Wade Boggs Reached 3,000 Hits With a Home Run for Tampa Bay

On August 7, 1999, Wade Boggs hit a home run for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It was his 3,000th hit, and nobody had ever reached 3,000 with a home run before. He had grown up in Tampa and graduated from H.B. Plant High School in 1976, the same school Stephen Stills attended.

The Hitter

Boggs won five American League batting titles and had seven straight seasons of 200 or more hits, from 1983 through 1989, an American League record. He ate chicken before every game, which is how he got the nickname Chicken Man.

What to Know

He went into the Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Rays retired his number 12.