The legend of the chicken man aka Wade Boggs
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I googled "Wade Boggs chicken man" curious the history of his nickname and ran into the below article. Thought it was pretty rad so decided to share. He's right up there with Kenny "the snake" Stabler.
There’s a long-standing legend that Boggs once drank 64 (some say 107) beers on a day trip from New York to L.A (some recall Cleveland to Boston, and even others refer to the refueling stop in North Dakota). Nobody is really sure, but we know Boggs can put the cold ones down like no other. He averaged about 50 per flight.
Here is a statement from former Tampa Bay Devils Rays teammate Brian Rose:
“I was sitting next to him on a plane and a flight attendant came by and gave him a case of beer,” said Rose. “He slid it under the seat and I was like, ‘What’s up with that? We only have an hour flight.’ He said, ‘That’s mine.’
Getting a case of beer on a flight and going out the next day to hit some dingers? Power. F'in. Move.
Hall of Fame third baseman Wade Boggs enjoyed an incredibly successful 18-year career, appearing in 12 All-Star Games and winning the 1996 World Series with the Yankees before calling it quits at the end of the ’99 season, with a .328 career batting average and over 3,000 hits.
If you did that well for yourself, would you change any part of your approach to the game?
Boggs had an insanely regimented pre-game routine :
Reportedly, he would field exactly 150 ground balls in the infield, start his batting practice at exactly 5:17 PM (during night games), and run wind sprints at exactly 7:17 PM.
Then, of course, there was the chicken he would eat before every game, earning him the nickname, “Chicken Man.” He embraced the public’s interest in his chicken obsession by putting out a book featuring his favorite fowl recipes in 1984
