Wade Boggs’s longtime girlfriend reveals a world of infidelity, partying, kindergarten antics, and racial stereotypes … a world where the first commandment is, it’s not whether you win or lose-it’s how you play around.
Designated Swinger
On November 11, 1988, a judge in Southern California ruled that a $12 million lawsuit filed against Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox by Margo Adams, a Southern California mortgage banker, had enough merit to head toward trial.
Their romance stunned the baseball community and had reporters across the country in a front-page frenzy. Head-lines nationwide splashed details of how one of baseball’s greatest hitters led a double life. With five batting titles since 1983 and four All-Star game appearances, experts consider Wade Boggs to be the best hitter in baseball, frequently placing him in the same class as Ty Cobb and the game’s all-time heroes. In 1988, Boggs had his sixth-consecutive season with 200 or more hits, a feat never accomplished by Cobb, Babe Ruth, or any other player.
While traveling with his mistress on 64 road trips during four seasons, Boggs was able to preserve a semblance of a happy marriage and home in Boston. Adams, known throughout baseball as the pseudonymous Mrs. Wade Boggs, met Boggs at the beginning of the ’84 baseball season. After a month of his persistent courtship, they embarked on a love affair set against the backdrop of major-league baseball.
For four years Adams breathed the rarefied air of a sport watched and followed by more than 100 million people every year. While traveling with Wade and the Red Sox, she frequented night spots that were off-limits to players’ wives, heard stories that never made the papers, and saw the scandals that will shock even the most perceptive observer of the game.
She had a clear view of the all-American game in the harsh spotlight of reality — where wins and losses finished second to infidelity and racial stereotypes, and where runs, hits, and errors became less prevalent than partying, groupies, and various childish antics.
America first heard of the scandal that shook baseball in July 1988, when Adams learned through Red Sox players that Boggs was seeing other women. Eventually their breakup led Adams to file a $6 million lawsuit (later upgraded to $12 million) against Boggs, after monthlong negotiations failed to bring an amicable settlement.
I telephoned Adams for five months, attempting to gain her confidence. Not until I read the lawsuit and spoke (off the record) with several major-league baseball players did I realize the validity and magnitude of this story. And only after talking with Boggs’s family, friends, and teammates (all of whom knew Adams well) and Adams’s family and friends (all of whom knew Boggs well) did I ask Adams to let me write her story.
Except for an occasional interview given only to counter allegations made by Boggs, Adams decided to go into hiding. She had to change her phone number three times because of obscene and threatening callers. I have listened repeatedly to those calls captured by her answering machine, searching for their reason, each with the same message: “Stay away from a book, or else.” And although the callers seem to be different, each gave a chilling account of very private times shared by Adams and Boggs, personal details of their romance only a few people could know.
On many occasions during their relationship, Adams struggled with the reality of Boggs being married to another woman, a woman who was at his home in Boston taking care of his two children. But during the time they spent together, Boggs made Adams feel as if she was the one he loved and wanted to be married to — at least that was what his words and actions always told her.
The emotional roller coaster began when Debbie Boggs (Wade’s legal wife) found a travel itinerary belonging to Adams in an issue of Penthouse magazine. Suspecting Boggs was up to his old tricks, an irate Debbie attempted several times over the next few days to reach Adams through her travel agency. Adams never returned her calls, later learning that Boggs had confessed to his wife. He explained it by saying it was nothing more than a one-night stand — a cover Adams and Boggs lived under for four years.
Adams asked Boggs for nothing more than to help her get her life in order, suggesting that he pay her the $100,000 she claimed he’d offered her to make up for the wages she lost during their travels. It would be his way of giving her a fresh start. But when negotiations to end their relationship failed, Boggs contacted friends at the F.B.I. to investigate an alleged extortion attempt by Adams. Shocked and angry that Boggs would use his influence to such extremes, she contacted her attorney.
When Adam’s lawsuit made their affair public knowledge, Boggs was not thrilled. He denied it on many occasions — an American hero would never do such a thing. But with each denial Adams released more proof, making Boggs look like the Joe Isuzu of all time. The media clamored for more details about one of the greatest scandals to hit the game. The publicity sparked a fight among Red Sox players while inspiring them to win the American League Eastern Division Championship. Accounts revealed that Boggs carried on his extra-marital relationship in full view of his teammates, their wives, his agent, and other major-league baseball players.
Since the filing of the lawsuit, Adams has had to defend herself to the media, her friends and family, and baseball fans everywhere. Going public, she did a few short interviews with the hope of explaining her actions. But after doing the Phil Donahue show, Adams decided that the media just added fuel to the fire, and she again went into hiding.
Adams thought about telling her story in a book but found the idea to be as draining as the relationship itself had been. She believed that Boggs would never acknowledge the intensity of their romance, nor would his brother, agent, teammates, or others throughout baseball. So, for the first time she has agreed to be interviewed in detail about the romance that took baseball by storm — a romance that Debbie Boggs first learned of when she reached for that issue of Penthouse magazine back in 1984. Now, five years later, she will again reach for Penthouse magazine. Only this time, she will find the truth.
When did you meet Wade Boggs?
April 2, 1984. A girlfriend and I had been out to dinner and it was a Monday night, so everyplace was kind of dead.
We went to a place in Anaheim called Crackers. Right away, a guy came up and asked my friend to dance and they disappeared. A few men asked me to dance and I said no. There must have been about 15 men lined up at the bar. Then I saw Wade. I thought he was kind of cute; we were looking at each other. I noticed he had a wedding ring on.
Did any of the other players approach you?
No. They were watching to see what I’d do. My girlfriend came back with the guy she was dancing with. He introduced himself as Eddie Jurak. He said he was there with his teammates. Then some of the guys started to come up and join the three of us. Dennis Eckersley came over and said good night to Eddie; he was going back to his room. I kept looking over at Wade and he’d look back at me. I said I was getting tired and my girlfriend said, “Well, let’s go.” We were going to have dessert at a place I like. She said, “Do you mind if [Eddie] comes along to have cake with us and we’ll take him back to his hotel afterwards?” I said, “That’s fine with me.” Jurak asked if I’d mind if he brought a friend. It must have been about 1:30 in the morning. I said, “Fine. Bring whoever you want.” He said, “Which one do you want me to bring?” I pointed at Wade and said, “Bring him.” When we got to the restaurant, I noticed he didn’t have his wedding ring on. So I asked him, “What happened to your wedding ring?” He said, “I took it off.” I asked him why he did that. He said, “Well, you didn’t look like the kind of girl that would go with me if I had a wedding ring on.”
Did you know who Wade Boggs was?
No. I had friends who had long-term relationships with baseball players, but I didn’t know anything about the American League or batting champions.
Did you and Wade spend that first night together?
No. We left the restaurant and went to the Crystal Cathedral, drove around, and then I dropped him off back at his hotel. He asked me if I’d like to have dinner with him the next evening, because they had a night off. I told him to call me [the next day] at my office and gave him my card — and a quick kiss good night.
Did he call?
He called the next morning and told me to pick where I’d like to go for dinner and pick him up. He asked me how he should dress. I told him to dress “nice.”
Did he always ask you how to dress?
Always. I usually picked out what he wore.
You laid out his clothes?
In the beginning his clothes were kind of yucky. As each year went by, his clothes got better and better. I bought him shirts — pants were too hard, but lots and lots of shirts and most of his polo shirts until 1987. I would iron his clothes and lay everything out.
What was your first date like?
We went to the Ancient Mariner in Newport Beach and had a great time. I was completely enthralled. During dinner, he told me the story about him eating chicken every day. “There are hits in chicken,” he said. He told me how superstitious he was. He asked me that night what my favorite numbers were, and I told him — 20 and 6. He thought that was hysterical because his number is 26. I didn’t know that. I ended up drinking the entire bottle of wine. He had beer, and I ate almost none of my dinner. I was very tipsy when we left. I lived about a mile from there, so Wade drove to my house.
So you had sex with Wade that night?
I’d like to say I had this fabulous, romantic sexual adventure, but I honestly cannot remember what happened after we got to my house, because I’d had too much to drink. I got up early the next morning to go to work and take Wade back to his hotel. He was fidgety, nervous, upset, which made me upset, too. I thought it was a one-night stand to him.
What was he worried about?
I didn’t know until he called me later at my office. He said, “There were no messages last night. I feel much better.” He told me he tried never to stay out all night because one night, when he was still in the minor leagues, [his wife] Debbie had tried to call him when his daughter had been sick. She used that against him — like, “See, you were out all night and look what happened” — and Wade felt superstitious that it would cause something to be wrong with his daughter if he ever did it again.
Did Wade tell you he stayed out a lot with other women?
We had a saying — “B.M.” — Before Margo. He used to say there would be no ’’A. M. “ — After Margo.
How was your sex life together?
Great! We sometimes talked out a fantasy of a threesome when we were having sex. I called his bluff once. I got a woman and approached him about it. He backed down, although I would never have followed through.
When Wade and I were apart, he’d initiate phone sex. We started doing that later in the relationship, probably in ’85. Then we’d do that if he hadn’t gotten any hits, or when he was just lonely. And a couple of times in the morning, but rarely during the day, because Wade believes that sex weakens your legs, and he needs strong legs to play third base.
Once he photographed a centerfold. We discussed that situation in detail. We had a very erotic conversation, which he really enjoyed. He was never very talkative on the phone except during phone sex. He would always start by asking me, in his boyish tone, “So what are you wearing?”
After the series in Anaheim, did he want you to go on to the next city the Sox were playing in?
He started mentioning my going to Oakland. I had already made plans to go away for a week, so I said no. He kept up and kept up and kept up. He sent me flowers to the office. Then he left. I missed him immediately. I fell in love with him. I probably fell in love with him that first night at dinner, but it was a choice of spending a week skiing with a person who was single or falling deeper in love with a man who was married. I talked to a couple of girlfriends and told them I was head over heels in love with Wade. They said, “Don’t do it, don’t go to Oakland. He’s married. Don’t get involved. You’ll be sorry.” I decided not to go to Oakland.
When was the first time you went on the road with Wade?
The trip to Kansas City in May. I was nervous, he was nervous. He asked me if I could get away for a few days. I said I’d have to think about it, and he said, “Well, why don’t you find out the price of a ticket to Kansas City?” He gave me the dates. I bought the ticket and went to Kansas City.
What was it like?
I got there in the afternoon. He had arrived the night before. When he opened the door, I saw he had flowers sent to the room, along with champagne. We sat and talked. I was nervous and he was nervous. I can still picture the entire scene, sitting there. He told me he had asked one of the Kansas City players — I think it was George Brett — to recommend a local florist. When he’d send me flowers before, from the ballpark, he’d give the clubhouse boy money to arrange it. He didn’t know how to do it himself. I remember saying, “I can tell by the way I’m starting to feel about you I shouldn’t have come, because I’ll never be able to leave you.” He said, “You’ll leave me. I’ll never leave you.”
Did you have a good time in Kansas City?
The trip was extremely exciting. We stayed to ourselves a lot, but we’d meet up with the guys at a bar. One night we were standing at the bar and saw a girl come out of the bathroom — she was very drunk. She passed out and then vomited. She was lying there in vomit and probably close to asphyxiating herself. I remember a couple of players looking at each other, laughing. All they were trying to do was see up her dress. The way she was lying there, they could see up her dress. Someone else in the bar had to come to her aid.
The two of you took several vacations together. Which one was the most interesting?
Definitely the trip to the Dominican Republic. One of Wade’s friends came along for the trip. We went to this outdoor strip place. There were women prostitutes there and they charged $6 for the entire night. I remember his friend asking me to pick out a girl for him. I told him that for those prices, why pick only one? He finally took one back to the hotel and I remember the next day him saying how he had trouble with her because she didn’t speak English. He said that he was going down on her and she had never had that done before. How many guys would go down on a prostitute? I thought. All she would do is laugh because it tickled her. He eventually had to get a translator.
Is it true that after Kansas City, Debbie Boggs learned of the affair for the first time?
I went home and he went home to Boston. He found a way to call me, to make sure I’d gotten home okay and tell me how much he missed me. The next day my travel agent came running up the stairs to my office and said, “We need your phone number — there’s someone trying to get you from the hotel in Kansas City. You left something there.” I said, “No I didn’t — no one would know who I was.” I went downstairs with her and figured out very quickly it was Debbie. She had found my travel agent somehow. I called the ballpark and got through to Charlie Moss, the trainer, and told him, “I think Debbie found out about me. You’d better warn Wade.”
What happened next?
Wade called and said, “You’re right, she’s trying to find you.” I asked him how she found out about me. I had bought a Penthouse magazine to read on the plane to Kansas City and finished it by the time I arrived. Wade asked me if he could have it. He’d taken it home with him and hadn’t opened it to read. But my travel itinerary was stuck in it, with his room number written on it. When she picked up the magazine, it fell out.
How did Wade get out of it?
He called me at 8 A.M. Saturday morning. He said, “I just acted like I was confessing — and told Debbie it was some girl I met in Anaheim who had flown to Kansas City on a business trip.” He told her it was a one-night stand, it would never happen again — that the girl just followed him everywhere, he had no choice.
At the end of the ’84 season, did Debbie learn of you again?
Yes. When we were in Texas, I couldn’t find one of my very expensive slips. I thought I had left it in Kansas City. As it turned out, the maid had cleaned up the room, picked up all his clothes, and threw them on top of his luggage… Debbie found my slip when she unpacked his suitcase. He told her again it was just a one-night stand.
Before you, did Debbie find out about other women?
Back a couple of years ago, he said he had slept with a girl during spring training who gave him VD. I thought that was disgusting. Another time he had met a girl in the minor leagues, outside Detroit, saw her a couple of times, and got her pregnant. The girl called Wade’s home. She eventually had a miscarriage.
You were friends with Wade’s brother, Wayne, and his wife Carolyn. Did you ever discuss Wade’s marriage with them?
[Carolyn] said Debbie and Wade weren’t happy in their marriage, and how much happier Wade was with me, and how we got along so well.
I remember in 1984 we were out to dinner and we went to the bathroom, and she said, “You know, [Debbie’s] going to figure out what’s going on as soon as she gets home in the winter. And if she gets pregnant and has a boy, you’ll never have a chance of getting him.”
Were you threatened by the other woman — in this case, Debbie Boggs?
When I met Wade, Debbie had blond hair and looked very different than she does now. She was flat-chested, and when I met him he said that large breasts didn’t mean anything to him; but after dating for a year, he became much more obsessed with larger breasts. And each year in the Red Sox yearbook, they show a picture of the wives. Every year she looked different. She had the same hair color, the same haircut and hairdo, that I had. I confronted him. I asked him, “What are you doing? Are you trying to make Debbie into a Margo?” He’d say, “There will never be another Margo.” But I really thought that’s exactly what he was doing. It was quite chilling, and Wade was creating a clone of myself.
In 1986, the Boston Red Sox won the American League Championship. At that time they had to travel to your hometown of Anaheim to play the California Angels for that title. Did Boggs bring his wife to those games?
Debbie came along with him. She was pregnant. I had just resolved myself to the fact that she was coming and there was nothing I could do about it. You couldn’t very well tell her she couldn’t come when every single other wife was coming and the team paid for it and they were all going on the plane together. When they got out here, he called me right away. He called me at the office and I met him right across from the stadium. We sat and talked for a while, and he was actually more upset than me. He kept saying, “She doesn’t belong here. You belong here. She doesn’t belong here. This is your place.” He didn’t feel comfortable. And I heard from friends that went out with him after the games when they were here … He didn’t drink, he wasn’t himself, he was real cold to Debbie. He sent flowers to the office. I took him to the ballpark before each game. I gave him his kiss good-bye, and every time I dropped him off I’d say, “Get lots of hits.” Those were our words.
I was the one who took him to each of those play-off games in ’86, not his wife. It was the way he wanted it.
You saw Wade… you took Wade to the ballpark?
Wade took a cab and met me near the ballpark, then I would drive him to the ballpark and kiss him good-bye for luck. I went to the games. I sat a few rows behind Debbie and got a good look at her. At one point I followed her to the rest room — my girlfriend was hysterical — to see what she looked like. So I went into the bathroom and stood right next to her in the mirror. When she brushed her hair, I brushed my hair and just looked at her. Afterwards I was very, very upset. I came home and cried. It just bothered me too much — it was too close. You know, when she was across the country, it wasn’t the same thing. But to be in he same town and look face-to-face with her, it was very upsetting.
In 1985 Wade won his salary arbitration case with the Red Sox. You came to New York with him. Tell us about it.
That night we left and we went out to dinner. All of us went out to dinner — [Wade’s agent] Alan [Nero] and the attorney, David Brian — all went back, and Wade and I stayed out with a friend of Wade’s in New York, and went out and had another drink. The next morning his arbitration wasn’t until two o’clock that afternoon. So we got dressed, went downstairs, and had breakfast with Alan about 9:30.
How did Wade feel about the Red Sox organization?
At that point he didn’t have a lot of conversation. He was just so nervous about the whole thing in general. You have to sit there and listen to them say everything… how many errors… they kept dwelling on how many errors he made. And he was not known for his fielding at that time, for not being a good fielder, and he worked hard on it.
Even though he won, he was hurt… It was a very debilitating kind of experience. When he came back to the hotel, he looked like he’d been hit by a train. The first person he called was his father. We ordered pizza delivered — our favorite pizza was double-anchovy pizza. It brought us good luck. I decorated the room for Valentine’s Day, because it was two days before Valentine’s Day. I put on a sexy little outfit, a little apron and garter and stockings, and served him his pizza. I was serving him pizza while he was talking to his father on the phone.
Did Wade call his wife?
Yes. After his father, he called his wife. He was very short with her. It was the perfect excuse for him to say that he really didn’t have much to say to her, because he was upset about everything. He was just going to stay in the room, he was too upset. I comforted him.
At this point, after he won the arbitration, did he have any feelings about the Red Sox organization and what they were trying to do to him?
He thought [General Manager] Lou Gorman was a bastard. It was never good. I said to him, “Will they ever be able to treat you well after this?” And he said, “They never treated me well, anyway.” He spent six years in the minors. And for every year except the first year he hit over .300. He always felt he was given a “bum rap.”
I remember Pete Rose saying publicly, if asked, “You know, you broke Ty Cobb’s record. Is there anybody in baseball that could come close to you?” And he would say, “Wade Boggs.” But you see, Wade Boggs spent six years in the minors that Pete Rose didn’t. Pete Rose came up when he was 19 or so, and Wade didn’t come up until he was 25. He held the Red Sox responsible for that, for keeping him down in the minors when he should have been up in the major leagues. He felt he was being punished for going to arbitration. At the end of the season in ’85, the Red Sox weren’t going anywhere, they were way out. I think they were in fourth place. I remember Wade telling me at batting practice that he was pissed off, and I said, “What’s wrong?” We were on the road and he wasn’t getting any extra batting practice, and he used to do it all the time.
They would only allow something ridiculous, like 20 balls per batting practice, because, he felt, they were trying to limit it because they actually didn’t want him to get his average up anymore. Because the better he did, the more money he would get next arbitration or contract negotiations. So why let him take extra batting practice and get better? It wasn’t going to help the team. They were already out of it.
What about Wade Boggs the baseball player? Was he a team player?
Wade plays for Wade Boggs. He’s a team player when it’s time to go out and party. When he would call at night and I’d be half-asleep, I’d ask how he did, and he’d talk about his hits and what kind of a pitch, what kind of a hit — and even if they won a tough game, if he hadn’t gotten any hits, his mood was horrible. Winning or losing was never that important. Nine times out of ten, I didn’t even ask him. All that was important was how many hits he got. The same way when they lost: If he went 4 for 5, that was the important thing.
How was Wade when he was in a batting slump?
To Wade, 0 for 4 one night is a batting slump. In 1985, when we were in Minnesota, he was hitting .289 and he was quite upset about that. When he went into a slump, I would tease him and say I was going to put him “on waivers.” To go two nights without hits is traumatic to Wade. To get out of the slump, sometimes Wade would do special things with me.
There’d be times when I’d say, “Come on, do you want to do that tonight?” And he’d say, “No, no, I want to save that for when I need it.” One night I went to the game and he went 4 for 5. He found out that I hadn’t worn panties underneath my dress. So for the next couple of months when he went into a slump, he’d ask me not to wear panties to the game. After a game in which he got several hits, he’d say, “Did you wear any underwear tonight?” It wasn’t sexual — it was that he’d gotten hits and wanted to be sure of the little things he had done to get those hits.
Any other magic cures for batting slumps?
There’s a certain kind of chicken he has to have at certain places when he’s in a slump. The Clock in Milwaukee for fried chicken, because there are hits in that chicken. Things have to be served a certain way. Cheesecake with strawberries is bad luck. It has to be plain. Once they accidentally put strawberries on it, and the next day he didn’t get any hits and he freaked out. No strawberries. You’ve got to be very careful when you order room service for Wade.
How far did the superstition go?
As silly as it sounds, I guess at times I was just as superstitious as he was. I called a psychic who gave me readings about Wade and myself. We always felt we’d been together before in a past life, and that in our past lives I had been the man and he had been the woman — that somehow it hadn’t been finished.
Did Wade generally feel you brought him good luck?
Yes. Debbie would go on maybe two road trips, a year, and whenever she went, he’d hit horribly. He’d say, “Well, if I hit badly when she’s with me, then I can use that as an excuse so that she can’t go again.” His average when she was with him was about .221, and his average when I was with him was .341.
How did you get that statistic?
A friend of ours figured it out for the games I was with him and the games Debbie was with him.
Were there times when you found Wade was cheating on you on the road?
Yes. We had become friends with a stripper in Cleveland. One night we went out and got drunk together and they had a horrible fight. I didn’t understand why Wade had been so mean to her. Back in our room, Wade said, “When you weren’t in town last year, she came up to the room and I had a chance to fuck her. “ I jumped out of bed and ripped off the “26” necklace he had given me and told him I was going home the next day and never wanted to see him again. He started breaking furniture and yelling… Then I did the same thing I think Debbie Boggs had always done: I just told myself, “Well, it was just once — it didn’t mean anything.”
How did you resolve it?
He told me that he’d asked her to go back to the room, but she didn’t want to because we were friends. He said he got his pants down. He said, “I was missing you and wishing she was you. She started to go down on me and she said, ’I can’t do this to Margo.’ “ Then he said she left and that he masturbated thinking of me. So just like a wife, I thought, “Well, he was thinking of me, that’s all that’s important. We’ll get through this.”
You said Wade wasn’t a team player. What did he think about some of his teammates? Jim Rice?
Let me preface this by saying that any of these comments I make are going to be exactly Wade’s words and how he felt about these players.
Okay. Jim Rice?
Thinks he’s white.
Did you share those feelings?
I liked Jim. He was always very affectionate with me and Wade would say, “I can’t stand him putting his hands all over you.” I never felt there was a difference. I would always tease Wade about Jim Rice being so nice to me. There is a myth that black men have a large penis, and I would always ask Wade if [Jim] did. That’s when Wade told me that black men don’t go down on women. I didn’t believe him, so I started to ask the guys. Most of them agreed. One of the pitchers told me that black men were blessed with big cocks so they wouldn’t have to go down on women.
How did Wade feel about it?
Wade is considered a connoisseur of oral sex. He is great at it. That is probably what he does best. He really gets into it. Most of the guys said that they only went down on their wives, not their girlfriends.
Did most of the players show racial prejudice?
No… actually, several of the white ballplayers preferred black women when they were on the road. This was very upsetting to Wade. One white player was dating a black girl from Milwaukee, and Wade told him that it wasn’t good for his image to be seen with a black woman. Wade always said that the reason the white players dated black women is because if the wives found out about it, they would never leave their husbands — they would never leave because of a black woman.
How did Wade feel about Dwight Evans?
Wade felt that Dwight didn’t approve of his drinking and partying. He felt that Dwight went to management about him and Wade was spoken to about it. Dwight probably thought Wade was a bad influence on the rookies because of his relationship with me.
Bill Buckner?
Buckner was a gimp — Wade said he should have retired from baseball a long time ago.
Roger Clemens?
Mr. Perfect. That’s what he calls Roger.
He felt, and a lot of players felt, that Roger changed after that first year. He’s a happily married man and doesn’t go out to bars every night and doesn’t go out with women. That’s something that I think makes him a bit above them, and they feel that way.
ESPN reported that Bruce Hurst said one of the reasons he wanted out of Boston was because of the scandal about you and Wade — he didn’t approve of it.
I don’t doubt that whatsoever. If you were a person with the kind of beliefs that he has, you wouldn’t want to be around that kind of thing.
What was Bruce Hurst like?
Wade roomed with Bruce one year in the minors before I met him. He’s a very devout Mormon, and Wade told me Hurst would get up early and open the curtains. Wade sleeps until noon every day and that was kind of hard for him, so he got his own room. Same thing with Reid Nichols. When Reid became religious, he used to play religious songs early in the morning. It drove Wade nuts.
Bob Ojeda, now with the New York Mets, isn’t one of Wade’s favorites, is he?
He couldn’t stand him. He thought he was a baby. I remember when I first started traveling with Wade, [Ojeda] was always my favorite player — not personally, because I didn’t know him — but I liked when he pitched because they always won. Bob came up with the term “Pseudo Mrs. Wade Boggs.”
What about other superstars in baseball? Jose Canseco?
I had told Wade that I thought he was handsome, and Wade said, “Well, he takes steroids. That’s the only way he can hit like that.”
Wade Boggs actually told you Canseco took steroids?
He told me that two years ago, when Canseco first started playing [although, Canseco subsequently denied it].
What about Keith Hernandez?
Wade would jokingly say Keith was a homosexual.
Is it true that Wade is a fan of Pete Rose?
Just like he feels about George Brett, he’s in total awe of Pete Rose. Even as a manager, he’s a player’s player. He’s a get-down player — the kind of guy Wade really isn’t. The kind of hustle where Wade would say, “It’s not worth stealing that base to hurt myself, to ruin my career,” where Pete Rose never thought like that. And because I was friends with Pete and had known him for a long time, it gave Wade a kind of a kick and gave him some closeness. Pete would tease Wade in spring training and say, “Hey, I see what you’re hitting, boy. You’re getting that hitting pussy.”
What did Wade think about Dave Winfield’s book?
When I told him I wanted to buy it, Wade told me not to waste my money. He and some of the other players were pissed at Winfield for “selling them out” in the book. They thought that if he were married, he wouldn’t have broken the rule and talked about other players’ extra-marital affairs.
What were your impressions of the “Christian” ballplayers, some of whom do the “Be good and say no to drugs” commercials?
Of course you can’t lump them all together. But I did see many of these self-proclaimed “Christian” players — including one future Hall of Famer — who did drugs and had extra-marital affairs.
By the way, what did Wade think about Boston’s greatest hitter, Ted Williams?
That he was a guy that thinks he knows everything about hitting and doesn’t. When Wade did an interview with [Don] Mattingly and Ted Williams for Sports Illustrated in 1986, both Don and Ted said that they could actually smell the burning of the bat when they hit the ball a certain way. Wade said they were both full of shit. Wade was always pissed about Ted Williams coming down to spring training and talking to the rookies so the Red Sox would publicize it. It would piss Wade off. There were sportswriters who thought that Ted Williams had taught Wade how to hit, even though their styles are totally different. He didn’t like even the connotation that his hitting had anything to do with Ted Williams.
Did Wade have a problem with Don Mattingly?
Intense, intense jealousy. Mattingly gets labeled as the all-around player and Wade doesn’t. No matter how hard Wade worked on his fielding, he didn’t get credit for it. But Don Mattingly does.
Was there a drug problem among the Red Sox players?
The only time that I ever had a drug situation with Wade was during spring training of 1985, and it had to do with caffeine pills. The term they use is “launching” — when they take the pills before a game. Wade would joke and say, “I guess I’m going to have to ’launch’ tomorrow and steal a base.”
Did the Red Sox party much as a team?
They don’t have many team parties — they can’t get organized that much. At the ones they did have, I was usually the only woman. In 1986 in Detroit, Wade surprised me and said to meet him in the lobby, told me to wear my white leather miniskirt and my pink sweater. When I got downstairs there were three stretch limos with the players in them. I got into a limo with Wade — he said we were going to a team dinner. At the restaurant there was a partition between the disco area and the dinner area. I asked, “Where are the other girls?” One of the guys said, “In the other room, behind the partition.” I said, “Well, aren’t they eating dinner with us?” And he said, “No. Just ’cause we’re going to fuck ’em doesn’t mean we have to feed ’em.” One other big thing is for the players to come on the girl’s face or her tits. The guys always said, “I didn’t fuck her, I only came on her face.” Few of the players used condoms, so I guess it was their way of practicing safe sex.
Some of the ballplayers roomed together. Did that cut into their sex life?
No… I think that most of the wives think it does, but it doesn’t. They have a game… I can’t remember the name they have for it, but the player that struck out for the night would go to the room while his roommate followed a few minutes later with his date. When the girl came into the room and noticed a guy sleeping in the next bed, she was told he was a sound sleeper and nothing could wake him up. Then after a few minutes, when the girl is hot and heavy, the roommate would get out of bed, and before no time the both of them would be fucking her, usually at the same time. One player told me about a bartender — another player was fucking her in the ass while she gave the first player a blowjob. The next night all three of them acted like they never laid eyes on each other. I have seen this happen several times, because the next day the players all talk about the scores they made the night before. For one player, one time it didn’t work. The girl would not do anything with his roommate in the room. He had to fuck her under the sink in the bathroom. We always kidded him about it because he said he kept hitting his head on the pipes under the sink.
During spring training, usually a family time, were the guys active sexually?
The guys would be screwing their girlfriends down the hall from their wives or at a hotel down the street. The wives could be in the room with the kids. Of course, the last week of spring training is a total frenzy because all the wives head up to Boston. Everyone thinks that if you are a player’s wife, you can show identification at the front desk and just go up into the room, but most hotels protect the players. In Detroit, one player’s wife was downstairs trying to get a key to her husband’s room and couldn’t. Someone had to call upstairs and tell him she was there. He had a girlfriend with him.
Did the players ever discuss their ultimate nightmare?
It wasn’t birth control. It was called “raising the Chinese flag” — when a girl had her period. It would piss them off when a girl didn’t warn them. Once, one player was with this girl. The next morning he had to get up early because his wife was coming and he had a meeting with [then manager John] McNamara before that. When he got up, the lights were out and it was dark in the room. In McNamara’s office he looked down at his hands and they were all bloody. The maid was pissed off because the room looked as if someone had been murdered.
Did the guys ever tease you and Wade about sex?
One time in Oakland, during a fit of passion, I began to scream — and I mean scream. I was heard all the way down the hall. Two of the players called security, thinking that someone was being murdered. The next day Wade told me that the guys were going to tease me. I thought Wade would be embarrassed, but he was actually excited about it. I said, “Why are you so proud of it?” and Wade said, ’’Are you kidding? After being with you for four years, and they think I can still turn you on like that.”
Were there any pitchers he feared?
There was nobody — not even the All-Star game, facing Dwight Gooden — no one bothered him to the extent that John Candelaria did. No one. He was so upset the night before facing John, I made lemon chicken for him because he felt he needed that to go up against Candelaria. Something about him just scared the shit out of him. He’d be up all night the night before, sick to his stomach-sick to his stomach the day of the game.
Did you ever hear players talk about intentionally throwing at batters?
Yes, all the time. I remember once Bruce Hurst hit someone, and Wade saying, “Boy, I never thought Hursty had it in him.” When they go into Toronto, they have a thing for George Bell, a favorite among Red Sox pitchers. It’s set up on the road trip before or the trip in, before the game. They get off on that. I mean, you’ve got a pitcher standing there with total control — why not make some batters look like wimps when they jump away from a pitch? Wade’s probably someone they would like to throw at, too. He’s not well-liked.
What is it about George Bell?
They all hate his guts. He’s the most hated man in baseball. I think it was in ’85, when the Red Sox got into a fight with the Blue Jays. Wade got cracked in the face. If there was ever a fight, look for Wade. He’s the one that’s basically trying to get out of the way, terrified of getting hit. Who wants a career-ending injury?
As baseball’s greatest hitter today, did Wade ever discuss his attempt to hit .400?
Wade doesn’t discuss his attempt to hit .400 as much as other people do. Wade would talk about it as long as his average wasn’t near it. When we were in Seattle, in the middle of the season, he was batting around .389, and at that point he wouldn’t discuss it because of his superstitious nature. Wade always told me that if he was batting over .400 near the season’s close, he would fake an injury. He would say, “Oops, I think my back hurts a little bit and I might just … I don’t think I can play.” As time went on, that was one of the flaws in his character that started to scare me.
Tell us about “Delta Force.”
A lot of the players talked. Bob Stanley was one of the major ones, if not the major one. Stanley was called “Mr. 411” and Marty Barrett was known as a yapper, because you could always go to them for information, gossip. Wade decided to set Stanley up to keep him quiet. Another player, Steve Crawford, had a friend, Tina, who was a stripper in Cleveland. It was set up for all of us to go to the bar to see the strippers. The plan was for Tina to come on to Stanley. She said to him, “I don’t want your friends to know — I’ll meet you back at the hotel.”
What happened next?
Tina went to the hotel and went to our room first. We synchronized our watches so that in half an hour Wade and Crawford, each with a camera, would break into the room. Ahead of time, Steve had gone down into the lobby, talked to the desk man and told him that he was Bob Stanley, and got a key to the room. They had a room near the stairs and they went up to the room. They broke in and took the pictures — then Stanley grabbed Crawford and hit him real hard on the back. Tina screamed and acted like it wasn’t a setup. Wade ran out of the room and I went home with the camera.
What was the beginning of the end of your relationship with Wade Boggs?
During spring training in 1988, a couple of the guys made slips about things Wade did when I wasn’t with him. They’d never done that before — about Wade picking up girls. His childlike quality that had been so endearing before was beginning to show up as immaturity. He’d be sweet and pout and look at me and cry when he needed to. He could recite almost every line of The Wizard of Oz in all those cute voices. The cuteness became immaturity to me, and that’s when I started to realize things weren’t the same. When he came out to California to film a segment on “Cheers” in March, he called. I went up and met him after the filming. He was all excited and told me all about it.
He said, “You know, no matter how hard I try, I knew today how much I really love you still.”
And I asked him why. I expected some big romantic answer.
Instead he said, “Well, because I know I could have had Kirstie Alley, but I wanted you.”
Kirstie Alley was a married woman, but he figured because he was Wade Boggs she’d want to be with him.
He said, “I need a pair of your panties to take back with me.”
And I said, “What are you talking about?”
“Well,” he said, “the guys bet me that I couldn’t get Kirstie Alley’s panties. So I need a pair of your G-string panties to take back and tell them they were Kirstie Alley’s.”
Did you give them to him?
No.
