MLB: Top 5 strangest players in history

Strangest Players in MLB History

5. Wade Boggs

Wade Boggs was one hell of a baseball player. A first-ballot Hall of Famer, Boggs was a 5-time AL batting champion, 12-time All-Star, and accumulated 3,010 hits over his illustrious career. However, he is more well known for his superstitious commitment to chicken and his love for Miller Lite.

Boggs is considered one of the best contact hitters of all time. According to him, this is all thanks to his obsession with chicken. Before every game, Boggs could be seen eating large amounts of chicken. This habit quickly earned him the nickname, “The Chicken Man” from his teammates in Boston. In a 1985 interview, Boggs revealed the origin of this obscure pre-game ritual.

“`It started in ’77. I had a minor league budget and a growing family to feed,” says Boggs, “Chicken was cheap and I really felt better eating lighter food rather than a lot of heavy meat and gravy. Then I noticed my batting average going up. Ever since I’ve been a `chicketarian.’ ”

After he finished eating an entire bird, he would take batting practice at exactly 5:17, followed by sprints at 7:17 before taking the field. Boggs was truly one of the most absurdly superstitious players the game has ever seen, and we love him for it.

But if there was one thing Boggs did more religious than eat chicken, it was drinking beer, specifically Miller Lites. Boggs’ drinking habits have been well documented in pop culture. The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “The Gang Beats Boggs” tries to reinvent the famous story where Boggs allegedly crushed 64 beers on a cross-country flight.

Many of his former teammates and colleagues have confirmed his ungodly beer-drinking talents, but Boggs himself has denied that the number was 64 on Pardon the Interruption in 2005. He refuted, “You get bored on a cross country flight from Boston to LA, you gotta do something. No, we don’t need to divulge the number, but put it this way, I had a few Miller Lites.” So, perhaps it was more.

Boggs’ career achievements are far more fascinating knowing his habitual drinking. In the year of his legendary performance on the transcontinental flight, he only struck out 29 times. In 1985, he only swung and missed 46 times while slugging Miller Lites regularly. Between his 3,000 hits, obsessive superstitions, and astonishing drinking habits, Wade Boggs has one of the more obscure resumés ever.