He struck a blow for sentiment, for irony, for baseball immortality. Saturday night at Tropicana Field, as 39,512 hometown fans stood, cheered deliriously and stomped their feet, Devil Rays third baseman Wade Boggs got his 3,000th career hit with one unforgettable swing.

It was a two-run homer.

`As you're running around the bases, you're not even touching the ground,` said Boggs, who was 3-for-4 in the Devil Rays' 15-10 loss to the Cleveland Indians. `I waited 18 years for that moment. It was so spontaneous that I was just jumping up and down and probably doing silly things. How about that? Now I can become a home-run hitter.

`Now I can finally eat steak,` said the man whose baseball superstitions included daily chicken lunches. `The poultry industry just went down.`

The clock read 9:08 p.m. when the ball landed four rows deep in the right-field bleachers, in Section 144. Cleveland left-handed relief pitcher Chris Haney slowly shook his head and considered his dubious fate after delivering the 2-2 curveball. Fireworks erupted from the catwalks.

Then Boggs' home-run trot slowed momentarily between first and second base. He looked skyward and blew a kiss to his beloved mother, Sue, who died 13 years ago in an auto accident. Teammates gathered to greet him. But Boggs stopped just short of the mob, fell to his knees and kissed home plate. `I decided to kiss that thing because I certainly had stepped on it enough,` he said.

Never like this. Boggs, 41, the man who once was told he would never become a major- leaguer because he lacked power, became the 23rd player to reach 3,000 hits. But he's the only man to do so with a home run. He was enveloped by his back-slapping teammates. Then, as he hugged his father, Win, his wife, Debbie, and son Brett, Boggs became choked with emotion.

Afterward, as Boggs answered questions at a news conference, the family picture became complete. Meagann, his daughter, rushed into the room and gave her father a hug. She missed the start of the game and the hit because she was the maid of honor for her friend's wedding in Fort Lauderdale. She rushed back, though, and was still wearing her light-blue gown as she found her father in a conference room.

`I couldn't have imagined this all any better,` Boggs said. `Wow. My darling daughter made it back.

`You know, I didn't think I'd ever have anything to top the horse [Boggs rode a police horse during an on-field celebration when his New York Yankees won the 1996 World Series], but I think this one tops them all.`

Before the game, Boggs said he didn't want to visualize a scenario for his 3,000th hit. `I don't want to say, `Wow, deja vu,' ` he said. `I just want to let it happen naturally. I don't want to imagine it.`

How could he imagine something like this? Boggs entered the game with 2,997 career hits and needed a great performance to reach the milestone. After grounding out in his first at-bat, he singled twice off right-hander Charles Nagy, one of his biggest nemeses. That set up the sixth-inning at-bat against Haney.

`I got a little chuckle because Larry [Rothschild, the Devil Rays' manager] said he was going to pinch-hit for me,` Boggs said. `It was like the longest mile walking up to that plate. Then [when I hit the homer], I just thought, `Oh my God, that's a homer and I'm never going to get that ball back.' `

IT WAS A MAD SCRAMBLE in Section 144.

`Before the game, I was telling people, `Wouldn't it be something if Wade's 3,000th hit was a home run?' ` said Lorraine Brown, who was five seats away from where the ball landed. `Maybe I had a little premonition. I can't believe it actually happened. I just wish I would've caught it.`

The ball landed near Row V, Seat 7, where Mike Hogan, a newly hired assistant sports information director from the University of South Florida, outfought his neighbors for the prized possession. The ball entered a maze of outstretched arms but Hogan reached down, grabbed it and headed for an exit.

`He got it only because his arms are bigger than mine,` said Maria Blasini-Arter, who lives in Cleveland but has temporarily moved to Tampa with her husband, who is an Army colonel. `I'll never forget this. I came so close.`

`It was just a sea of humanity out here,` said Don Muller of Seminole, who was seated one row behind Hogan. `We saw the ball coming and everyone just froze. Everybody thought they had a shot at it. It was wild. Wade Boggs hit a home run for 3,000. Who could've written that script?`

Who else? Wade Boggs, the man who made a career of proving his doubters wrong.

`When I came up, I was told I needed to hit home runs to play third base in the major leagues,` Boggs said before Saturday night's game. `I kept saying, `What about Pete Rose? He doesn't hit home runs. He's a pretty good player, isn't he?'

`I just had to concentrate on doing the things that I do the best. My job always was to get on base, to score runs, and that's what I've always done.`

EVEN AS HIS PURSUIT unfolded, Boggs has been operating in the shadows. Friday night in Montreal, San Diego's Tony Gwynn reached the 3,000-hit plateau as Boggs went hitless against Cleveland.

`I'm a guy who's never talked much about what I've done as opposed to just going out and doing it,` Boggs said. `I've always just kind of laid in the weeds.

`When I got the 200-hit seasons [seven consecutive with the Boston Red Sox, the only baseball player this century to accomplish that], people weren't writing much about that. They were focusing on the bad things, the negatives. It was like somebody landing on the moon and nobody noticing.`

It was impossible to go unnoticed Saturday night. Boggs reached his all-time milestone in the most unpredictable manner. Tampa Bay sports fans had a moment to remember.

`What's next?` Boggs said. `Now I guess I go to work on 4,000.`

NO. 3000: PITCH-BY- PITCH
9:05 p.m.: Wade Boggs steps into the batter's box to face Cleveland left-hander Chris Haney. Terrell Lowery is on first with one out.
Pitch 1: Breaking pitch taken for ball one. Count 1-0
Pitch 2: Breaking pitch taken for strike one. Count 1- 1
Pitch 3: Breaking pitch taken for strike two. Count 1-2
Pitch 4: Breaking pitch taken for ball two. Count 2-2
Pitch 5: Breaking pitch. Boggs swings and connects for a home run over the right-field fence.