It must have been around 1997 when I stopped follwing individual players and permanently settled on teams to follow in sports. I don't think it happened all at once, it was more that I noticed I was more concerned with how the team was doing than the player. Anyway, I was a Yankees fan because of Boggs (though I had liked them somewhat for as long as I can remember because of Dave Winfield), I was a Buccaneers fan because of Mike Alstott, and I am a Rockets fan because of Charles Barkley. Yes, that means at one time I was a Suns and Red Sox fan. Now, even though Boggs and Barkley are both retired (and as you mentioned, Boggs had left New York for Tampa) I remain a Yankees and Bucs fan, and probably always will. As an aside, I saw Wade on the Hotlist and he said there was no agreement for him to go into the hall as a D-Ray, and that it was Jose Canseco that had made such a deal. He said it is up to the Hall, as far as he is concerned, to determine what hat he is wearing, but that he probably wouldn't be in the hall if the time he spent on any of his 3 teams was taken away.
Sandberg was good but not great. What help is azz was that he was on WGN every afternoon. He became a house hold name.
the most homers ever for a second baseman and the best fielding percentage for a second baseman and he wasn't great?
Hydra, I read something similar about Boggs and what hat he is going to wear into the Hall on the Boston Globe. He said that he would actually like to wear his Little League Hat. It is too bad that the HOF makes guys choose when they have played for several teams and each team that player played for was an important part to his career.
Boggs goes in under Red Sox cap After dominating a decade at the plate, there was really only one choice that made sense for something recognizing individual acheivement, even though his greatest team success was winning the WS in New York in 1996.
Honestly, that '96 Yankee team was so dominant that I think they could have won the WS without Wade. That is not a slap at him, but a testament to how great of a team that bunch really was.
