September 24, 2020 • 33 mins
Wade Boggs is a legendary, larger-than-life figure in the world of sports -- but one of his strangest achievements has nothing to do with baseball. Join the guys and special guest, Matthew Waxman, the creator of Trickeration, as they delve into the legend of Wade's 107 beer airplane flight... and walk through some very boozy math to discover whether the legend is true.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
for tuning in. Previously on Ridiculous History, I'm getting what happened?
What happened? I just wanted to do that voice because
I love that kind of vo and I never I
never get to do it except for weird ads. But
you're right, this is something where we have a slight recap.
We dove into an amazing story with our pale Matt Waxman,
(00:50):
the creator of Trigger Ration. You remember this though it
was it was Tuesday. Thanks to the magic of editing,
it seems like it was only Tuesday. Way it was Tuesday. No,
it's true, and it was really great and it wasn't
something that were maybe it's gonna throw in as a
little bit of in the side. Um after discussing really, uh,
such an interesting and divisive character. Again, I came clean
(01:11):
early on. It's not being like a sports guy. Um,
But man, do I love a good scandal and a
good sex addic story and this has got all that stuff.
Man and he and that now we're gonna add in
copy is drinking. We barely even scratched the surface of
the man's epic ability to throw back Miller lights. I
think we might have hinted at it very briefly, but
that is literally what today's episode is about, right, Miller Light,
(01:33):
You're so good you can drink it with your mouth? Boy,
did he ever drink it with his whole mouth and
his whole heart? And Uh, just to reiterate, Miller Light,
you're welcome for that catch phrase. Please use it to
your heart's content. That catchphrase has been co signed and
green light by our super producer, Casey Pegram. And when
we were doing this episode, this exploration of this sex
(01:56):
scandal and the halcy young days of sports reporting, we
knew we could not dive into the endeavor alone. That's
why we have our returning guest Matt Waxman, who, by
the way, I sat patiently through this entire episode. Uh, Matt,
how's it going, Thanks for staying with us, No, no problem,
It's it's good to be on the show. Good to
(02:17):
be back on the show. I mean again, like this guy,
Wade Boggs is a total legend. And since we last talked,
I actually went back and research and found more about
him that we need to touch on. So we're gonna
hit the beer and stuff. But this guy also saved
some African villagers back in two thousand and five, so well,
let's hit it all, okay, I I think we start
(02:37):
with the uh, the inebriated elephant in the room. Wade
Boggs is a drinking legend, and there is a an
urban legend, perhaps a bit of modern mythology, about a
a particularly boozy plane flight he took. Matt, could you
(02:58):
give us just the quicken dirty of this? Like, what
what's the gist of the story? All right? So I
think we we we placed this story around the early nineties,
and rumor had it that bugs drank a copious amount
of beer. One I'm in a cross country flight after
a game, and the number very I mean, first there
was a number in the sixties. Then the number grew
(03:21):
a little more than people that went to bugs, he
kind of hemmed in hod and then later on on
it's always sunny. It turned out he told Charlie Dave
there's an official number. The number is a hundred and
seven and that's how many beers he drank in one
cross country plight. Okay, that first off, how do you
get more than three or four drinks. That can't be
(03:41):
a commercial flight, can it. Now we're talking, definitely talking
charter flight. I mean the socks back in these days
flying their own charter And I think I think Bogs
plays with the math a little. I mean a lot
of people have looked at how this is even possible,
and I think we should really, you know, sharpen our
pencils and try and figure this out. So let's no,
you gotta do you have a Pencilvania, you know I do.
(04:03):
I've got like a sharp pair of scissors. I can
scrawl it into the surface of my desk. I'm gonna
do that. Yeah, perfect, all right, all right, So let's
try and figure this out. All right, So we need
to get to A hundred and seven. I assume he's
going in to l A X from Boston. So after
the game, you know, that's when you're most thirsty. Locker
(04:24):
room back then, all the guys were drinking beer in
the locker room at the game. So I say, were easy.
He puts away at twelve pack after the game, million
around there, got it? Got it? Okay? So then bus
ride from Fenway to Logan Airport, that's easy. Six beers.
I mean, I imagine that late at night. They're probably
going at midnight. I'd say that's like a you know,
(04:46):
a third thirty minute trips. I'd say six beers there.
Then you know they're waiting to board the flight. You
don't just walk right on. You gotta deal with the
little security all that. I think we can put him
down four in that thirty minutes. Maybe he's I'd say,
I don't know, give him another twelve pack there. This
is also like in the housey on, like pre nine
eleven days, or you could easily waltz through security with
(05:07):
like a couple of beers in hand, right, No, no
problem there. Yeah. I think if you're way bus, you
do whatever the f you want. Probably so, And one
little quick question is to backtrack. So if you're in like, uh,
you know, a tour van or like a sports you know,
like passenger type van like that, Um is the laws
of open containers not apply or these people just they
(05:29):
just don't care, They just flo out the laws. I
think I think the laws do apply, except if you're
the greatest hitter on the planet, and then you do
again whatever you want, Like I don't think wade bugs
is like oh, fifty to speed limit like people are
at least when they pull you over, pull you over
for your autograph, not to give you a ticket exactly.
(05:50):
And I get I think Wade Bugs is basically a
cup So I think Wade bus kind of can do
whatever he wants and just for just for really quickly.
It's for a context to prove your hypothesis here, Matt,
I did find a quote from a guy named Jeff Nelson,
Um who I believe was one of his teammates, and
(06:10):
he said Bogs was always the first player to the clubhouse.
He would bring a six pack with them. He'd be
there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as
we were all packing our stuff up out of our
lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade
would sit there and drink that whole six back. Um
that this is just like sort of was basically par
(06:31):
for the course for Wade Bogs. Right, Yeah, we we
talked about this a little bit previously. I think I
don't remember if it made to air. But Jeff Nelson
is a former relief pitcher. You can read his comments
about Bogs on some excellent Esquire articles, and he says
it was absolutely normal for bogs to drink. I think
he said fifty or sixty beers on a single flight,
(06:54):
So that doesn't get us to the hundred and seven number.
But right now, for everyone listening along at home, we're
already at thirty and they're not on the plane. So
knowing that, you know, in general, bugs would drink like
plus or minus twelve beers, you know, in a right
after the game, before we even leaving the clubhouse. Can
we start back from there? Uh, Matt, I just kind
(07:17):
of lost track, and I want to make sure I've
got my tally right. They counted thirty twelve and then
six and then twelve right, perfect, perfect, Okay, So then
you know they get on the flight, they got to
do the whole security briefing. I think he's easy putting
another six pack away there. I mean, I don't think
there's any question. And we've got six before the plane
even is in the air. Perfect thirty six already. This is,
(07:39):
by the way, most people. I am not a doctor,
I'm not like a booze surgeon or whatever, but I'm
pretty sure thirty six beers will put the uh, the
average mortal man down for the counts, right, And these
are not tall boys. These are like your typical twelve
ounce pull tap cans right definitely at twelve ats B.
I think if we went tall boys, then all of
(08:00):
a sudden, our math gets real screwy. So let's go
with the twelve ounce beer. And then the real math
question is flight cross country. Look at five and a
half hours, let's make it six hours, just to make
the math as easy as possible. How many beers can
a living legend like Wade Bugs consume? I mean, at
this point he's really cruising himself, and so I think
(08:20):
he's really I would put him down for I'd say
nine beers an hour would be that seems realistic to
me at this point. Yeah, nine beers an hour seems reasonable.
I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable, but well I don't.
I think I, as a mere mortal, could probably do
four beers in it, you know, maybe, but that's probably
pushing it for me. Even so nine is on the
(08:43):
is on the the edge of epic. I would say,
like twelve would be just like godlike and completely unrealistic,
but nine, I'm like him that Yeah, okay, so I'm
I'm doing some lazy math here, I know, uh, I
know if it's a if we call it six hours,
it's like a five hour or forty even of flight
or something. And then just to make the math work.
From what Nelson said, it sounds spot on. It sounds impossible.
(09:06):
Like the only way I could drink nine beers an
hour on a plane, I'm gonna be super honest with you, guys.
I could only do it if I was sitting on
the toilet where I was drinking them in the bathroom,
so I wouldn't have to keep getting up and walking.
But yeah, I think we except we except nine. And
I like the phrase edge of epic, And I also
think the one thing we we've got to consider is,
(09:26):
you know, even though we weren't there and we haven't
heard this, you know, he boarded the plane holding two
thirty packs, and you just can see him doing that.
So you can see him walking up the stairs to
the plane. You can see him sitting down and having
the three seats. He sits in the middle. He puts
one thirty on his right, one thirty in its left,
and he says, this is my mission. So like we
(09:47):
kind of know this is true, even though we don't
know this is true. Well, I have to say. I
love the unapologetic nature of this man's beer consumption too.
He doesn't seem concerned at all, you know, being like
someone in the public guy who's intentionally like, you know,
a role model for like kids and stuff. But it's
very clearly just flaunting his uh, his excessive drinking, almost
(10:08):
like a superpower. I gotta give the guy props for
that kind of moxie. Yeah, and I think Wade Bugs
has been called a lot of things. Role model is
probably the one thing I don't know about. I mean,
role model for functional alcoholics maybe, But no shade to
the man, because we're we're looking at the nuts and
bolts of this. We're we're we're solving the mystery here
(10:30):
with your help, Matt. So, if I've got my counts correct,
then six hours nine beers an hour, that's fifty four
beers just on the plane. Just how on earth is
that possible? It seems impossible, it really does. But again,
you're trying to put yourself in Wade Boggs's place, and
that's like saying, like, why don't you have three thousand hits,
(10:51):
Like it's just not right for you to picture yourself
doing this stuff. There's a different guy. Yeah, I think
I've got maybe the wrong mistress. I don't know. I
was looking at my stats after we recorded the first episode. Alright,
so we the plane lands, and then you know, Bogs
is looking we we He cranks fifty four, so he's
got six left, so I think he's hitting those last
(11:13):
six as the plane is basically taxiing, so just to
finish off the two thirties. That gets rid of all
the beers. He no longer has to deal with any
of this stuff. So he's got, uh, I've lost the jacks, Casey,
I'll let you jump in here. Yeah, you guys, we're
at right now. Okay, okay, we're getting there. Boy, we're
so at this point, what is he like? Are they
(11:34):
are there taxing? Are they about to descend this? Because
he's not really necessarily like shooting for a number, he's
not trying to beat a record or anything. He just
organically got there, And I think that's right. I think
he's just trying to get through these two thirty recks.
He's got six left. He polishes off those last six,
and then they get off the plane, but they're not
(12:00):
yet to their destination, right, that's right, he still has
the bus ride to go from l A X to
the team hotel. Now I'm picturing he's got he gets
it one last twelve pack for that ride, and he's
really I assume he's, you know, he's not seeing great
at this point. I think his goal is to hit
these last twelve beers to get to one oh eight.
(12:21):
But I think he realizes he's starting to slow down
a little. So I'm giving him eleven of those final
twelve and he just can't finish the whole thing off
because it's the problem is it's too much beerre So
I think he's one short there. I think that number
if my math is correct, and you you you tell me,
but I've got that being exactly the one oh seven number,
(12:45):
which which bogs has claimed. And I think that this
all makes a lot of sense to me. Um. And
then one other thing we need to consider is in
the last episode we mentioned that Boggs is very superstitious,
was obsessed with the number seven. So I think when
he got to one oh seven, he said, you know what,
that's the perfect time to stop. I probably could go further,
(13:06):
but let's end it here because one oh seven is
just such an important number for me. I love that.
I love that because I was thinking a similar thing
to me. There's something so poetic about the beer un drank,
the single beer left. I was wondering, like, I like,
I like your argument about one or seven, because in
my head, I was thinking maybe he saved it for
(13:27):
after the game. He was like one cold win for
after the game. But that doesn't make sense because he
clearly has all the beer he wants forever. He would
just have someone give him a thirty back, right, Yeah,
I mean, I don't know. I think at that point,
like the ball boys were signing Bogs autographs, at that point,
they were getting his beer. They were dealing with like
all sorts of various mistresses, and there's no cell phones
(13:49):
at this point, so I imagine these mistresses are calling
a lot of you know, land lines that are getting
relayed to bugs. So at this point, like he can
get whatever he wants. You know, it's funny. I also
was one ring about that aspect of it, because I
love the imagy paint of him, like lugging these thirty packs,
like you know, on on each shoulder, going up the
little ramp onto the charter plane. But I gotta wonder too,
(14:10):
I mean, do you think he had to bring his
own or or was this just a known thing that
like they had to have this on hand. They had
to have enough beers for him to just you know,
drink his fill. I I gotta think like socks charters
at that point, like they just would just overstock them
knowing that Boggs was coming, Like you just like got
rid of all the coffee, You got rid of all
(14:31):
the bottled water, all the sprite, all the all the
first aid kits, you know, every parachutes and so like
where they normally would be like a big inflatable slide
in a plane that was just like stuffed with beer
because way coming. No, that makes sense to me. There's
probably also something like a writer too. I mean, given
his success, I'm sure that they had like a bevy
(14:53):
of things that they were expected to give him, beer
being number one, but I'm sure they were like specific
snacks maybe other Oh chicken obviously right, he's not gonna
go get his own chicken. Could you kind of paint
a picture for us, Matt about exactly how valuable a
player he was, Like how above and beyond like he
delivered for this team and how he would have been
treated like in like royalty. Well, that's the funny thing,
(15:16):
is like we're we're talking about this sort of urban
legend and that is supposedly true, but like this is
all overshadowed what a great baseball player Bogs was. Like
that it's true, We're we're kind of burying the lead here.
Wade Boggs was one of the great contact hitters of
all time. I mean, just as a batting average hitter,
(15:38):
he was incredible, almost without Pierre Tony Gwynn, the only
guy who was sort of even close. And if you
were to pick one guy who was going to hit
four hundred for a season, you would have guessed back
then Wade Bugs and Bogs was like he would go
like a whole season with swinging and missing like a
handful of times, like things that we've got normal guys
(15:59):
doing a game. You know, I swung and missed four
times in that game, game or whatever. Boggs could go
like a whole season with that kind of number. So
this was a player that like was one of the
all time greats, even though we don't really think of
him as an all time great for many reasons. Um
also way. Bogs was totally obsessed with his own stats,
as we mentioned in the last episode, and that really
(16:22):
bothered a lot of people because it was like, if
there was a guy on first, Boggs would try and
hit a single rather than Oh, we need a home
run or a double for you to try and drive
that guy at home, and Bogs will be like, I'm
trying to keep my batting average out. Um. So he
was great, but he you know, there was some some
dings on his resume as well as if like, is
(16:42):
that like he's not being a team player by doing
I got it, like he the back of his baseball
card was almost more important to Wade Boggs than the
win lost column for the team. That makes sense, I mean,
And it's it's interesting because I took some time to
look through Baseball Hall of Fame stuff about weight bugs,
(17:02):
and this guy is no joke, Like he's a monster.
And the part you're telling us, Matt, which I hadn't
heard before, about him being sort of selfish, more so
about his stats than about his team. It seems counter
to the idea of good sportsmanship in a team sport.
But there's no arguing that he got results. He had
(17:23):
two thousand, four d thirty two career games, and he
reached base easily of them, like the there I'm just
looking at his average. Uh, some of the stats that
you had given us earlier, like the point three to
eight batting average, point four one five on base percentage
like these are things other people can't do. Going back
(17:45):
to that idea of him getting pulled over and somehow
getting a citation for open container, the reason that's so
laughably implausible to me is that I bet that police
officer would have gotten on into a lot of trouble,
especially if he delayed Bogs performing in a game. You
know what I mean? I do? I mean again, the
(18:07):
guy was for ten years, he hit over three hundred
and you know, Ted Williams was considered the greatest Red
Sox hitter without a doubt because he did it for
average and power. But Wave Bogs is I mean David
Ortiz again, Manny Ramirez didn't do it as long as bugs,
and they may hit for more power, but Wave Bugs is,
without a doubt, one of the four greatest hitters in
(18:29):
mid sexes. I have to point out something I found
in an article. Um I think it might have been
from that Maxim article you were talking Esquire article rather
that you were talking about ben But uh, there's a
question pose that we haven't really addressed as to like
how can someone drink that many beers and not have
a blood alcohol level that's like literally lethal? Right? Um?
(18:49):
And and the writer of this piece kind of goes
into the specifics about it, saying there were a lot
of skeptics saying this must be BS because you know,
to drink that many beers, your blood alcohol would be
so high that it would probably kill you, or you
would get so drunk before that point you would have
to stop. Um. But what isn't taken into account is
uh tolerance, pure and uttered tolerance of alcohol. And like
(19:13):
Bogs apparently you know, he was just drinking beer. That
was his thing. Like you don't even hear about him, like,
you know, getting hammered on like liquor. He's just he's
a beer guy. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't,
but according to this, he was a hundred ninety seven
pounds cans of Miller light or twelve ounces and have
four point two percent alcohol. So he drank you know,
let's just say having this large tolerance that he has
(19:34):
developed for alcohol over the years. Um, it's really difficult,
they're saying, to actually make an estimate as to what
his blood alcohol level would be. And again maybe I'm like,
maybe this isn't even a good way of looking at it,
because how does tolerance affect like the actual way your
body processes booze? Like like I could saycond see you
could like get used to it more. But isn't it
(19:54):
no matter what's the same amount of alcohol in your system?
Right Ben? Yeah, that's correct. I mean, is Liver is
a superstar who has its own, uh storied career. I
would also advance there's one intervening variable we may have
not approached yet. It feels like over the span of
this infamous flight, at least one beer's worth of alcohol
(20:18):
was lost in the mustache. I mean, that thing doesn't quit.
That's true. I'm starting. I almost called it his ground game,
but his like his can game, had to get a
little sloppy, you know, probably around beer eighty and so
he's there's gonna be some spilla, there's gonna be Yeah, Well,
I mean, what do you think, Matt, I say, Well,
first of all, one of the grave mustaches of all
(20:40):
time but I would say also, you know, you start
to get like when you drink that much. You know,
we've all drank seventy eight beers. We haven't drink a
hundred and seven. But when you start to drink that much,
you finish like four fifths of a beer and then
you're like, oh, next one, And so you can get
a little lack of daisical with really finishing off every
last drop of some So like I think of the
hundred and seven, if you can probably say like three
(21:02):
full beers of like backwash leftovers, maybe like the real
the real numbers one up four, because he was probably
also at the point where and no judgment here where
his short term memory or his attention to which beer
was the fresh one may have faltered a little bit.
And what do you guys think he did with all
the cans? Like he's thinking, yeah, is he is he
(21:23):
have trash bags? Or is the steward is just coming
over and just like with a trash bag and just
hauling off ten twelve at a time. Like what do
you guys think he's even doing with all these or
is he like, oh, it's so many cans? The recycle
money is enough that like I'll take keep them bring
him with me. I uh, you know it's funny. We
uh we did a story on another show about recycling
(21:45):
that's gonna come out. I would say in this time,
in as you said, the early nineties, there was probably
instead of a bat boy, there was like a beer
boy or a can boy or something. He was on
the flight and her job was to stay out of
the flight attendant's way and just keep keep the cans
flowing like the spice and dune, you know what I mean,
(22:08):
bring because they're just walking at that point, they're just
walking to a seat with more beer and then walking
back to throw away the empties and then walking back
and he's done with the other beers. So you think
on LinkedIn there's like a guy who's like in his
like late forties that says, like to ninety three like
Red Sox can boy. Well, I mean, if Snoop Dogg
(22:28):
has a blunt roller, you know, then I don't know
why Wade Boggs can't have a canboy. That's all I'm saying.
He's earned it. You know. At this stage in researching
Wade Bugs, I found another story and if we have
tied one last Okay, so again, we've covered like so
(22:50):
many different things that this guy has done that made him,
you know, a legend. Each one of these things alone
would make him a huge way Bugs of course, because
he's wade Bug starts to get into exotic animal hunting
and you know these the type all right, We've all
seen the type with the photos. Like, none of us
like this guy, but we all know that who this
(23:10):
person is and what their motivations. So Wave Bogs is
starting to get criticized for taking down all these elk
and you know, putting them all up in his living room, etcetera.
And he's like, no, no, no, guys, you don't understand, Like,
I didn't just take down these animals because I enjoyed
the sport of it. I got brought in because these
animals were terrorizing the village. He's like, this crocodile had
(23:34):
literally killed two kids, and I got brought in to
kill the crocodile. Now I'm not making this up. This
is in the seat St. Petersburg Times. There's a hippo
that had killed three villagers and their first phone call
when they were like, how do we kill this hippo?
Way Bugs? So like, yeah, so this is like, I mean,
every part of this guy is insane. I mean, the
(23:57):
least interesting part of Wade bogs Is life is the
fact that he's a Hall of Fame baseball player. Every
part of this is cartoonish in a way that makes
you think that he isn't a real person. And yet
he's just this fifty five year old guy now who
I assume lives in Florida and goes fishing a lett.
But he's a real person who does exist, I believe.
(24:19):
But if you told me all this stuff, I wouldn't
believe it. Well, there's a joke, a running joke in
the Always Sunny episode that they're doing this in Wade
Bogg's memory, because surely this man is has died, um
with with treating his body in this way and uh,
and Mac keeps reminding Charlie that no, man, Wade Boggs
is very much alive. And then there's a part at
the end where they're the whole point of the episode
(24:40):
is they're trying to beat Wade Boggs record, and they've
got like hash marks on their shirt for how many
beers they have, and they're on a commercial fly, which
makes it even more ridiculous. Uh. They eventually get cut off,
but on the way back, Charlie has like a vision
and he thinks it's Wade Bogg's ghosts uh. And then
Wade Bogg's ghost, which really dis hallucination, reminds Charlie that
he's very much alive. Uh, and I believe he remains
(25:01):
alive to this day. He talked to TMZ recently to
kind of clear up this whole How many beers was it?
And he didn't specifically reference to the cross country flight,
but they just asked him kind of point blank, like
what's the most beers you've drunk in a day? And
he goes, probably over a hundred and then and then
guy was like, how does one do this? Wade bugs
And he goes, I have a hollow leg. I just
(25:23):
drink it. It all runs down in there and then
I take it off and dump it out. Which is
is that a thing? Is that a do? Is that
a jokey old timey thing? People say, because I've never
heard that in my life, and that is a weird image. Yeah,
it's an old it's it's an old timey joke, drinking
like one has a hollow leg. I do want to
go back to the hunt, which I was not aware of. Uh.
(25:45):
The hippopotamus is the most dangerous land animal, most dangerous
land mammal for sure. So it's not like, um, regardless
of what your feelings are about hunting in general. Uh,
it's not as if hippos are the cute, cuddly ballerina's
they're depicted to be in Fantasia cartoons. These things are
(26:07):
no joke. They're dangerous. Well, Ben, I actually do need
to correct you there, because it's actually the second most
dangerous landman animal. The most dangerous is Wayne bugs Well
played playing the most dangerous game that is bits drinking.
So over the span of his we we found another
like superlative for him, right because over the span of
(26:31):
his time he killed like as a big game hunter,
he killed at least seventy eight game animals. Right. Yeah,
and then like had I believe like a trophy room
hunting lodge kind of situation and his home in Florida
real Teddy Roosevelt kind of character. You know, I like
(26:51):
that he's okay. So the entire time we've been doing
this series, I've been thinking of different appellations and monikers
and nicknames for the man himself, right, and I feel
like hippo hit man is one, Like he's the hippo
hip man, the hippo hit man, Wade Boggs. It's crazy
(27:11):
that he is alive. It's like we can go visit him.
And the other funny thing is like, because Wade Bugs
is not considered one of the all time grades, I
feel like we could, like it wouldn't be out of
the question for us to get Wade Bugs on, like
right now. We can make a few phone calls and
get him on, Like he's not a guy that that
there's too famous for the Ridiculous History podcast. I mean,
(27:33):
I'm not saying, Casey, you need to do this right now,
but like it seems plausible that we could get Wade
Bugs on the next episode. Now. I think if I
think if we name drop you, that might go a
long way, Like Hey, we know Matt Waxman from Trickeration
and he'll be like, all right, just send the beer
and tell me what time to hop on the call. Guys,
there's a pretty problematic quote from Wade Boggs though, about
(27:56):
this whole hippo situation. The New York Post reported on
us and they they they actually quote um something he
said to the St. Peter Petersburg Times. He you know,
he starts off strong like, but it sounds like once
he gets to the end of this, it sounds like
he maybe had a few at this point because he
starts off like he's it's been braggadocious, but it's it's
on point. But then it takes a weird turn. He uh.
(28:19):
He says, the hippo had killed three villagers and the
crocodiles had killed two kids. So I was sort of
the great white hunter who came in and saved the village.
But I mean, it's like the whole white savior thing,
like I was the great white hunter that came in.
It's just a little cringe e That's all I'm saying.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it was a little self
(28:41):
aggrandizing and sort of a weird like white point. Why
why bring race into it at all? It was a
little strange, but yeah, strange man. He also said, you know,
he obviously was not or is not because he is
still alive. Sorry, Charlie. Uh. He was obviously not a
big fan of animal rights activists. I think later this
maybe from the St. Petersburg interview, but later he goes
(29:02):
on when someone asked him about the criticism he's receiving
from animal rights activists, he says, these people need to
get a life. They have their opinion, but don't infringe
on my right to do something that's legal to me.
The big thing is in the hippo case, at least
someone asked him for help. Maybe we take a page
from the village when we call Wade Boggs. I don't know,
(29:24):
do we have to have a murderous hippo in town
or can we just ask him on the show? I
just don't know what else there is to talk about.
You think we've covered it all? Like I feel like
once if you got him on, he'd be like, oh yeah,
they're like those six things he talked about, Like those
are the least six interesting things. Oh yeah, okay, alright,
Wade Boggs, in his own words, look for it in
a podcast feeding here. Maybe we should just give the
(29:44):
guy's own podcast. You know, I would listen to that,
a bogcast a podcast. Yeah, that's that's good. Well man, Okay,
so this is uh does this seem like a good
place to wrap up the Wade Boggs series? For now. Yeah,
we don't know what he's gonna do next, you know
what I mean? We, Matt, thank you for coming along
with us on a two part journey into the larger
(30:06):
than life world of Wade Boggs. Uh. We do have
to ask you in advance, though, this guy's tricky if
he does something else, are you down to come back
and uh and make a part three with us? As
anytime Wade Bugs does anything noteworthy, I'm willing and able
to do this. So anytime you guys call, I'm ready.
Whatever Wade Boggs drinks a hundred and six beers on
(30:26):
a flight, He'll be there. Whatever Wade Boggs saves a
village from a raging hippopotamus, Matt Waxman will be there.
That's all I got. And in the meantime, while we're
waiting to hear more from Wade Boggs, waiting to hear
more from Wade Boggs, never mind. Uh, you can learn
more strange stories from the world of sports on Triggeration,
(30:50):
available now wherever you get your podcasts. Uh, Matt, where
would you direct people who want to learn more about
your work and want to learn more about Triggeration in specific?
Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter at Trickerationum, we've
got a ton of great episodes, all involving this kind
of total nonsense. The tagline for our show is honest
Conversations about dishonest act So when people are lying, which
(31:13):
they're altisched, they always are. That's the kind of stuff
that that we're diving into. Next week, we've got a
story about a fisherman in North Dakota who caught the
North Dakota Walleye Record, which is a fish up there,
and it turned out there was all this controversy around, um,
whether he actually caught the fish or not, and I
interview him and UM, it's unclear to me actually at
(31:35):
the end of this podcast whether or not he's lying
or not. But UM, i'd love the listeners to listen
and let me know if they think he's lying. Excellent, excellent,
So we're going to check that out. We hope that
you check it out as well. Matt. Thank you so
much for coming on the show with us, not once,
but twice and maybe a third or fourth time. We've
got to keep an eye on box. Thanks as always
(31:56):
to our super producer, Casey Pegram, Alex Williams, who posed
our theme. Big thanks to you, buddy, Hope you're doing
well on your on your vacation, your your walk about um.
Huge thanks Christopher Haciotes here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland, that
devious and notorious quizzer. We'll get you next time. Who else? Ben?
Big thanks to our research. North Star gave blues Yeah.
(32:19):
Big thanks of course to Miller Lite one more time.
That beer is so good you can drink it with
your mouth. True story? What other? What other weird stories? Uh?
From the world of sports, from the world of booze
do you have for us and most importantly your fellow listeners.
Let us know you can find us on the internet Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, at, etcetera,
(32:41):
not just as a show, but as individuals. I'm Ben
Bowling on Instagram and Ben Bowling hsw on Twitter. If
you wish, you can stalk me on Instagram. I am
at how now Noel Brown. Also, please take a cue
from your fellow Ridiculous historians and join the Facebook group
the Ridiculous Historians. All you gotta do is name me
or Ben or Matt Waxman or Casey Pegram or any
(33:03):
of the names that we shout out at the end
of each show every week, and you're in so much
fun trading memes and and stories and it's a really
cool community. And also, while you're at it, why don't
you go on Apple podcast and leave listen nice review.
It would make us feel warm in our in our
dark little hearts and also help people discover the show.
And if you are a hundred and seven beers deep
(33:23):
as you've been listening today, drinks some water, take a
napp we'll talk very soon. We'll see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
for tuning in. Previously on Ridiculous History, I'm getting what happened?
What happened? I just wanted to do that voice because
I love that kind of vo and I never I
never get to do it except for weird ads. But
you're right, this is something where we have a slight recap.
We dove into an amazing story with our pale Matt Waxman,
(00:50):
the creator of Trigger Ration. You remember this though it
was it was Tuesday. Thanks to the magic of editing,
it seems like it was only Tuesday. Way it was Tuesday. No,
it's true, and it was really great and it wasn't
something that were maybe it's gonna throw in as a
little bit of in the side. Um after discussing really, uh,
such an interesting and divisive character. Again, I came clean
(01:11):
early on. It's not being like a sports guy. Um,
But man, do I love a good scandal and a
good sex addic story and this has got all that stuff.
Man and he and that now we're gonna add in
copy is drinking. We barely even scratched the surface of
the man's epic ability to throw back Miller lights. I
think we might have hinted at it very briefly, but
that is literally what today's episode is about, right, Miller Light,
(01:33):
You're so good you can drink it with your mouth? Boy,
did he ever drink it with his whole mouth and
his whole heart? And Uh, just to reiterate, Miller Light,
you're welcome for that catch phrase. Please use it to
your heart's content. That catchphrase has been co signed and
green light by our super producer, Casey Pegram. And when
we were doing this episode, this exploration of this sex
(01:56):
scandal and the halcy young days of sports reporting, we
knew we could not dive into the endeavor alone. That's
why we have our returning guest Matt Waxman, who, by
the way, I sat patiently through this entire episode. Uh, Matt,
how's it going, Thanks for staying with us, No, no problem,
It's it's good to be on the show. Good to
(02:17):
be back on the show. I mean again, like this guy,
Wade Boggs is a total legend. And since we last talked,
I actually went back and research and found more about
him that we need to touch on. So we're gonna
hit the beer and stuff. But this guy also saved
some African villagers back in two thousand and five, so well,
let's hit it all, okay, I I think we start
(02:37):
with the uh, the inebriated elephant in the room. Wade
Boggs is a drinking legend, and there is a an
urban legend, perhaps a bit of modern mythology, about a
a particularly boozy plane flight he took. Matt, could you
(02:58):
give us just the quicken dirty of this? Like, what
what's the gist of the story? All right? So I
think we we we placed this story around the early nineties,
and rumor had it that bugs drank a copious amount
of beer. One I'm in a cross country flight after
a game, and the number very I mean, first there
was a number in the sixties. Then the number grew
(03:21):
a little more than people that went to bugs, he
kind of hemmed in hod and then later on on
it's always sunny. It turned out he told Charlie Dave
there's an official number. The number is a hundred and
seven and that's how many beers he drank in one
cross country plight. Okay, that first off, how do you
get more than three or four drinks. That can't be
(03:41):
a commercial flight, can it. Now we're talking, definitely talking
charter flight. I mean the socks back in these days
flying their own charter And I think I think Bogs
plays with the math a little. I mean a lot
of people have looked at how this is even possible,
and I think we should really, you know, sharpen our
pencils and try and figure this out. So let's no,
you gotta do you have a Pencilvania, you know I do.
(04:03):
I've got like a sharp pair of scissors. I can
scrawl it into the surface of my desk. I'm gonna
do that. Yeah, perfect, all right, all right, So let's
try and figure this out. All right, So we need
to get to A hundred and seven. I assume he's
going in to l A X from Boston. So after
the game, you know, that's when you're most thirsty. Locker
(04:24):
room back then, all the guys were drinking beer in
the locker room at the game. So I say, were easy.
He puts away at twelve pack after the game, million
around there, got it? Got it? Okay? So then bus
ride from Fenway to Logan Airport, that's easy. Six beers.
I mean, I imagine that late at night. They're probably
going at midnight. I'd say that's like a you know,
(04:46):
a third thirty minute trips. I'd say six beers there.
Then you know they're waiting to board the flight. You
don't just walk right on. You gotta deal with the
little security all that. I think we can put him
down four in that thirty minutes. Maybe he's I'd say,
I don't know, give him another twelve pack there. This
is also like in the housey on, like pre nine
eleven days, or you could easily waltz through security with
(05:07):
like a couple of beers in hand, right, No, no
problem there. Yeah. I think if you're way bus, you
do whatever the f you want. Probably so, And one
little quick question is to backtrack. So if you're in like, uh,
you know, a tour van or like a sports you know,
like passenger type van like that, Um is the laws
of open containers not apply or these people just they
(05:29):
just don't care, They just flo out the laws. I
think I think the laws do apply, except if you're
the greatest hitter on the planet, and then you do
again whatever you want, Like I don't think wade bugs
is like oh, fifty to speed limit like people are
at least when they pull you over, pull you over
for your autograph, not to give you a ticket exactly.
(05:50):
And I get I think Wade Bugs is basically a
cup So I think Wade bus kind of can do
whatever he wants and just for just for really quickly.
It's for a context to prove your hypothesis here, Matt,
I did find a quote from a guy named Jeff Nelson,
Um who I believe was one of his teammates, and
(06:10):
he said Bogs was always the first player to the clubhouse.
He would bring a six pack with them. He'd be
there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as
we were all packing our stuff up out of our
lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade
would sit there and drink that whole six back. Um
that this is just like sort of was basically par
(06:31):
for the course for Wade Bogs. Right, Yeah, we we
talked about this a little bit previously. I think I
don't remember if it made to air. But Jeff Nelson
is a former relief pitcher. You can read his comments
about Bogs on some excellent Esquire articles, and he says
it was absolutely normal for bogs to drink. I think
he said fifty or sixty beers on a single flight,
(06:54):
So that doesn't get us to the hundred and seven number.
But right now, for everyone listening along at home, we're
already at thirty and they're not on the plane. So
knowing that, you know, in general, bugs would drink like
plus or minus twelve beers, you know, in a right
after the game, before we even leaving the clubhouse. Can
we start back from there? Uh, Matt, I just kind
(07:17):
of lost track, and I want to make sure I've
got my tally right. They counted thirty twelve and then
six and then twelve right, perfect, perfect, Okay, So then
you know they get on the flight, they got to
do the whole security briefing. I think he's easy putting
another six pack away there. I mean, I don't think
there's any question. And we've got six before the plane
even is in the air. Perfect thirty six already. This is,
(07:39):
by the way, most people. I am not a doctor,
I'm not like a booze surgeon or whatever, but I'm
pretty sure thirty six beers will put the uh, the
average mortal man down for the counts, right, And these
are not tall boys. These are like your typical twelve
ounce pull tap cans right definitely at twelve ats B.
I think if we went tall boys, then all of
(08:00):
a sudden, our math gets real screwy. So let's go
with the twelve ounce beer. And then the real math
question is flight cross country. Look at five and a
half hours, let's make it six hours, just to make
the math as easy as possible. How many beers can
a living legend like Wade Bugs consume? I mean, at
this point he's really cruising himself, and so I think
(08:20):
he's really I would put him down for I'd say
nine beers an hour would be that seems realistic to
me at this point. Yeah, nine beers an hour seems reasonable.
I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable, but well I don't.
I think I, as a mere mortal, could probably do
four beers in it, you know, maybe, but that's probably
pushing it for me. Even so nine is on the
(08:43):
is on the the edge of epic. I would say,
like twelve would be just like godlike and completely unrealistic,
but nine, I'm like him that Yeah, okay, so I'm
I'm doing some lazy math here, I know, uh, I
know if it's a if we call it six hours,
it's like a five hour or forty even of flight
or something. And then just to make the math work.
From what Nelson said, it sounds spot on. It sounds impossible.
(09:06):
Like the only way I could drink nine beers an
hour on a plane, I'm gonna be super honest with you, guys.
I could only do it if I was sitting on
the toilet where I was drinking them in the bathroom,
so I wouldn't have to keep getting up and walking.
But yeah, I think we except we except nine. And
I like the phrase edge of epic, And I also
think the one thing we we've got to consider is,
(09:26):
you know, even though we weren't there and we haven't
heard this, you know, he boarded the plane holding two
thirty packs, and you just can see him doing that.
So you can see him walking up the stairs to
the plane. You can see him sitting down and having
the three seats. He sits in the middle. He puts
one thirty on his right, one thirty in its left,
and he says, this is my mission. So like we
(09:47):
kind of know this is true, even though we don't
know this is true. Well, I have to say. I
love the unapologetic nature of this man's beer consumption too.
He doesn't seem concerned at all, you know, being like
someone in the public guy who's intentionally like, you know,
a role model for like kids and stuff. But it's
very clearly just flaunting his uh, his excessive drinking, almost
(10:08):
like a superpower. I gotta give the guy props for
that kind of moxie. Yeah, and I think Wade Bugs
has been called a lot of things. Role model is
probably the one thing I don't know about. I mean,
role model for functional alcoholics maybe, But no shade to
the man, because we're we're looking at the nuts and
bolts of this. We're we're we're solving the mystery here
(10:30):
with your help, Matt. So, if I've got my counts correct,
then six hours nine beers an hour, that's fifty four
beers just on the plane. Just how on earth is
that possible? It seems impossible, it really does. But again,
you're trying to put yourself in Wade Boggs's place, and
that's like saying, like, why don't you have three thousand hits,
(10:51):
Like it's just not right for you to picture yourself
doing this stuff. There's a different guy. Yeah, I think
I've got maybe the wrong mistress. I don't know. I
was looking at my stats after we recorded the first episode. Alright,
so we the plane lands, and then you know, Bogs
is looking we we He cranks fifty four, so he's
got six left, so I think he's hitting those last
(11:13):
six as the plane is basically taxiing, so just to
finish off the two thirties. That gets rid of all
the beers. He no longer has to deal with any
of this stuff. So he's got, uh, I've lost the jacks, Casey,
I'll let you jump in here. Yeah, you guys, we're
at right now. Okay, okay, we're getting there. Boy, we're
so at this point, what is he like? Are they
(11:34):
are there taxing? Are they about to descend this? Because
he's not really necessarily like shooting for a number, he's
not trying to beat a record or anything. He just
organically got there, And I think that's right. I think
he's just trying to get through these two thirty recks.
He's got six left. He polishes off those last six,
and then they get off the plane, but they're not
(12:00):
yet to their destination, right, that's right, he still has
the bus ride to go from l A X to
the team hotel. Now I'm picturing he's got he gets
it one last twelve pack for that ride, and he's
really I assume he's, you know, he's not seeing great
at this point. I think his goal is to hit
these last twelve beers to get to one oh eight.
(12:21):
But I think he realizes he's starting to slow down
a little. So I'm giving him eleven of those final
twelve and he just can't finish the whole thing off
because it's the problem is it's too much beerre So
I think he's one short there. I think that number
if my math is correct, and you you you tell me,
but I've got that being exactly the one oh seven number,
(12:45):
which which bogs has claimed. And I think that this
all makes a lot of sense to me. Um. And
then one other thing we need to consider is in
the last episode we mentioned that Boggs is very superstitious,
was obsessed with the number seven. So I think when
he got to one oh seven, he said, you know what,
that's the perfect time to stop. I probably could go further,
(13:06):
but let's end it here because one oh seven is
just such an important number for me. I love that.
I love that because I was thinking a similar thing
to me. There's something so poetic about the beer un drank,
the single beer left. I was wondering, like, I like,
I like your argument about one or seven, because in
my head, I was thinking maybe he saved it for
(13:27):
after the game. He was like one cold win for
after the game. But that doesn't make sense because he
clearly has all the beer he wants forever. He would
just have someone give him a thirty back, right, Yeah,
I mean, I don't know. I think at that point,
like the ball boys were signing Bogs autographs, at that point,
they were getting his beer. They were dealing with like
all sorts of various mistresses, and there's no cell phones
(13:49):
at this point, so I imagine these mistresses are calling
a lot of you know, land lines that are getting
relayed to bugs. So at this point, like he can
get whatever he wants. You know, it's funny. I also
was one ring about that aspect of it, because I
love the imagy paint of him, like lugging these thirty packs,
like you know, on on each shoulder, going up the
little ramp onto the charter plane. But I gotta wonder too,
(14:10):
I mean, do you think he had to bring his
own or or was this just a known thing that
like they had to have this on hand. They had
to have enough beers for him to just you know,
drink his fill. I I gotta think like socks charters
at that point, like they just would just overstock them
knowing that Boggs was coming, Like you just like got
rid of all the coffee, You got rid of all
(14:31):
the bottled water, all the sprite, all the all the
first aid kits, you know, every parachutes and so like
where they normally would be like a big inflatable slide
in a plane that was just like stuffed with beer
because way coming. No, that makes sense to me. There's
probably also something like a writer too. I mean, given
his success, I'm sure that they had like a bevy
(14:53):
of things that they were expected to give him, beer
being number one, but I'm sure they were like specific
snacks maybe other Oh chicken obviously right, he's not gonna
go get his own chicken. Could you kind of paint
a picture for us, Matt about exactly how valuable a
player he was, Like how above and beyond like he
delivered for this team and how he would have been
treated like in like royalty. Well, that's the funny thing,
(15:16):
is like we're we're talking about this sort of urban
legend and that is supposedly true, but like this is
all overshadowed what a great baseball player Bogs was. Like
that it's true, We're we're kind of burying the lead here.
Wade Boggs was one of the great contact hitters of
all time. I mean, just as a batting average hitter,
(15:38):
he was incredible, almost without Pierre Tony Gwynn, the only
guy who was sort of even close. And if you
were to pick one guy who was going to hit
four hundred for a season, you would have guessed back
then Wade Bugs and Bogs was like he would go
like a whole season with swinging and missing like a
handful of times, like things that we've got normal guys
(15:59):
doing a game. You know, I swung and missed four
times in that game, game or whatever. Boggs could go
like a whole season with that kind of number. So
this was a player that like was one of the
all time greats, even though we don't really think of
him as an all time great for many reasons. Um
also way. Bogs was totally obsessed with his own stats,
as we mentioned in the last episode, and that really
(16:22):
bothered a lot of people because it was like, if
there was a guy on first, Boggs would try and
hit a single rather than Oh, we need a home
run or a double for you to try and drive
that guy at home, and Bogs will be like, I'm
trying to keep my batting average out. Um. So he
was great, but he you know, there was some some
dings on his resume as well as if like, is
(16:42):
that like he's not being a team player by doing
I got it, like he the back of his baseball
card was almost more important to Wade Boggs than the
win lost column for the team. That makes sense, I mean,
And it's it's interesting because I took some time to
look through Baseball Hall of Fame stuff about weight bugs,
(17:02):
and this guy is no joke, Like he's a monster.
And the part you're telling us, Matt, which I hadn't
heard before, about him being sort of selfish, more so
about his stats than about his team. It seems counter
to the idea of good sportsmanship in a team sport.
But there's no arguing that he got results. He had
(17:23):
two thousand, four d thirty two career games, and he
reached base easily of them, like the there I'm just
looking at his average. Uh, some of the stats that
you had given us earlier, like the point three to
eight batting average, point four one five on base percentage
like these are things other people can't do. Going back
(17:45):
to that idea of him getting pulled over and somehow
getting a citation for open container, the reason that's so
laughably implausible to me is that I bet that police
officer would have gotten on into a lot of trouble,
especially if he delayed Bogs performing in a game. You
know what I mean? I do? I mean again, the
(18:07):
guy was for ten years, he hit over three hundred
and you know, Ted Williams was considered the greatest Red
Sox hitter without a doubt because he did it for
average and power. But Wave Bogs is I mean David
Ortiz again, Manny Ramirez didn't do it as long as bugs,
and they may hit for more power, but Wave Bugs is,
without a doubt, one of the four greatest hitters in
(18:29):
mid sexes. I have to point out something I found
in an article. Um I think it might have been
from that Maxim article you were talking Esquire article rather
that you were talking about ben But uh, there's a
question pose that we haven't really addressed as to like
how can someone drink that many beers and not have
a blood alcohol level that's like literally lethal? Right? Um?
(18:49):
And and the writer of this piece kind of goes
into the specifics about it, saying there were a lot
of skeptics saying this must be BS because you know,
to drink that many beers, your blood alcohol would be
so high that it would probably kill you, or you
would get so drunk before that point you would have
to stop. Um. But what isn't taken into account is
uh tolerance, pure and uttered tolerance of alcohol. And like
(19:13):
Bogs apparently you know, he was just drinking beer. That
was his thing. Like you don't even hear about him, like,
you know, getting hammered on like liquor. He's just he's
a beer guy. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't,
but according to this, he was a hundred ninety seven
pounds cans of Miller light or twelve ounces and have
four point two percent alcohol. So he drank you know,
let's just say having this large tolerance that he has
(19:34):
developed for alcohol over the years. Um, it's really difficult,
they're saying, to actually make an estimate as to what
his blood alcohol level would be. And again maybe I'm like,
maybe this isn't even a good way of looking at it,
because how does tolerance affect like the actual way your
body processes booze? Like like I could saycond see you
could like get used to it more. But isn't it
(19:54):
no matter what's the same amount of alcohol in your system?
Right Ben? Yeah, that's correct. I mean, is Liver is
a superstar who has its own, uh storied career. I
would also advance there's one intervening variable we may have
not approached yet. It feels like over the span of
this infamous flight, at least one beer's worth of alcohol
(20:18):
was lost in the mustache. I mean, that thing doesn't quit.
That's true. I'm starting. I almost called it his ground game,
but his like his can game, had to get a
little sloppy, you know, probably around beer eighty and so
he's there's gonna be some spilla, there's gonna be Yeah, Well,
I mean, what do you think, Matt, I say, Well,
first of all, one of the grave mustaches of all
(20:40):
time but I would say also, you know, you start
to get like when you drink that much. You know,
we've all drank seventy eight beers. We haven't drink a
hundred and seven. But when you start to drink that much,
you finish like four fifths of a beer and then
you're like, oh, next one, And so you can get
a little lack of daisical with really finishing off every
last drop of some So like I think of the
hundred and seven, if you can probably say like three
(21:02):
full beers of like backwash leftovers, maybe like the real
the real numbers one up four, because he was probably
also at the point where and no judgment here where
his short term memory or his attention to which beer
was the fresh one may have faltered a little bit.
And what do you guys think he did with all
the cans? Like he's thinking, yeah, is he is he
(21:23):
have trash bags? Or is the steward is just coming
over and just like with a trash bag and just
hauling off ten twelve at a time. Like what do
you guys think he's even doing with all these or
is he like, oh, it's so many cans? The recycle
money is enough that like I'll take keep them bring
him with me. I uh, you know it's funny. We
uh we did a story on another show about recycling
(21:45):
that's gonna come out. I would say in this time,
in as you said, the early nineties, there was probably
instead of a bat boy, there was like a beer
boy or a can boy or something. He was on
the flight and her job was to stay out of
the flight attendant's way and just keep keep the cans
flowing like the spice and dune, you know what I mean,
(22:08):
bring because they're just walking at that point, they're just
walking to a seat with more beer and then walking
back to throw away the empties and then walking back
and he's done with the other beers. So you think
on LinkedIn there's like a guy who's like in his
like late forties that says, like to ninety three like
Red Sox can boy. Well, I mean, if Snoop Dogg
(22:28):
has a blunt roller, you know, then I don't know
why Wade Boggs can't have a canboy. That's all I'm saying.
He's earned it. You know. At this stage in researching
Wade Bugs, I found another story and if we have
tied one last Okay, so again, we've covered like so
(22:50):
many different things that this guy has done that made him,
you know, a legend. Each one of these things alone
would make him a huge way Bugs of course, because
he's wade Bug starts to get into exotic animal hunting
and you know these the type all right, We've all
seen the type with the photos. Like, none of us
like this guy, but we all know that who this
(23:10):
person is and what their motivations. So Wave Bogs is
starting to get criticized for taking down all these elk
and you know, putting them all up in his living room, etcetera.
And he's like, no, no, no, guys, you don't understand, Like,
I didn't just take down these animals because I enjoyed
the sport of it. I got brought in because these
animals were terrorizing the village. He's like, this crocodile had
(23:34):
literally killed two kids, and I got brought in to
kill the crocodile. Now I'm not making this up. This
is in the seat St. Petersburg Times. There's a hippo
that had killed three villagers and their first phone call
when they were like, how do we kill this hippo?
Way Bugs? So like, yeah, so this is like, I mean,
every part of this guy is insane. I mean, the
(23:57):
least interesting part of Wade bogs Is life is the
fact that he's a Hall of Fame baseball player. Every
part of this is cartoonish in a way that makes
you think that he isn't a real person. And yet
he's just this fifty five year old guy now who
I assume lives in Florida and goes fishing a lett.
But he's a real person who does exist, I believe.
(24:19):
But if you told me all this stuff, I wouldn't
believe it. Well, there's a joke, a running joke in
the Always Sunny episode that they're doing this in Wade
Bogg's memory, because surely this man is has died, um
with with treating his body in this way and uh,
and Mac keeps reminding Charlie that no, man, Wade Boggs
is very much alive. And then there's a part at
the end where they're the whole point of the episode
(24:40):
is they're trying to beat Wade Boggs record, and they've
got like hash marks on their shirt for how many
beers they have, and they're on a commercial fly, which
makes it even more ridiculous. Uh. They eventually get cut off,
but on the way back, Charlie has like a vision
and he thinks it's Wade Bogg's ghosts uh. And then
Wade Bogg's ghost, which really dis hallucination, reminds Charlie that
he's very much alive. Uh, and I believe he remains
(25:01):
alive to this day. He talked to TMZ recently to
kind of clear up this whole How many beers was it?
And he didn't specifically reference to the cross country flight,
but they just asked him kind of point blank, like
what's the most beers you've drunk in a day? And
he goes, probably over a hundred and then and then
guy was like, how does one do this? Wade bugs
And he goes, I have a hollow leg. I just
(25:23):
drink it. It all runs down in there and then
I take it off and dump it out. Which is
is that a thing? Is that a do? Is that
a jokey old timey thing? People say, because I've never
heard that in my life, and that is a weird image. Yeah,
it's an old it's it's an old timey joke, drinking
like one has a hollow leg. I do want to
go back to the hunt, which I was not aware of. Uh.
(25:45):
The hippopotamus is the most dangerous land animal, most dangerous
land mammal for sure. So it's not like, um, regardless
of what your feelings are about hunting in general. Uh,
it's not as if hippos are the cute, cuddly ballerina's
they're depicted to be in Fantasia cartoons. These things are
(26:07):
no joke. They're dangerous. Well, Ben, I actually do need
to correct you there, because it's actually the second most
dangerous landman animal. The most dangerous is Wayne bugs Well
played playing the most dangerous game that is bits drinking.
So over the span of his we we found another
like superlative for him, right because over the span of
(26:31):
his time he killed like as a big game hunter,
he killed at least seventy eight game animals. Right. Yeah,
and then like had I believe like a trophy room
hunting lodge kind of situation and his home in Florida
real Teddy Roosevelt kind of character. You know, I like
(26:51):
that he's okay. So the entire time we've been doing
this series, I've been thinking of different appellations and monikers
and nicknames for the man himself, right, and I feel
like hippo hit man is one, Like he's the hippo
hip man, the hippo hit man, Wade Boggs. It's crazy
(27:11):
that he is alive. It's like we can go visit him.
And the other funny thing is like, because Wade Bugs
is not considered one of the all time grades, I
feel like we could, like it wouldn't be out of
the question for us to get Wade Bugs on, like
right now. We can make a few phone calls and
get him on, Like he's not a guy that that
there's too famous for the Ridiculous History podcast. I mean,
(27:33):
I'm not saying, Casey, you need to do this right now,
but like it seems plausible that we could get Wade
Bugs on the next episode. Now. I think if I
think if we name drop you, that might go a
long way, Like Hey, we know Matt Waxman from Trickeration
and he'll be like, all right, just send the beer
and tell me what time to hop on the call. Guys,
there's a pretty problematic quote from Wade Boggs though, about
(27:56):
this whole hippo situation. The New York Post reported on
us and they they they actually quote um something he
said to the St. Peter Petersburg Times. He you know,
he starts off strong like, but it sounds like once
he gets to the end of this, it sounds like
he maybe had a few at this point because he
starts off like he's it's been braggadocious, but it's it's
on point. But then it takes a weird turn. He uh.
(28:19):
He says, the hippo had killed three villagers and the
crocodiles had killed two kids. So I was sort of
the great white hunter who came in and saved the village.
But I mean, it's like the whole white savior thing,
like I was the great white hunter that came in.
It's just a little cringe e That's all I'm saying.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it was a little self
(28:41):
aggrandizing and sort of a weird like white point. Why
why bring race into it at all? It was a
little strange, but yeah, strange man. He also said, you know,
he obviously was not or is not because he is
still alive. Sorry, Charlie. Uh. He was obviously not a
big fan of animal rights activists. I think later this
maybe from the St. Petersburg interview, but later he goes
(29:02):
on when someone asked him about the criticism he's receiving
from animal rights activists, he says, these people need to
get a life. They have their opinion, but don't infringe
on my right to do something that's legal to me.
The big thing is in the hippo case, at least
someone asked him for help. Maybe we take a page
from the village when we call Wade Boggs. I don't know,
(29:24):
do we have to have a murderous hippo in town
or can we just ask him on the show? I
just don't know what else there is to talk about.
You think we've covered it all? Like I feel like
once if you got him on, he'd be like, oh yeah,
they're like those six things he talked about, Like those
are the least six interesting things. Oh yeah, okay, alright,
Wade Boggs, in his own words, look for it in
a podcast feeding here. Maybe we should just give the
(29:44):
guy's own podcast. You know, I would listen to that,
a bogcast a podcast. Yeah, that's that's good. Well man, Okay,
so this is uh does this seem like a good
place to wrap up the Wade Boggs series? For now. Yeah,
we don't know what he's gonna do next, you know
what I mean? We, Matt, thank you for coming along
with us on a two part journey into the larger
(30:06):
than life world of Wade Boggs. Uh. We do have
to ask you in advance, though, this guy's tricky if
he does something else, are you down to come back
and uh and make a part three with us? As
anytime Wade Bugs does anything noteworthy, I'm willing and able
to do this. So anytime you guys call, I'm ready.
Whatever Wade Boggs drinks a hundred and six beers on
(30:26):
a flight, He'll be there. Whatever Wade Boggs saves a
village from a raging hippopotamus, Matt Waxman will be there.
That's all I got. And in the meantime, while we're
waiting to hear more from Wade Boggs, waiting to hear
more from Wade Boggs, never mind. Uh, you can learn
more strange stories from the world of sports on Triggeration,
(30:50):
available now wherever you get your podcasts. Uh, Matt, where
would you direct people who want to learn more about
your work and want to learn more about Triggeration in specific?
Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter at Trickerationum, we've
got a ton of great episodes, all involving this kind
of total nonsense. The tagline for our show is honest
Conversations about dishonest act So when people are lying, which
(31:13):
they're altisched, they always are. That's the kind of stuff
that that we're diving into. Next week, we've got a
story about a fisherman in North Dakota who caught the
North Dakota Walleye Record, which is a fish up there,
and it turned out there was all this controversy around, um,
whether he actually caught the fish or not, and I
interview him and UM, it's unclear to me actually at
(31:35):
the end of this podcast whether or not he's lying
or not. But UM, i'd love the listeners to listen
and let me know if they think he's lying. Excellent, excellent,
So we're going to check that out. We hope that
you check it out as well. Matt. Thank you so
much for coming on the show with us, not once,
but twice and maybe a third or fourth time. We've
got to keep an eye on box. Thanks as always
(31:56):
to our super producer, Casey Pegram, Alex Williams, who posed
our theme. Big thanks to you, buddy, Hope you're doing
well on your on your vacation, your your walk about um.
Huge thanks Christopher Haciotes here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland, that
devious and notorious quizzer. We'll get you next time. Who else? Ben?
Big thanks to our research. North Star gave blues Yeah.
(32:19):
Big thanks of course to Miller Lite one more time.
That beer is so good you can drink it with
your mouth. True story? What other? What other weird stories? Uh?
From the world of sports, from the world of booze
do you have for us and most importantly your fellow listeners.
Let us know you can find us on the internet Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, at, etcetera,
(32:41):
not just as a show, but as individuals. I'm Ben
Bowling on Instagram and Ben Bowling hsw on Twitter. If
you wish, you can stalk me on Instagram. I am
at how now Noel Brown. Also, please take a cue
from your fellow Ridiculous historians and join the Facebook group
the Ridiculous Historians. All you gotta do is name me
or Ben or Matt Waxman or Casey Pegram or any
(33:03):
of the names that we shout out at the end
of each show every week, and you're in so much
fun trading memes and and stories and it's a really
cool community. And also, while you're at it, why don't
you go on Apple podcast and leave listen nice review.
It would make us feel warm in our in our
dark little hearts and also help people discover the show.
And if you are a hundred and seven beers deep
(33:23):
as you've been listening today, drinks some water, take a
napp we'll talk very soon. We'll see you next time, folks.
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Noel Brown
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