ST. PETERSBURG - Wade Boggs shared his historic moment with the fans who mean the most to him, his family.
As he rounded first on his historic trip around the bases Saturday night, Wade Boggs pointed to heaven and whispered, `I love you.`
Sue Boggs, the mother he lost in a traffic accident more than a decade ago, saw the home run that was hit No. 3,000 of his career. Boggs knows this, because she's always near.
`Yeah. She's with him every game,` said Win Boggs, the father who was at Tropicana Field. He sat with Debbie, the wife and best friend who knows more than anyone what the moment meant to Wade
Boggs.
As the climactic moment neared, Win rose to his feet, hands on his hips. He shook his head on a called strike, wiped his brow on ball two.
Debbie remained firmly planted in her seat in Section 106, Row AA. Even as the tension built, even as the crowd around her tingled with anticipation, she stayed put.
Turns out she's every bit as superstitious as her famously superstitious husband.
`I have this thing where if everybody's standing up I have to sit down,` Debbie said. `I can't stand, not even if there's a no-hitter going on. It's like a wives thing. We always sit down. So
when people were on their feet I could barely see, but when he hit the home run I was able to see it.`
It was difficult to miss. Win's arms left his side as he raised them in triumph, then turned and hugged everyone in sight.
Debbie stood, slowly, and wiped her eyes. Tears flowed even as Boggs made his way home.
The father and the wife were escorted to the field, where their favorite future Hall of Famer was mobbed by teammates and his son, honorary bat boy Brett Boggs.
Boggs embraced his father, kissing him twice on the right cheek. He whispered something between kisses, which turned out to be a tension breaker: `I'll never get my ball back.`
He did, of course. It was one of the final acts of the night, when Mike Hogan returned the home run ball to its rightful owner.
Later, after Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli had bestowed a garden of roses upon Mrs. Boggs, after the fireworks, after the hugs and kisses, Debbie reflected on the one thing missing: daughter
Meagann, 20, in south Florida this weekend for the unfortunately timed wedding of a friend.
`My poor daughter,` Debbie said to no one in particular. `She called and said, `Can you tell him to walkan="2" bgcolor="#99CC99" background="http://media.tbo.com/tbo/images/greenrule.jpg"> 
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