Wade bugs
25:20
Speaker 1: And he goes, I have a hollow leg. I just
25:23
Speaker 1: drink it. It all runs down in there and then
25:25
Speaker 1: I take it off and dump it out. Which is
25:28
Speaker 1: is that a thing? Is that a do? Is that
25:29
Speaker 1: a jokey old timey thing? People say, because I've never
25:32
Speaker 1: heard that in my life, and that is a weird image. Yeah,
25:34
Speaker 1: it's an old it's it's an old timey joke, drinking
25:38
Speaker 1: like one has a hollow leg. I do want to
25:41
Speaker 1: go back to the hunt, which I was not aware of. Uh.
25:45
Speaker 1: The hippopotamus is the most dangerous land animal, most dangerous
25:50
Speaker 1: land mammal for sure. So it's not like, um, regardless
25:55
Speaker 1: of what your feelings are about hunting in general. Uh,
25:58
Speaker 1: it's not as if hippos are the cute, cuddly ballerina's
26:04
Speaker 1: they're depicted to be in Fantasia cartoons. These things are
26:07
Speaker 1: no joke. They're dangerous. Well, Ben, I actually do need
26:10
Speaker 1: to correct you there, because it's actually the second most
26:12
Speaker 1: dangerous landman animal. The most dangerous is Wayne bugs Well
26:18
Speaker 1: played playing the most dangerous game that is bits drinking.
26:24
Speaker 1: So over the span of his we we found another
26:27
Speaker 1: like superlative for him, right because over the span of
26:31
Speaker 1: his time he killed like as a big game hunter,
26:35
Speaker 1: he killed at least seventy eight game animals. Right. Yeah,
26:41
Speaker 1: and then like had I believe like a trophy room
26:44
Speaker 1: hunting lodge kind of situation and his home in Florida
26:48
Speaker 1: real Teddy Roosevelt kind of character. You know, I like
26:51
Speaker 1: that he's okay. So the entire time we've been doing
26:54
Speaker 1: this series, I've been thinking of different appellations and monikers
26:58
Speaker 1: and nicknames for the man himself, right, and I feel
27:04
Speaker 1: like hippo hit man is one, Like he's the hippo
27:08
Speaker 1: hip man, the hippo hit man, Wade Boggs. It's crazy
27:11
Speaker 1: that he is alive. It's like we can go visit him.
27:15
Speaker 1: And the other funny thing is like, because Wade Bugs
27:17
Speaker 1: is not considered one of the all time grades, I
27:19
Speaker 1: feel like we could, like it wouldn't be out of
27:22
Speaker 1: the question for us to get Wade Bugs on, like
27:25
Speaker 1: right now. We can make a few phone calls and
27:27
Speaker 1: get him on, Like he's not a guy that that
27:29
Speaker 1: there's too famous for the Ridiculous History podcast. I mean,
27:33
Speaker 1: I'm not saying, Casey, you need to do this right now,
27:35
Speaker 1: but like it seems plausible that we could get Wade
27:38
Speaker 1: Bugs on the next episode. Now. I think if I
27:41
Speaker 1: think if we name drop you, that might go a
27:43
Speaker 1: long way, Like Hey, we know Matt Waxman from Trickeration
27:47
Speaker 1: and he'll be like, all right, just send the beer
27:49
Speaker 1: and tell me what time to hop on the call. Guys,
27:53
Speaker 1: there's a pretty problematic quote from Wade Boggs though, about
27:56
Speaker 1: this whole hippo situation. The New York Post reported on
28:00
Speaker 1: us and they they they actually quote um something he
28:02
Speaker 1: said to the St. Peter Petersburg Times. He you know,
28:05
Speaker 1: he starts off strong like, but it sounds like once
28:08
Speaker 1: he gets to the end of this, it sounds like
28:10
Speaker 1: he maybe had a few at this point because he
28:13
Speaker 1: starts off like he's it's been braggadocious, but it's it's
28:16
Speaker 1: on point. But then it takes a weird turn. He uh.
28:19
Speaker 1: He says, the hippo had killed three villagers and the
28:22
Speaker 1: crocodiles had killed two kids. So I was sort of
28:25
Speaker 1: the great white hunter who came in and saved the village.
28:30
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's like the whole white savior thing,
28:33
Speaker 1: like I was the great white hunter that came in.
28:35
Speaker 1: It's just a little cringe e That's all I'm saying.
28:38
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it was a little self
28:41
Speaker 1: aggrandizing and sort of a weird like white point. Why
28:44
Speaker 1: why bring race into it at all? It was a
28:46
Speaker 1: little strange, but yeah, strange man. He also said, you know,
28:49
Speaker 1: he obviously was not or is not because he is
28:53
Speaker 1: still alive. Sorry, Charlie. Uh. He was obviously not a
28:56
Speaker 1: big fan of animal rights activists. I think later this
29:00
Speaker 1: maybe from the St. Petersburg interview, but later he goes
29:02
Speaker 1: on when someone asked him about the criticism he's receiving
29:07
Speaker 1: from animal rights activists, he says, these people need to
29:10
Speaker 1: get a life. They have their opinion, but don't infringe
29:13
Speaker 1: on my right to do something that's legal to me.
29:15
Speaker 1: The big thing is in the hippo case, at least
29:17
Speaker 1: someone asked him for help. Maybe we take a page
29:20
Speaker 1: from the village when we call Wade Boggs. I don't know,
29:24
Speaker 1: do we have to have a murderous hippo in town
29:27
Speaker 1: or can we just ask him on the show? I
29:28
Speaker 1: just don't know what else there is to talk about.
29:30
Speaker 1: You think we've covered it all? Like I feel like
29:32
Speaker 1: once if you got him on, he'd be like, oh yeah,
29:35
Speaker 1: they're like those six things he talked about, Like those
29:37
Speaker 1: are the least six interesting things. Oh yeah, okay, alright,
29:40
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs, in his own words, look for it in
29:42
Speaker 1: a podcast feeding here. Maybe we should just give the
29:44
Speaker 1: guy's own podcast. You know, I would listen to that,
29:46
Speaker 1: a bogcast a podcast. Yeah, that's that's good. Well man, Okay,
29:51
Speaker 1: so this is uh does this seem like a good
29:53
Speaker 1: place to wrap up the Wade Boggs series? For now. Yeah,
29:57
Speaker 1: we don't know what he's gonna do next, you know
29:59
Speaker 1: what I mean? We, Matt, thank you for coming along
30:03
Speaker 1: with us on a two part journey into the larger
30:06
Speaker 1: than life world of Wade Boggs. Uh. We do have
30:09
Speaker 1: to ask you in advance, though, this guy's tricky if
30:12
Speaker 1: he does something else, are you down to come back
30:14
Speaker 1: and uh and make a part three with us? As
30:17
Speaker 1: anytime Wade Bugs does anything noteworthy, I'm willing and able
30:21
Speaker 1: to do this. So anytime you guys call, I'm ready.
30:24
Speaker 1: Whatever Wade Boggs drinks a hundred and six beers on
30:26
Speaker 1: a flight, He'll be there. Whatever Wade Boggs saves a
30:30
Speaker 1: village from a raging hippopotamus, Matt Waxman will be there.
30:35
Speaker 1: That's all I got. And in the meantime, while we're
30:38
Speaker 1: waiting to hear more from Wade Boggs, waiting to hear
30:42
Speaker 1: more from Wade Boggs, never mind. Uh, you can learn
30:45
Speaker 1: more strange stories from the world of sports on Triggeration,
30:50
Speaker 1: available now wherever you get your podcasts. Uh, Matt, where
30:54
Speaker 1: would you direct people who want to learn more about
30:57
Speaker 1: your work and want to learn more about Triggeration in specific?
31:00
Speaker 1: Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter at Trickerationum, we've
31:04
Speaker 1: got a ton of great episodes, all involving this kind
31:07
Speaker 1: of total nonsense. The tagline for our show is honest
31:10
Speaker 1: Conversations about dishonest act So when people are lying, which
31:13
Speaker 1: they're altisched, they always are. That's the kind of stuff
31:16
Speaker 1: that that we're diving into. Next week, we've got a
31:19
Speaker 1: story about a fisherman in North Dakota who caught the
31:23
Speaker 1: North Dakota Walleye Record, which is a fish up there,
31:27
Speaker 1: and it turned out there was all this controversy around, um,
31:30
Speaker 1: whether he actually caught the fish or not, and I
31:32
Speaker 1: interview him and UM, it's unclear to me actually at
31:35
Speaker 1: the end of this podcast whether or not he's lying
31:37
Speaker 1: or not. But UM, i'd love the listeners to listen
31:40
Speaker 1: and let me know if they think he's lying. Excellent, excellent,
31:43
Speaker 1: So we're going to check that out. We hope that
31:46
Speaker 1: you check it out as well. Matt. Thank you so
31:48
Speaker 1: much for coming on the show with us, not once,
31:51
Speaker 1: but twice and maybe a third or fourth time. We've
31:53
Speaker 1: got to keep an eye on box. Thanks as always
31:56
Speaker 1: to our super producer, Casey Pegram, Alex Williams, who posed
32:00
Speaker 1: our theme. Big thanks to you, buddy, Hope you're doing
32:02
Speaker 1: well on your on your vacation, your your walk about um.
32:06
Speaker 1: Huge thanks Christopher Haciotes here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland, that
32:09
Speaker 1: devious and notorious quizzer. We'll get you next time. Who else? Ben?
32:14
Speaker 1: Big thanks to our research. North Star gave blues Yeah.
32:19
Speaker 1: Big thanks of course to Miller Lite one more time.
32:21
Speaker 1: That beer is so good you can drink it with
32:23
Speaker 1: your mouth. True story? What other? What other weird stories? Uh?
32:29
Speaker 1: From the world of sports, from the world of booze
32:32
Speaker 1: do you have for us and most importantly your fellow listeners.
32:35
Speaker 1: Let us know you can find us on the internet Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, at, etcetera,
32:41
Speaker 1: not just as a show, but as individuals. I'm Ben
32:44
Speaker 1: Bowling on Instagram and Ben Bowling hsw on Twitter. If
32:47
Speaker 1: you wish, you can stalk me on Instagram. I am
32:50
Speaker 1: at how now Noel Brown. Also, please take a cue
32:54
Speaker 1: from your fellow Ridiculous historians and join the Facebook group
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Speaker 1: the Ridiculous Historians. All you gotta do is name me
33:00
Speaker 1: or Ben or Matt Waxman or Casey Pegram or any
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Speaker 1: of the names that we shout out at the end
33:05
Speaker 1: of each show every week, and you're in so much
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Speaker 1: fun trading memes and and stories and it's a really
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33:15
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33:20
Speaker 1: And if you are a hundred and seven beers deep
33:23
Speaker 1: as you've been listening today, drinks some water, take a
33:27
Speaker 1: napp we'll talk very soon. We'll see you next time, folks.
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