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The Misadventures of Wade Boggs, Part 1 · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as always
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Speaker 1: That's very much every so often relationship, but we do
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Speaker 1: join forces every single episode with our super producer, Casey Pegram.
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Speaker 1: You're rocking that shirt again, man, that looks awesome. No,
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Speaker 1: you're calling me out on it that shirt. I was
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Speaker 1: and I just ran out of top forgot about it.
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Speaker 1: And then as soon as the camera feed came up,
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Speaker 1: I was like, well, I'm I'm committing to the You know, Casey,
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Speaker 1: I've been wearing the same shirt since the beginning of Quarantine,
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Speaker 1: so it's it's fine, this is my show shirt from
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Speaker 1: now on. You know, my We're we're talking about superstitions today,
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Speaker 1: so you know, if this is part of the ritual
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Speaker 1: here Casey on the case. And in addition to team
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Speaker 1: me up with Casey every so often on this show, Noll,
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Speaker 1: you and I are lucky enough to welcome a special guest.
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Speaker 1: So when we started thinking about sports and thinking about
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Speaker 1: as you said, Casey, superstition, as you said, old scandal, uh,
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Speaker 1: we knew that we needed some extra firepower. We needed
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Speaker 1: an expert, right oh yeah, yeah, And we have just
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Speaker 1: that expert today with us. We have Mr Matthew Waxman,
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Speaker 1: the host of Trickeration, our Sister Brother whatever Colleague podcast
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Speaker 1: here on the iHeart Podcast Network. Matt, thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for joining us today. All right, is it sister Brother?
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Speaker 1: I never can remember peer podcast. I like peer podcast,
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Speaker 1: I like sibling I like it all. You know what,
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Speaker 1: I'm agnostic, But the fact is that we're that you're
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Speaker 1: here now and you've got an awesome podcast called tricker A.
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Speaker 1: That's it's a little history, it's a little sports storytelling.
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Speaker 1: It's about scandal, it's about trickery. Tell us a little
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Speaker 1: bit about what Trickeration is to you. Well, first of all,
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Speaker 1: I also have a set of villains out here. I
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Speaker 1: got unfortunately terrible time. I have a mariachi band playing
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Speaker 1: it right outside my windows. So if you guys pick
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Speaker 1: up any of that, um, let me know and I'll
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Speaker 1: try and get them to quiet down a little. There
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Speaker 1: are mariachi band that also as like a construction crew,
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Speaker 1: so they play their tunes in between jackhammering furiously. Right,
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Speaker 1: I think all their construction equipment actually functions as the instrument, right,
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Speaker 1: Like the bulldozer is the is the equivalent of the
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Speaker 1: guy with the really big guitar. I think that is correct. Well,
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Speaker 1: now that we've got that sorted alright. Trick Yeah, Trickeration.
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Speaker 1: So Trickeration was a podcast I launched about the one
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Speaker 1: thing I'm most passionate about in sports, which is tricks.
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Speaker 1: And I realized when I wanted to start a podcast, like,
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Speaker 1: what is the stuff that I keep coming back to?
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Speaker 1: And it never was the game games I really didn't
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Speaker 1: care about, like fantasy um, so I always was just
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Speaker 1: obsessed with like schemes, hoaxes, like pranks, like basically anything
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Speaker 1: involving deception in sports. I like would just do these
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Speaker 1: random deep guys on and then I was like, oh,
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Speaker 1: I should probably just do this for other people to
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Speaker 1: to give them a full breath of just the lunacy
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Speaker 1: and deception that's going on basically in everything. I mean,
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Speaker 1: we all know that, like everyone is totally foolish about everything,
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Speaker 1: So why not investigate that stuff and get people to
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Speaker 1: come on the podcast and talk about it. So that's
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Speaker 1: what I've done. Wait a minute, are you saying that
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Speaker 1: I like sports aren't real? Are you saying that everything
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Speaker 1: we see isn't legitimate and not fully honest? As a
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Speaker 1: lane set in Seinfeld fake fake fake fake. Well, Matt,
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Speaker 1: did we ever do we ever talk about Brian Towey? Uh?
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Speaker 1: Full disclosure, The four of us have talked a little
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Speaker 1: bit of off air as we were trying to figure
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Speaker 1: out which stories would be the most amazing here. Uh,
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Speaker 1: but Brian Tooey is a guy who is we've interviewed
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Speaker 1: on a different show called Something and once you know,
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Speaker 1: he is convinced that either the vast majority of major
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Speaker 1: sports or all major sports are completely rigged. And uh,
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Speaker 1: he's someone you know what, I'm gonna reach out to
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Speaker 1: him and tell him to listen to trickeration because this
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Speaker 1: this is right up his alley. Um, maybe maybe he's
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Speaker 1: someone you would interview as well. You you told us
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Speaker 1: so many crazy stories off air that we actually had
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Speaker 1: a little bit of a difficult time, the four of
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Speaker 1: us figuring out what we wanted to explore. I know,
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Speaker 1: I know at one point, uh we had said, forget it,
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Speaker 1: we have to do at least these three because they're
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Speaker 1: so weird. And then Matt, you hit us with a
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Speaker 1: story that checked me on this. If this is correct,
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Speaker 1: noal that neither of us had ever heard. Uh, it's
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Speaker 1: a mind blowing, very weird exploration. Uh, Wade Boggs like
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Speaker 1: living legend, the Wade Boggs right the way bugs and
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Speaker 1: I've never heard it. And just full disclosure, I've said
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Speaker 1: as before, but just for your benefit, Matt, I'm not
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Speaker 1: a sports guy, like even a little bit like it
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Speaker 1: is just not in my wheelhouse at all. I'm fascinated
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Speaker 1: by everything that you discussed in the whole, like behind
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Speaker 1: the scenes stuff. But I'm gonna sound like a real
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Speaker 1: layman with some of this stuff, but I'm gonna do
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Speaker 1: my best to keep up. There's nothing I like better
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Speaker 1: than a scandal, uh and with a bunch of salacious details, which,
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Speaker 1: by the way, are gonna be in this episode. So
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Speaker 1: if there's any like younger listeners or parents that are
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Speaker 1: co listening, that's gotta be a thing you might want
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Speaker 1: to skip this one. We're gonna get into some some
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Speaker 1: dirty details done dirt cheap on ridiculous history. I forget
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Speaker 1: what the question was, but it wasn't even a question.
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Speaker 1: It became so rambling that it ceased to be a question.
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Speaker 1: But the question is, how did Wade Boggs come across
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Speaker 1: your radar? And where do you even start with this guy?
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Speaker 1: He's a he's an absolute maniac. Well, it came to
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Speaker 1: me like it comes to us people reading an old
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Speaker 1: penthouse magazine, from which I'm sure you guys were recently doing.
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Speaker 1: And uh, when you're flipping through these old penthouses, you
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Speaker 1: come across the strangest things, like I I found this
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Speaker 1: article by Wade Boggs's mistress, not an articles tell all?
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Speaker 1: And how many pages would you think they would devote
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Speaker 1: a tell all to Wade bugs is mistress? Oh boy?
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Speaker 1: How many pages are in a penthouse? Have some solid literature?
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Speaker 1: That's right? Yeah? Yeah, they definitely, Uh, they definitely do.
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Speaker 1: I would say five. I don't know, I'm gonna go,
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the prices right undercut, and I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna put some money on three I would I
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Speaker 1: would say, yeah, three would be the most you would devote.
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Speaker 1: They went a full five long pages. So they go
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Speaker 1: into this mistress Margot Adams basically airs out every secret
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Speaker 1: going on with the Red Sox in the mid eighties
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Speaker 1: and the stuff. I was a kid when this was
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Speaker 1: all happening, and I think, of course, was shielded from
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Speaker 1: all of this because I wasn't getting these old houses
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Speaker 1: when I was ten years old. Yeah, now that I'm older,
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Speaker 1: I'm getting the good stuff. And the stuff that was
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Speaker 1: in this tell all was incredible, totally incredible. So anyways,
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Speaker 1: I call up this guy who was mentioned in the
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Speaker 1: article and I'm starting to interview him, and he basically
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Speaker 1: tells me a story that's related to Let me just
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Speaker 1: tell you the story that he told me, and you
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Speaker 1: can tell me, um, what you guys think is real
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Speaker 1: and what cannot be true because it is too absurd.
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Speaker 1: All right. So this guy who he went on to
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Speaker 1: become the play by play announcer for the Orioles and
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Speaker 1: the Mariners, but when he was in his early thirties,
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Speaker 1: he was a young writer on Cheers and they're sitting
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Speaker 1: around and they're doing a prank episode which you know,
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Speaker 1: it's near and dear to my heart with you know,
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Speaker 1: Norm and Cliff for pulling one over on the Gary's
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Speaker 1: Old Town tavern. And the writers are all sitting around
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Speaker 1: and being like, how do we spice this thing up? Um?
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Speaker 1: We need like a sports star to come in here.
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Speaker 1: And the biggest sports star in Boston at that time
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Speaker 1: this was was Wade Boggs, you know, Larry Bird Wade
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Speaker 1: Bugs and Bird already dissed them before, so they were like,
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Speaker 1: let's get Bugs. So there, their booker goes out and
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Speaker 1: reaches out to Wade Bogs and they're like. The booker
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Speaker 1: is like, uh, it's spring training. Like we can't get
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Speaker 1: Wade Bugs to leave spring training and fly to l A.
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Speaker 1: It's just never gonna happen. And they're like, well, why
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Speaker 1: don't we put in another request? So they ask again
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Speaker 1: and they get find out that Bugs is like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'll do it. I'll leave the Red Sox for three
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Speaker 1: days to go film a cameo on Cheers, which makes
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Speaker 1: no sense, could never happen today. So the writer is
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Speaker 1: like patting himself on the back, being like, wow, all
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Speaker 1: I had to do was just asked for Wade Boggs,
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Speaker 1: the best hitter in baseball, And here he is, like,
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Speaker 1: you know on the show that I just wrote, and
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Speaker 1: the episode he said went okay, Boggs he said it
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Speaker 1: was real stiff couldn't do any of the like comedy,
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Speaker 1: but whatever. That's most athletes. I mean, it's literally we
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Speaker 1: say a cameo like it's a proper cameo. Like he
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Speaker 1: turns up as sort of like this joke, where what's
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Speaker 1: the guy Gary from the tavern. It's like the she
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Speaker 1: hears his rival Bar and they're like doing this prank war.
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Speaker 1: I think the episodes called bar Wars, and it's everything
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Speaker 1: from like they put cheap in Christie Ally's office. There's
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Speaker 1: like a whole grease up to bar stools. They like
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Speaker 1: infiltrate the TV feed during a big sports cast at
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Speaker 1: the at Gary's um and and then the kicker is
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Speaker 1: Gary comes and said, all right, you guys got me.
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Speaker 1: You win. And as a sign of consolation or as
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Speaker 1: my like waving the white flag, my buddy Wade Boggs
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Speaker 1: is going to come over and sign autographs for for
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Speaker 1: your patrons. And then they get in their own heads
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Speaker 1: and they're like, wait, now he's he's messing with us.
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Speaker 1: It's gonna be a Wade Bugs look alike. And so
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Speaker 1: they treat Wade Bogs though he's faking them out, and
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Speaker 1: they end up chasing him down the street and like
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Speaker 1: robbing him basically look at his wallet and it's like, oh,
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Speaker 1: this really was Wade Bogs. But to your point about
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Speaker 1: him being stiff, he has like one line and then
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Speaker 1: he just hauls ass out the door. As they're like
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Speaker 1: chasing him down. That's that's all you get from Wade Bogs.
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Speaker 1: So I wonder if he had a meteor role initially
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Speaker 1: and just couldn't cut it. Oh, that happens all the
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Speaker 1: time with with athletes unfortunately. So how would you say,
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Speaker 1: like on a one to ten and what number would
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Speaker 1: you give Boggs his cameo there? I think it fit that,
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Speaker 1: you know, you know, like like to Men's point, I'm
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Speaker 1: never expecting much out of like sports star. That's why
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Speaker 1: I thought Kevin Garnett and uncut Gems was just incredible
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Speaker 1: and like, again, not being a sports guy, I didn't
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Speaker 1: even believe that he was a real athlete. I was like,
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Speaker 1: who's this amazing actor portraying this basketball star? Turns out
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Speaker 1: he's actually playing himself. Um, but I don't know. I
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Speaker 1: my the bar is so low. I would say it
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Speaker 1: was respectable. It was like a six, you know, maybe
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Speaker 1: I I gave it an eight out of ten for
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Speaker 1: severely personal reasons because I remember being a young Tyke.
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Speaker 1: I don't know it was the night of debut, but
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Speaker 1: I saw this episode of Cheers and uh, my dad
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Speaker 1: was like, look at that this Wade Boggs. And I
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Speaker 1: also was not super knowledgeable about this stuff. But it
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Speaker 1: was in fact that Cheers episode that became my entry
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Speaker 1: point into learning about Wade Boggs. And my old man
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Speaker 1: was like, that guy's a legend. He's a lunatic. And
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Speaker 1: he assured me, uh, you know, he probably thought the
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Speaker 1: same as you know, he thought that there was maybe
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Speaker 1: a meteor role that they had to cut. And then
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Speaker 1: he strongly implied, in a joke I didn't get for years,
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Speaker 1: he strongly applied that maybe Wade Boggs got drunk on
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Speaker 1: set and could only do that one line. And I
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Speaker 1: didn't know why he was saying that and why he
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Speaker 1: was so tickled by, you know, telling me that. But uh,
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Speaker 1: as we'll see there there's a reason for that. I
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Speaker 1: will add one point to my score just for his
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Speaker 1: mustaches performance, because that is another one of Wade Bogg's
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Speaker 1: important superpowers is the mustache. But so, okay, that's the
12:45
Speaker 1: thing about bugs is, like, you know, Ted Williams is
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Speaker 1: famous for being the greatest fighter pilot ever, the greatest
12:52
Speaker 1: hitter ever, and the greatest fly fisherman ever ever. And
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Speaker 1: you know that's pretty impressive. Most people are not the
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Speaker 1: greatest to anything, but Bogs is one of the greatest hitters, um,
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Speaker 1: one of the greatest beer drinkers, and one of the
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Speaker 1: greatest mustaches. I mean, he's right there with Ted Williams
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Speaker 1: in the Triple Crown, right. He's really an impressive guy
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Speaker 1: when you go back, so to interject before we go
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Speaker 1: to the Penthouse story, just for anyone who doesn't know
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Speaker 1: if you were not, if you were not a Red
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Speaker 1: Sox fan. Wade Boggs was born in ninety He played
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Speaker 1: primarily with the Red Sox for the better part of
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Speaker 1: two decades, right, and he also played with the Yankees.
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Speaker 1: He's well established. If you know baseball, you know this guy.
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Speaker 1: If you have seen Cheers you might know him. If
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Speaker 1: you've seen Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you will see a twisted,
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Speaker 1: somewhat touching episode entirely about Wade Boggs. And when you're
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Speaker 1: reading this Penthouse article, Matt, you were first. I get
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Speaker 1: the sense that you were kind of startled. The Penthouse
13:58
Speaker 1: spent five full pages on this. I would say I
14:01
Speaker 1: was impressed. You were impressed? Uh, and then what about
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Speaker 1: this story surprised you? So? Okay, this is the part
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Speaker 1: that that most intrigued me because it involved deception, which
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Speaker 1: is really what my podcast is all about. And Boggs,
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Speaker 1: when he left the Red Sox, you know, he bet
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Speaker 1: his teammates that when he went on this Cheers Cameo run,
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Speaker 1: he would come back to spring training with a pair
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Speaker 1: of Christie Alley's underwear. And the reason I know this,
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Speaker 1: which was because in the pen Has magazine, boggs mistress
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Speaker 1: explains that Boggs was like, Hey, while I'm in l A,
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Speaker 1: I need your underwear because when I get back to
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Speaker 1: spring training, I don't want to tell, you know, Roger
14:42
Speaker 1: Clemens that I was I failed in my attempt to
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Speaker 1: get Christie's undis. So he played off his mistresses underwear
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Speaker 1: as Kristie Alley's underwear. And that was this beautiful bit
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Speaker 1: of deception that I ended up spending you know, way
14:59
Speaker 1: too much time in instigating on my own podcast. Here's
15:06
Speaker 1: another interesting detail there, and you know, just just to
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Speaker 1: quickly get it out of the way, the the woman
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Speaker 1: in question here, Margot Adams, who was Boggs's mistress for
15:16
Speaker 1: four years. It was essentially a long term secret, you know,
15:21
Speaker 1: salacious relationship. Uh And and we're gonna get more into this, Ben,
15:25
Speaker 1: you sort of indicate that we're gonna talk some about superstition.
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Speaker 1: One of the things that Bog's really leaned on with
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Speaker 1: his superstitions were the fact that when he traveled with
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Speaker 1: his actual wife, his batting average was like a certain number,
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Speaker 1: and when he traveled with Margot, his batting average was
15:42
Speaker 1: like markedly higher. So he would insist on her like
15:46
Speaker 1: going on the road with him a lot. And a
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Speaker 1: big part of like when she let the cat of
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Speaker 1: the bag and like wrote this tell all. It all
15:53
Speaker 1: stemmed from this lawsuit that she basically sued him for
15:57
Speaker 1: lost wages because she was like a real estate developed
16:00
Speaker 1: for something and apparently or uh like a yeah, like
16:03
Speaker 1: a real estate agent I believe, or a mortgage broker
16:06
Speaker 1: or something like that. And she basically said, because I
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Speaker 1: was on the road with Bogs so much, because he
16:12
Speaker 1: believed that I was his like good luck charm, he
16:15
Speaker 1: promised to pay me X number of dollars for lost
16:18
Speaker 1: wages that I that I wouldn't make what else on
16:20
Speaker 1: the road. But a big part of her good luck
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Speaker 1: charm aspect was that she would come to the games
16:25
Speaker 1: and not wear any underwear. So that's why it's interested
16:27
Speaker 1: that she gives him the underwear and exchange, you know, saying, oh,
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Speaker 1: this is christ Thelity's underwear, when she was kind of
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Speaker 1: known for not wearing underwear at the games at Boggs's requests.
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Speaker 1: He's a very underwear motivated guy, you know what I mean.
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Speaker 1: So at this point, before we explore box is amazing
16:46
Speaker 1: panopoly of superstitions which we have to do. I do
16:51
Speaker 1: want to acknowledge our other guests on today's recording, which
16:57
Speaker 1: is uh, apparently that ariachi band you mentioned Matt has
17:02
Speaker 1: come down here to Atlanta to play a rousing concert. Uh,
17:07
Speaker 1: so that you can hear them commenting in the background
17:11
Speaker 1: of this episode. Perhaps if we asked Wade Boggs about this,
17:15
Speaker 1: he would say the noise happened because we messed up
17:19
Speaker 1: some superstition or some ritual that we needed to do
17:22
Speaker 1: before every recording, the same way that he had to
17:25
Speaker 1: eat chicken before every game. I'm sorry, I didn't want
17:28
Speaker 1: to bury the lead too much. We are not speaking
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Speaker 1: figuratively here. There's literally some kind of crazy disturbance happening
17:34
Speaker 1: at Ben's house. There's just banging on the ceiling. It's
17:37
Speaker 1: weirder than it's ever been. And it's not the leafblower
17:40
Speaker 1: this time. It's it's some other much more uh sinister force.
17:44
Speaker 1: But you know what, the show must go on. This
17:46
Speaker 1: is the reality of recording and quarantine. Uh, and we're
17:49
Speaker 1: doing the best week can. But it's so funny, Matt
17:51
Speaker 1: that you set this up at the top of the show,
17:53
Speaker 1: because you really thought that the jackhammering mariachi band was
17:56
Speaker 1: gonna be the you know, the nail and the coffin
17:59
Speaker 1: for this session. But it's hurts out. It was completely
18:02
Speaker 1: flipped the script. But yeah, man, the Chicken Man. This
18:05
Speaker 1: is a nickname that Boggs either gave himself for. I
18:08
Speaker 1: guess you can't give yourself a nickname. But what's the
18:11
Speaker 1: deal with chicken and Wade Boggs and and and how
18:13
Speaker 1: he depended on this chicken dinner before playing in a game?
18:17
Speaker 1: So are you guys? What do you guys think of
18:19
Speaker 1: superstition in general? First, I think we need to establish
18:21
Speaker 1: that before I start making some bold claims. I would
18:25
Speaker 1: say that in general, I think superstitions can be helpful
18:29
Speaker 1: for people because they have a profound effect on the mind.
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Speaker 1: So superstition in a way is like weaponized psychology is
18:37
Speaker 1: like the most fair way I could describe it. Um,
18:40
Speaker 1: I would not say that I, as a person am
18:44
Speaker 1: especially superstitious. Well, that that is totally an evolved way
18:48
Speaker 1: of thinking about this, and one I hadn't considered. You know,
18:51
Speaker 1: I always think of superstition. I equated this stupidity like, oh,
18:55
Speaker 1: you think that if you tap your toe nine times
18:59
Speaker 1: that this will go right. You know, it's like the
19:01
Speaker 1: same stuff that you know you read in that book
19:04
Speaker 1: The secret is just like for dumb people. But you're
19:07
Speaker 1: exactly right. What made Wade Bugs great was part of
19:10
Speaker 1: the fact that he this attention to superstition focused him
19:15
Speaker 1: and allowed him to basically be a machine at hitting.
19:19
Speaker 1: And I had Jim Abbott on the My podcast and
19:22
Speaker 1: and Jim was saying that Wade's genius as a hitter
19:25
Speaker 1: was due to this superstition that he everything was just
19:28
Speaker 1: such a formulaic thing. You know, if this pitch was
19:31
Speaker 1: a quarter of an inch outside, he would not swing
19:34
Speaker 1: at it if this was happening. So he had basically
19:37
Speaker 1: trained his mind in the same way that like he
19:40
Speaker 1: tapped things and wrote Hebrew letters in the in the
19:43
Speaker 1: batter's box and ate chicken before every game. He would
19:47
Speaker 1: then use this sort of strident approach. He'd use that
19:50
Speaker 1: towards hitting, and Abbott was saying that was what made
19:53
Speaker 1: him as genius as a hitter, And so I was
19:55
Speaker 1: totally wrong and what you said was exactly right. It's
19:58
Speaker 1: so it's something we've covered a lot on our or
20:00
Speaker 1: show stuff that don't want you to know. And just
20:01
Speaker 1: to have the power of belief and the idea like
20:03
Speaker 1: in some ways you could equate a superstition to like
20:06
Speaker 1: the placebo effect. If you believe something will have an
20:09
Speaker 1: effect strongly enough, then it will at least for you.
20:12
Speaker 1: And again that's another thing with uncut gims where Kevin
20:14
Speaker 1: Garnett's character gets obsessed with this uncut opal that he
20:18
Speaker 1: believes that he will play better if he has in
20:21
Speaker 1: his possession. And then there's a part where he doesn't
20:23
Speaker 1: have it and he like you can tell, he's stressed
20:25
Speaker 1: out on the court and he doesn't play as well.
20:27
Speaker 1: And then Adam Sandwich's character essentially uses that power of
20:30
Speaker 1: belief and baits him into believing this and then uses
20:34
Speaker 1: it to like bet on the game and he and
20:36
Speaker 1: he actually can bet predictably, even though he's also using
20:39
Speaker 1: a placebo effect kind of thing. It's it's very interesting
20:42
Speaker 1: and there's so many layers of psychology that go into that.
20:44
Speaker 1: But it's very similar to like, you know, religion. I mean,
20:47
Speaker 1: people believe in religion. And I could say, well, I
20:50
Speaker 1: don't really believe there's a bearded man in the sky
20:53
Speaker 1: or that the animals all came over on a boat.
20:55
Speaker 1: But if you choose to believe that, it works for
20:57
Speaker 1: you and it makes you better person, makes you have
21:00
Speaker 1: some comfort. Who am I to say you're stupid or
21:02
Speaker 1: wrong for believing these things. It's all very interesting and
21:04
Speaker 1: there's a lot of layers to it. I think that's
21:07
Speaker 1: exactly right. And so I hadn't considered that with bugs,
21:09
Speaker 1: But you know, I viewed him a little differently after
21:12
Speaker 1: reading all this. So back to the chicken. Okay, so
21:15
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs eight chicken before every game. That's how he
21:19
Speaker 1: got the nickname the Chicken Man. And he would do
21:21
Speaker 1: different kinds of chicken. It wasn't like he had to
21:23
Speaker 1: have one kind of chicken. And then he later writes
21:26
Speaker 1: a beautifully named cook pook named foul Tips fo w
21:31
Speaker 1: l um so. So again, now it's a fourth grade
21:36
Speaker 1: thing that Wade Boggs has done with his life so
21:38
Speaker 1: um so yeah, chicken every game. He also was obsessed
21:41
Speaker 1: with the numbers seven and seventeen, so before every game,
21:45
Speaker 1: all his pregame sprints would be at seven seventeen UM.
21:49
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, you know, he needed his mistress not
21:52
Speaker 1: worrying underwear in the stands um. And you you were
21:55
Speaker 1: saying that he was much better when his mistress was there,
21:58
Speaker 1: but not just he was much better. Boggs apparently calculated
22:02
Speaker 1: his averages UM when his wife was there and when
22:06
Speaker 1: his mistress was there. So this is like he's you know,
22:09
Speaker 1: crunching the numbers. He's got one of those old calculators
22:12
Speaker 1: in the eighties and he's got you know, spreadsheets, being
22:15
Speaker 1: like my wife Debbie was here these games, Margot was
22:18
Speaker 1: here these games. And then he's got a third column
22:20
Speaker 1: of Margot wasn't here with no one thees these games.
22:23
Speaker 1: And he's got a whole beautiful mind thing going here.
22:26
Speaker 1: With all this going on, I mean, the poor guy
22:28
Speaker 1: had a lot to deal with. It It makes you wonder,
22:31
Speaker 1: you know, without getting too much of his personal life,
22:33
Speaker 1: A statement that will be funny as this episode continues.
22:37
Speaker 1: I think we're about to do two hours on that.
22:39
Speaker 1: It makes me wonder why why he stayed married. You know,
22:44
Speaker 1: it's a complex question, but you're right. We do construct
22:47
Speaker 1: our own inner lives based on this kind of personalized mythology,
22:52
Speaker 1: these superstitions that we practice. And for Wade Bogs, it
22:57
Speaker 1: seems this was not like a on ritual thing to do.
23:01
Speaker 1: It might have interested him, but I also get the
23:04
Speaker 1: sense that he genuinely, sincerely and deeply believed in this stuff,
23:10
Speaker 1: like this underwear matters to the game. Would you say
23:14
Speaker 1: that he was all in, like he actually believed in
23:18
Speaker 1: these superstitions. Well, I don't think you can do it
23:20
Speaker 1: if you don't believe in it. But not only was
23:22
Speaker 1: he all in. Debbie Marco has a great quote about
23:26
Speaker 1: the no and DS for the games, and she says
23:28
Speaker 1: it wasn't sexual. I mean that is one of the
23:31
Speaker 1: great things. Like he's like, I don't care, it has
23:33
Speaker 1: nothing to do with sex. I just need this for
23:36
Speaker 1: my batting average. And he calculated that when Debbie, his wife,
23:40
Speaker 1: was there, he had one, and when Margot was there,
23:45
Speaker 1: he had three forty one. Now, if you're not a
23:48
Speaker 1: sports fan, those numbers may mean nothing to you, but
23:51
Speaker 1: that is the difference between being basically the worst hitter
23:54
Speaker 1: and the best hitter in baseball, So who knows, you know,
23:58
Speaker 1: I'd love to see one of these analytic guys go
24:00
Speaker 1: back and really track this stuff and verify. But like,
24:03
Speaker 1: this was not like, oh I hit you know a
24:05
Speaker 1: few percentage points higher. This was I went from being
24:09
Speaker 1: the worst player to the best player. So so I
24:12
Speaker 1: mean he certainly did believe it. I also want to
24:15
Speaker 1: point out just on the on the food side, uh
24:18
Speaker 1: one thing that uh you found in your notes or
24:22
Speaker 1: was his weird pizza thing? Like his food superstitions and
24:25
Speaker 1: food enjoyment didn't stop at the chicken, right this. I
24:29
Speaker 1: think that it's a quote from Margot about this too, right, So,
24:33
Speaker 1: I mean, this is why I'm so proud of Penthouse
24:36
Speaker 1: for publishing five pages on this, because normally these kind
24:39
Speaker 1: of details would would sneak in and maybe they'd be
24:41
Speaker 1: cut due to length. But thank god they went the
24:44
Speaker 1: full five on this thing. Because Margo says that both
24:46
Speaker 1: her and Bog's favorite food is pizza with double anchovies,
24:50
Speaker 1: and that she would dress up in lingerie garters and
24:54
Speaker 1: uh stockings and the full kid and kaboodle and serve
24:59
Speaker 1: way double an chovie pizza in their hotel room. I
25:02
Speaker 1: mean it is how hot is this? Well, first of all,
25:06
Speaker 1: you on a couple accounts like a double you know, Ancho,
25:09
Speaker 1: He's fine as a little added flavor, but like, wow,
25:12
Speaker 1: that is an intense doubling down people like what they like.
25:18
Speaker 1: But then I'm picturing her in this like weird French
25:21
Speaker 1: maids sexy teddy outfit serving him this really smelly pizza.
25:26
Speaker 1: The whole thing is just rubs me the wrong way
25:28
Speaker 1: and leaves a very very peculiar image because like you know,
25:32
Speaker 1: we we don't hear. There's not a lot of like
25:34
Speaker 1: kink shaming or anything in this article where you think
25:37
Speaker 1: there might be. I mean, this isn't really even about like,
25:39
Speaker 1: oh he was into this like kinky sex stuff. It
25:42
Speaker 1: was much more. All of it was kind of wrapped
25:44
Speaker 1: up in this superstition for his like his game, and
25:47
Speaker 1: that's really all there is to it. And then he
25:49
Speaker 1: does well we'll get to the Barbara Walters interview a
25:51
Speaker 1: little bit later, but he does reveal that, Okay, he
25:54
Speaker 1: definitely has certain proclivities, but it's not like he liked
25:57
Speaker 1: to be tied up and have you know, clothes, pins,
25:59
Speaker 1: put on his nipple or anything like that. I mean,
26:00
Speaker 1: it was very functional stuff that he was able to
26:03
Speaker 1: parlay in a success as a baseball player in his mind.
26:07
Speaker 1: Let the guy, you know what, I believe people should
26:10
Speaker 1: be able to eat pizza the way they want to
26:12
Speaker 1: eat it. I'm not gonna shame anybody for that. Um.
26:15
Speaker 1: I I do want to point out, though, there was
26:17
Speaker 1: another reveal here that I think speaks to like to me,
26:21
Speaker 1: this feels like a minor example of trickeration itself. Uh.
26:26
Speaker 1: And I need to ask you about this, Matt, because
26:28
Speaker 1: I'm not an expert. Was he really not signing things
26:32
Speaker 1: people sent him? Like? So? Margot lets the cat out
26:35
Speaker 1: of the bag also in this pass article, and she
26:38
Speaker 1: says that of the fan mail that was sent to
26:41
Speaker 1: the Red Sox back in those days, they'd have the
26:44
Speaker 1: ball boys signed because the players did not care at all.
26:47
Speaker 1: So you've got like this, you know, um factory line
26:49
Speaker 1: of ball boys just signed Mining Wade Bugs and Roger
26:52
Speaker 1: Clemen's names thousands of times. And apparently one of the
26:56
Speaker 1: ball boys makes a joke about this in front of
26:58
Speaker 1: a fan or some let me a writer, and Bogs
27:01
Speaker 1: takes some aside later and it's like, what are you doing? Like,
27:04
Speaker 1: we gotta keep this going. I can't be sitting back
27:07
Speaker 1: here signing stuff I got Chiddey. I would love to
27:10
Speaker 1: see like a forensic comparison of like Wade Boggs signed
27:15
Speaker 1: baseball cards and how like that they are all a
27:17
Speaker 1: little different. Wade Boggs has a very ununiform signature. Um,
27:22
Speaker 1: I think that would be really interesting thing to prove.
27:24
Speaker 1: But I don't doubt that it's true, you know, I
27:26
Speaker 1: you know, I think what these guys do purposely is
27:29
Speaker 1: they sign their names almost so alleged allegibly that it's
27:32
Speaker 1: easy to have someone else deal with it. So if
27:35
Speaker 1: they can have their manager or their girlfriend or their
27:37
Speaker 1: wife be like can you sign half of these? And
27:39
Speaker 1: then we can be done with this nonsense quicker, which
27:41
Speaker 1: is I think part of the motivation. But I I
27:44
Speaker 1: that was the first that I've had when I when
27:46
Speaker 1: I heard it was like, how are how are these
27:47
Speaker 1: ball boys like these professional professionals? Uh orgers? Yeah, and
27:53
Speaker 1: that so my ears perked up a little on that.
27:55
Speaker 1: But I think it's such a scribble. And I remember
27:58
Speaker 1: getting a lot of these autographs when I was a kid,
28:00
Speaker 1: through the mail, and it was like really thrilling to
28:03
Speaker 1: get them back in the mail. You know, the postage
28:06
Speaker 1: would come with like the Orioles team stamp on it
28:08
Speaker 1: or whatever, and they were just scribbles, you know, they
28:10
Speaker 1: were they were just you couldn't see a name. It
28:13
Speaker 1: was more like a symbol at that point. Well, I
28:14
Speaker 1: have this is my question again, because I'm not an
28:17
Speaker 1: expert here, Matt, how common is this? Because I had
28:21
Speaker 1: a few autographed balls from the Atlanta Braves and I'm
28:25
Speaker 1: rethinking a lot of things right now in a kind
28:27
Speaker 1: of an unpleasant way. Yeah. I mean again, you're starting
28:30
Speaker 1: to see the world of trickeration. I mean it's all fake.
28:33
Speaker 1: Everything you thought was realistic fake. I'm sure most of
28:36
Speaker 1: those autographs that you didn't get in person or fake. Um.
28:40
Speaker 1: But also, what does it matter? Who cares about any
28:42
Speaker 1: of these autographs that neither of them are valuable? Yeah,
28:45
Speaker 1: that's so so it doesn't really matter. None of this matters.
28:50
Speaker 1: And it also my just my last note on this.
28:53
Speaker 1: It seems at the very least somewhat hypocritical that someone
28:57
Speaker 1: who believes so much in superstition and intention and ritual
29:03
Speaker 1: would be sending out these fake signatures. But I guess
29:06
Speaker 1: it's just it's a different forgive me, guys, when you
29:09
Speaker 1: when you're signing thousands of things a day, potentially it's
29:13
Speaker 1: a different ball game. Well I I didn't realize this
29:17
Speaker 1: until the Trickeration podcast got very popular and I was
29:19
Speaker 1: forced to sign a lot of autographs. But it's tiring,
29:22
Speaker 1: as you guys know, you know, you go out and
29:24
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, this is fun at the beginning, and
29:26
Speaker 1: then it goes on and on and eventually like, I
29:28
Speaker 1: just wish someone else could do this for me. So
29:31
Speaker 1: you guys, you guys get it. Oh god, We've got
29:34
Speaker 1: piles and piles of what do you even sign if
29:36
Speaker 1: you're a podcaster? Just headphone? Well, a lot of blue
29:41
Speaker 1: apron boxes. I actually it's it's I started doing the
29:46
Speaker 1: Bob Hope thing where one of one of our assistants
29:49
Speaker 1: just brings me some paper and I sign it like
29:52
Speaker 1: two thirds down and then they write something and then
29:56
Speaker 1: it's just like you know, dictated not read, but be
29:59
Speaker 1: careful because that and get you in trouble. I've I've
30:01
Speaker 1: had that go wrong. But we're all dealing with the
30:04
Speaker 1: same stuff. That's true. That's true. Uh, we're pretty much
30:08
Speaker 1: all everybody listening, everybody in podcasting, we're pretty much all
30:12
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs right in that regard. That's a bold claim. Yeah,
30:17
Speaker 1: I would say I would disagree with that. Basically, what
30:26
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs went through with this whole what this Penthouse
30:29
Speaker 1: article was the culmination of, was, like we said, a
30:31
Speaker 1: four year relationship with this woman, um, who basically presented
30:37
Speaker 1: him with the kind of nightmare scenario that someone going,
30:40
Speaker 1: you know, doing this kind of deception. That's a big
30:43
Speaker 1: part of it too. That's a deception from his wife.
30:45
Speaker 1: And he had had extramarital affairs that she was aware of.
30:48
Speaker 1: I think there was a woman in Ohio that he impregnated,
30:51
Speaker 1: even and she knew about that and was not okay
30:53
Speaker 1: with it, but didn't leave him. Um, Debbie, this is
30:56
Speaker 1: his wife of of many years, if I'm not mistaken.
30:59
Speaker 1: They had children together, and you know, he it was
31:03
Speaker 1: an open secret among his teammates, among officials in the
31:08
Speaker 1: in the baseball franchise or whatever you wanna call it,
31:12
Speaker 1: that he would that he had this, uh, this this
31:13
Speaker 1: other woman on the side, but he would go out
31:16
Speaker 1: of his way to make sure there wasn't a paper trail,
31:18
Speaker 1: he would payer in cash reimburse her for her like
31:21
Speaker 1: expenditures on these trips and all that, and apparently had
31:24
Speaker 1: like a verbal agreement with her. This is what she
31:26
Speaker 1: claims in a lawsuit that she filed UM where she
31:29
Speaker 1: wanted a hundred thousand dollars um or basically was was
31:33
Speaker 1: going to let the cat out of the bag about
31:35
Speaker 1: all this stuff that she ultimately did in this article.
31:37
Speaker 1: And that was because uh, he agreed supposedly to pay
31:41
Speaker 1: her back for all of these trips, of which there
31:43
Speaker 1: were sixty four trips by the way, um in that
31:46
Speaker 1: four year period that they were an item. And to interject,
31:50
Speaker 1: that's a twelve million dollar lawsuit, that's right. The the
31:54
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars was her verbally saying, hey, give
31:58
Speaker 1: me a hundred k or else I will do this.
32:02
Speaker 1: And then she he basically reported her to the FBI,
32:06
Speaker 1: saying that she was trying to extort him, and then
32:08
Speaker 1: she responded by hitting him with a six million dollar
32:11
Speaker 1: palemony suit UM and basically saying that Boggs had promised
32:15
Speaker 1: to all of these things um to compensate her for
32:18
Speaker 1: all her lost you know, revenue from being on these
32:21
Speaker 1: trips with him, ostensibly because she was like this good
32:24
Speaker 1: luck charm, Because he even said that the relationship kind
32:26
Speaker 1: of fizzled halfway through where he just didn't have the spark,
32:29
Speaker 1: wasn't there in terms of the attraction. But I gotta
32:31
Speaker 1: wonder you think he kept it going matt like because
32:35
Speaker 1: she was that golden ticket in his mind. You know,
32:37
Speaker 1: I never think would think I could place myself in
32:39
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs's mind. I think, you know, way Buggs had
32:43
Speaker 1: probably a lot of these women around. But I really
32:46
Speaker 1: don't know. But one thing I think we should examine
32:49
Speaker 1: his how do you think Margot adams Is mortgage brokering
32:52
Speaker 1: business went after this all came out? Like are you
32:56
Speaker 1: more or less inclined to go to her and be
32:58
Speaker 1: like should we figure out thirty year fixed? Should we
33:01
Speaker 1: do ten? You like you are you trusting her more
33:05
Speaker 1: after this Penthouse article comes out? Or you're like, you
33:07
Speaker 1: know what, I'm seeing this and I'm no longer trusting
33:11
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it over to UM. I think it
33:15
Speaker 1: depends because fandom can be fanatical right and pop. It
33:20
Speaker 1: might be publicity. Because we're talking about this Penthouse article,
33:24
Speaker 1: we should also mention that they got pressed for this
33:27
Speaker 1: in the New York Times. That's the kind of advertising
33:30
Speaker 1: you just can't buy. So in this article March New
33:34
Speaker 1: York Times that like highlights this bog's case and talks
33:39
Speaker 1: about twelve million dollars, which was even a bigger deal
33:41
Speaker 1: in nine than it is. Uh, then we I don't know,
33:46
Speaker 1: you know, I want to be positive about it, Matt.
33:49
Speaker 1: I want to say that at least some people came
33:52
Speaker 1: for the notoriety, but I think I mean a little
33:56
Speaker 1: Pollyanna about it because there were probably a lot more
33:59
Speaker 1: people who were, like I morally don't want to be
34:02
Speaker 1: associated with this. You know, if if it was a
34:05
Speaker 1: lower rate though, like having recently had to get one
34:08
Speaker 1: of these mortgages, if it was a lower rate, you know,
34:11
Speaker 1: she gave me a quarter point lower, I think I
34:13
Speaker 1: would have gone with Margot. It's fair, that's fair. But
34:16
Speaker 1: I don't know, like, are you really looking for a
34:18
Speaker 1: celebrity mortgage broker? You really just want someone that's going
34:20
Speaker 1: to give you the best deal. Um. But it's the
34:23
Speaker 1: thing that's interesting about her to coming out in this
34:26
Speaker 1: way in Penthouse. Correct me if I'm wrong. But didn't
34:29
Speaker 1: she also do like a spread. Wasn't there an associated
34:31
Speaker 1: photo shoot with this? Tell all? She did do a spread,
34:34
Speaker 1: and and not only did she do a spread, apparently
34:37
Speaker 1: she shopped this to Penthouse and Playboy and kind of
34:40
Speaker 1: created this um fight over or tell to tell all
34:44
Speaker 1: rights to this thing. And the reason she goes with Penthouse,
34:47
Speaker 1: which um was less popular at the time, was because
34:50
Speaker 1: Penthouse's um owner to minced her that he wasn't just
34:53
Speaker 1: interested in the spread, he was really interested in telling
34:56
Speaker 1: her story. It was um, Bob Guccion, That's right, that's incredible,
35:02
Speaker 1: what a brilliant hustle. You gotta respect it. Start a
35:05
Speaker 1: bidding war if I'm gonna do this. Like, one thing
35:08
Speaker 1: is readily apparent when we look at this story, and
35:12
Speaker 1: that is that Marco Adams is no knucklehead. She's very smart.
35:16
Speaker 1: There's it's almost like taking the nuclear option, you know,
35:19
Speaker 1: when this guy goes from welshing on the oral agreement
35:24
Speaker 1: for hundreds of thousands of dollars and then gets hit
35:28
Speaker 1: with a multimillion dollar, twelve million dollar lawsuit and then
35:34
Speaker 1: uh he Wade has to try to somehow get in
35:38
Speaker 1: front of this right like he's in the New York
35:40
Speaker 1: Times he's in penthouse, but not in the way he
35:42
Speaker 1: wanted to be, and he has that now we're in
35:45
Speaker 1: the war of public opinion, right, Yeah, Well, speaking of
35:49
Speaker 1: being pop psychologists, when you read a lot of these articles,
35:52
Speaker 1: which again are the eighties sports scandal article, you just
35:56
Speaker 1: don't see it now like you did back then. I mean,
35:58
Speaker 1: you could tell how much fun these writers were having
36:01
Speaker 1: with all these puns and and they were just having
36:04
Speaker 1: a blast writing about this story. And it also kind
36:07
Speaker 1: of seemed like Wade Boggs was enjoying it. I mean,
36:10
Speaker 1: I don't think he was enjoying seeing his whole personal
36:13
Speaker 1: life being detonated, but there was something about the fame
36:17
Speaker 1: that Bogs seemed to enjoy it because he's going to
36:21
Speaker 1: go on and that was the big you know, that
36:24
Speaker 1: was Oprah before Barbara Walters, and because Boggs was in
36:30
Speaker 1: the front page of the news all the time, you know,
36:32
Speaker 1: she Barbara wants him on the show. And Wade said,
36:35
Speaker 1: you know, oh, I wish it was under better circumstances.
36:38
Speaker 1: But to be honest, it's such an honor to be
36:41
Speaker 1: asked to be on. And I could win a million
36:44
Speaker 1: m vps and batting titles and I would never be
36:47
Speaker 1: asked to be on sit on Barbara Walter's couch. So
36:51
Speaker 1: he seemed to relish part of this, even though I
36:54
Speaker 1: can only imagine, UM a lot of this was was
36:57
Speaker 1: really not fun for him. Barbara Walters was sort of
37:00
Speaker 1: the one that did these like tell all type interviews.
37:04
Speaker 1: She was known for that, and you would cry on
37:06
Speaker 1: Barbara Walters. She'd ask you the hard hitting questions and
37:09
Speaker 1: you know, she she was no nonsense, but she also
37:12
Speaker 1: wouldn't mince words, you know what I mean. But she
37:14
Speaker 1: would tend to get these emotional reactions out of people. UM,
37:17
Speaker 1: I do want to double back really quickly. I mistakenly
37:21
Speaker 1: said there's only one lawsuit it was I said it
37:23
Speaker 1: was six million. It was more likely closer to twelve millions.
37:26
Speaker 1: I just want to put that out there so people
37:27
Speaker 1: aren't thinking they're like all these lawsuits flying around. UM,
37:30
Speaker 1: it's interesting too, Like I think when Wade Boggs was
37:34
Speaker 1: deposed in this lawsuit, it ended up being like something
37:38
Speaker 1: like five hundred plus pages of deposition where he really
37:42
Speaker 1: you know, had to do this and that was almost
37:44
Speaker 1: his practice for the Barbara Walter interview because he was
37:46
Speaker 1: had done this tell all already in front of lawyers
37:48
Speaker 1: under oath, and he had said a lot of the
37:50
Speaker 1: things that he ended up repeating on Barbara Walters in
37:53
Speaker 1: the pages of that deposition. I love the idea too,
37:56
Speaker 1: of that deposition being so granular and in depth about
38:00
Speaker 1: very unrelated things, Like I picture him sitting down being
38:04
Speaker 1: deposed and saying, look, you have to eat the chicken
38:07
Speaker 1: before the game. A lot of people think you can
38:10
Speaker 1: do it, you know, during the seventh inning stretch or something,
38:13
Speaker 1: but that's bananas. Gotta be double anchovies and a sexy
38:17
Speaker 1: nurses outfit and in apron one or the other will
38:20
Speaker 1: not do. It's got to be at the same time
38:22
Speaker 1: served up to me. Yeah, in high heels and still lettos.
38:26
Speaker 1: Maybe part of it is him reciting every line of
38:29
Speaker 1: The Wizard of Oz with the voices, which is something
38:32
Speaker 1: we haven't mentioned yet. Right, that's a tiny tetail, and
38:34
Speaker 1: we buried the lead here, I think. So another thing,
38:38
Speaker 1: this is the weirdest line of the whole our panhast thing.
38:43
Speaker 1: She says that Wade Bogs again, who is like basically
38:45
Speaker 1: a cop turned into a baseball player. I mean, the
38:48
Speaker 1: guy doesn't seem like he has any sense of humor,
38:51
Speaker 1: giant mustache, and yeah, again he's basically a cop. And
38:55
Speaker 1: Margot says that one of the things Wade love to
38:57
Speaker 1: do when they were like cuddling is he could recite
39:01
Speaker 1: all of The Wizard of Oz with all of the
39:04
Speaker 1: character's voices, which is the exact opposite detail that you
39:09
Speaker 1: would associate with Box. So, I mean, this is again
39:14
Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful tells. And it's sad that
39:17
Speaker 1: that it's been lost in time. And I feel sort
39:19
Speaker 1: of this personal gratification that we're we're going to bring
39:22
Speaker 1: this thing back to life, because I was worried that
39:25
Speaker 1: sort of this was gonna just be lost. And I
39:27
Speaker 1: applaud everyone here for taking part of their afternoon to
39:30
Speaker 1: bring it back. Oh man, absolutely, and you know, and
39:32
Speaker 1: and the point being it was a big deal to
39:34
Speaker 1: go on Barbara Walter's obviously, he said he seemed to
39:36
Speaker 1: get a kick out of it, that it was almost
39:38
Speaker 1: like a career defining moment. But he used this opportunity
39:41
Speaker 1: to kind of come clean about sort of a self
39:44
Speaker 1: diagnosis as to what the root of all of his
39:46
Speaker 1: troubles with uh with with Margot actually was. Right, Yeah, Yeah,
39:50
Speaker 1: Wade was way did some research. You know, he was
39:53
Speaker 1: a guy who wanted to fix himself. So so he
39:56
Speaker 1: was watching herral though, he said, and they had an
39:58
Speaker 1: episode which was all over sexed people and the psychologists
40:03
Speaker 1: on Herlda We're like, yes, this is a disease, and
40:06
Speaker 1: Bugs was like, you know, the light bulb goes off
40:08
Speaker 1: and he goes, oh, Wade Bugs has a disease. Of course,
40:11
Speaker 1: you know, even when he talks to himself, he refers
40:13
Speaker 1: himself in the third person. And so he decided that
40:15
Speaker 1: he was a sex addict. And that was you know, Wade,
40:19
Speaker 1: but that many people since then have played that card.
40:23
Speaker 1: Wade Bugs was one of the iconic early people to
40:25
Speaker 1: play the Oh no, no, no, I wasn't cheating. I'm
40:28
Speaker 1: a sex so so I'm a victim. Yeah, I'm a victim.
40:34
Speaker 1: I've struggled through this. And then of course you know
40:36
Speaker 1: we've seen that, uh that reasoning used in other uh
40:41
Speaker 1: celebrity scandal. Shout out to David, the Covany that we're
40:45
Speaker 1: talking about and the Devil's Advocate fellas. I mean, if
40:49
Speaker 1: you can be a drug addict, couldn't can't you be
40:50
Speaker 1: a sex addict? I mean, isn't it just an impulse
40:52
Speaker 1: that makes it difficult for you to control your urges.
40:55
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't have to have a chemical dependency
40:58
Speaker 1: to be a drug addict. Nor is sex technically physically addictive.
41:03
Speaker 1: It's more of a mental thing. Just just putting that
41:05
Speaker 1: out there, I think I think it could be physically
41:08
Speaker 1: addictive when you look at I mean, there's a story
41:10
Speaker 1: for a different day. But when you look at the
41:12
Speaker 1: hormone releases. Uh, you know, you can get addicted to
41:15
Speaker 1: almost anything, and if you have a physiological response to
41:18
Speaker 1: it in your brain, then your body can become accustomed
41:22
Speaker 1: to it. But in this case, he didn't see a doctor.
41:27
Speaker 1: That's the important part. Dr Haraldo. I mean, you know
41:31
Speaker 1: he actually did see a doctor. He did say, you
41:33
Speaker 1: went on, Dr Phil But he says it's it's startling
41:40
Speaker 1: because you're right that he literally did say, uh, a
41:45
Speaker 1: disease was taking over Wade Boggs and it just did
41:49
Speaker 1: for four years. Uh. And he has this other quote,
41:52
Speaker 1: like he doesn't just say this in Barbara Walters. I
41:54
Speaker 1: think he says this in court, right. Oh yeah, he's
41:57
Speaker 1: heat in the deposition. He's like, you know, I'm a
42:00
Speaker 1: red blooded male. And this is basically what red blooded
42:03
Speaker 1: males do. So, um, I'm not sure that really anyone
42:06
Speaker 1: can point he figures at me because I'm just doing
42:08
Speaker 1: what everyone else would do if they were in my situation.
42:10
Speaker 1: So that was his defense. Uh well, I don't think
42:14
Speaker 1: anyone's necessarily ragging him for the sex as much as
42:17
Speaker 1: they are the deception and infidelity. You know, I think
42:20
Speaker 1: that's not cool when you're literally taking your wife, who
42:23
Speaker 1: you have made a legal agreement with to be faithful to,
42:27
Speaker 1: not to mention the religious side of it, that's a
42:29
Speaker 1: whole another discussion, and then just kind of flouting that
42:32
Speaker 1: openly and leaving this person utterly in the dark. I
42:35
Speaker 1: can't imagine when all this came out. Can you imagine
42:37
Speaker 1: what she must have felt like? And she didn't ultimately
42:39
Speaker 1: leave him, if I'm not mistaken, right, she stood by
42:41
Speaker 1: her man. I mean she she actually comes out at
42:44
Speaker 1: the end of this and it is like, I stand
42:46
Speaker 1: by my Wade, and Wade told me he's he's got
42:49
Speaker 1: a changed man, and then he's gonna go out and
42:52
Speaker 1: win a batting title for me. So you know, when
42:55
Speaker 1: you're married to Wade bugs, it's tough to cut that cord.
42:57
Speaker 1: I mean, the guy could really hit and he really
43:00
Speaker 1: So there's such a there's such a strange story here.
43:03
Speaker 1: There's something larger than life about it, you know, And
43:07
Speaker 1: we're not being callous. This is textbook ridiculous history. And
43:13
Speaker 1: one thing that you pointed out a couple of times, Matt,
43:16
Speaker 1: that really stands out to me is that this is
43:19
Speaker 1: very much a story of its time. Like these types
43:21
Speaker 1: of articles don't get written near as often, right, uh.
43:25
Speaker 1: And we with the way that these kind of scandals
43:28
Speaker 1: play out in the public sphere is also very different.
43:31
Speaker 1: I think we're in like this golden era of sports
43:34
Speaker 1: scandal and reporting. What what do you think? Yeah, I
43:38
Speaker 1: mean it is it is a time because reporters, you know,
43:41
Speaker 1: reporters were considered that was a very prestigious job to
43:45
Speaker 1: be a reporter for a newspaper, a sports reporter, and
43:48
Speaker 1: so I think they were like considered themselves like the
43:51
Speaker 1: Woodward and Bernstein of sports, and so they would do
43:56
Speaker 1: real reporting and try and track down leads and and
43:59
Speaker 1: you know, talk to people and get sources. And so
44:02
Speaker 1: with this box thing, I think they thought this was
44:05
Speaker 1: kind of like their water Gate, you know, like reporters
44:08
Speaker 1: were making their name on on fresh details in the
44:12
Speaker 1: Margo Adam scandal. And it's true, Like when you look
44:16
Speaker 1: at the quotes from when this Penthouse article comes out
44:20
Speaker 1: from spring training that year, the whole team is basically rocked,
44:24
Speaker 1: the Red Sox. It becomes a major problem for them
44:27
Speaker 1: and the manager Joe Morgan at the time. I mean,
44:30
Speaker 1: Joe Morgan, if you don't know baseball, is this like
44:33
Speaker 1: it was basically if you put your grandfather in charge
44:36
Speaker 1: of the Red Sox. He was like this seventy eight
44:38
Speaker 1: year old guy who like was very quaint. You'd think
44:41
Speaker 1: of him more as like a guy who whittled than
44:43
Speaker 1: a guy who like hit fungoes. And he was the manager.
44:47
Speaker 1: And then they'd go to Morgan and be like, hey,
44:50
Speaker 1: like Wade has this you know double and Jovie French
44:53
Speaker 1: Garter thing like any comment and he'd be like, I
44:56
Speaker 1: don't know, guys, I'm just trying to fill out a
44:58
Speaker 1: lineup right here. But the the quotes are crazy because
45:02
Speaker 1: the players that have to all then answer because a
45:04
Speaker 1: lot of the players are mentioned in this thing. And
45:06
Speaker 1: so like a guy like Bob's Stanley, who Adams says
45:10
Speaker 1: she has photos of him with a stripper, and so
45:12
Speaker 1: they go to Stanley and say, hey, what what are
45:13
Speaker 1: your thoughts? And Bob Stanley says, it's a joke. It's
45:17
Speaker 1: Laurel and Hardy stuff. I mean, like what year are
45:21
Speaker 1: we like their reference is Laurel and Hardy, Like can
45:24
Speaker 1: you imagine if they go to like a player now
45:27
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, yeah, this is Laurel and Hardy stuff,
45:30
Speaker 1: Like I don't think you're getting that. And then they
45:31
Speaker 1: go to Joe Morgan and they're like, you know, it
45:34
Speaker 1: must be hard having to do all this damage control
45:37
Speaker 1: and he quotes Walt Whitman as a response to that,
45:41
Speaker 1: or he sort of butchers a quote about Walt Whitman.
45:44
Speaker 1: And it's like it's just like feels like a very
45:47
Speaker 1: different world where this was all going on, a world
45:50
Speaker 1: very far away from where sports has gone today. And
45:54
Speaker 1: it's interesting because as massive of a story as this
45:57
Speaker 1: was at the time, um uh, it's something that I
46:01
Speaker 1: think is kind of really flown under the radar and
46:03
Speaker 1: sort of like lost its luster and really become kind
46:05
Speaker 1: of relegated to this different time. But there is one
46:09
Speaker 1: aspect of Wade Boggs that has stood the test of
46:12
Speaker 1: time and infiltrated and found its way into current pop culture,
46:17
Speaker 1: um in and in a couple of ways. And it
46:19
Speaker 1: is his absolutely legendary ability to throw back tall boys. Yes,
46:26
Speaker 1: that's right, the beer story. This may be familiar to
46:30
Speaker 1: a lot of people who don't even consider themselves fans
46:33
Speaker 1: of sports. In fact, you can see an entire episode
46:37
Speaker 1: dedicated to this story in one of my favorite comedies,
46:41
Speaker 1: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But you guys, there's so
46:44
Speaker 1: much to this story. It feels like we might be
46:48
Speaker 1: on the verge of a two parter. What do you
46:50
Speaker 1: think you know, Ben, I think you might be honest something.
46:52
Speaker 1: Um So, why don't we take a quick pause here,
46:55
Speaker 1: uh and come back? Would you mind joining us to
46:58
Speaker 1: to to dive into another absolutely bonkers Wade Bog story? Matt,
47:02
Speaker 1: I mean I think we see two parts, three parts?
47:04
Speaker 1: How part? Can we push this thing? Whatever it takes?
47:07
Speaker 1: Whatever it takes, That's what I say. So in the meantime,
47:09
Speaker 1: if you want to do your homework and be in
47:11
Speaker 1: on the joke a little bit, highly recommend you watch
47:14
Speaker 1: the Always Stunning in Philadelphia episode. I believe it was
47:17
Speaker 1: the first episode of season eleven. If I'm not mistaken,
47:21
Speaker 1: did you realize that show has been running that long.
47:23
Speaker 1: It's the it's the longest running comedy show of its
47:26
Speaker 1: type where it's about to be pretty soon. There's also
47:30
Speaker 1: another episode that references this Wade Boggs story, but it
47:34
Speaker 1: uses a different cast of characters. Fantastic. We could talk
47:39
Speaker 1: about it all day, which we will do on our
47:42
Speaker 1: next episode in the meantime. Thanks as always to our
47:46
Speaker 1: super producer, Casey Pegram, Thanks to Matt Waxman and Trickeration,
47:51
Speaker 1: thanks to Jonathan Strickland's a k a. The Twister, Thanks
47:55
Speaker 1: to Alex Williams, who composed our theme Christo Racious. Here
47:58
Speaker 1: in Spirity is Jeff Codes. The whole gang is here.
48:00
Speaker 1: Matt Real quickly tell us where can folks find you
48:03
Speaker 1: on the internet? And uh and Trickeration all right, yeah,
48:06
Speaker 1: hit me up at Matthew Xman is my Twitter and Instagram?
48:10
Speaker 1: And then the show Instagram and Twitter is at tricks Ceration. Awesome.
48:13
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts for
48:26
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
48:29
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.