As much as any other facet of his 18-season, Cooperstown-bound career - his 3,010 hits, .328 average and five batting titles, seven consecutive 200-hit seasons, 12 straight All-Star teams, two Gold Gloves - what springs to mind is Boggs' ride around Yankee Stadium in 1996 on one of New York's Finest equines, after finally winning a World Series.

With police ringing the field, Wade's wife, Debbie, remembered, ``Everybody just stayed in their seats and just cheered, which is probably half the reason Wade ended up being on the horse. It took four police officers to get him up there.''

``Just riding around Yankee Stadium, I just felt so proud to finally be called a world champion,'' Boggs said in January, when he was voted into the Hall.

Ten years earlier with Boston, Boggs came within one strike of winning his first World Series. Then Mookie Wilson's grounder trickled through Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6. When the Mets won it all in Game 7, Boggs was photographed in tears in the Boston dugout.

``I think that drive I had from '86 to get back to the World Series made [the 1996 championship] that much more special,'' he said.

Boggs spent 11 years with the Red Sox and figured he'd be with them his entire career. But after batting just .259 in 1992, the first of only three sub-.300 seasons, the team decided not to pick up his option.

``I had an offer [from the Dodgers] on the table the first six hours that I was a free agent,'' he said. ``It was a two- year deal and we [Boggs and agent Alan Nero] were looking for something a little bit longer.''

The Dodgers gave him an ultimatum: sign by 8 p.m. He didn't. The next morning Nero heard from the Yankees. They offered him a three-year, $9 million deal.

`Now We've Got Him'

``It was kind of difficult putting on that [pinstriped] uniform for the first time because it was [Boston's] archrival,'' Boggs said. ``But once I got to New York and started playing on an everyday basis I just got very comfortable.''

It took two or three months for New York's fans to warm to him.

``Once I started hitting like I had in the past with the Red Sox and playing good defense, and then I made the All-Star team,'' Boggs said, ``the fans sort of said, `Ha-ha, now we've got him.' It was sort of a rub in the Red Sox's face that I'd gone back to playing the way I was when I was a Red Sox player.''

It took no time at all for the Yankees' players to warm to him.

``When you get a name as big as that, especially a Red Sox guy, everyone watches him,'' said Jim Leyritz, then a Yankees utility player, now an MLB Radio broadcaster. ``Wade knew all eyes were on him, and he came in and fit right in with the clubhouse.''

Boggs also fit what the Yankees were seeking.

``[Boggs] could always hit, and we always selected hitters who would take a lot of pitches,'' Gene Michael, the Yankees general manager in 1992 and now a special adviser to owner George Steinbrenner, told MLB.com. ``He could grind out an at-bat. And a lot of people don't know he could run; he got a lot of leg hits.''

Said Boggs: ``I was a leadoff hitter, so my job was to get on base any way I could and then score a run. That's what I was taught to do - get on, get on, wait the pitcher out, make him work.''

Quite A Comeback

Boggs batted .302 in 1993. He was just warming up. His .342 average in 1994 was fifth in the American League and, in his 13th season, he won his first Gold Glove at third. He credited Don Mattingly, who won nine of them, the last in 1994.

``When you have a great first baseman who can save you an error a week, it's a plus,'' Boggs said in an online chat set up by the Hall of Fame.

In 1995, Boggs batted .324, fourth in the AL, and won his second Gold Glove at age 37, the oldest position player to win one.

``I think the turning point in my career was winning the Gold Gloves,'' Boggs said. ``Winning one in 1994 and backing it up in 1995 sort of put an exclamation point on becoming an all-around player. I wouldn't be in the Hall if I hadn't done that.''

Boggs batted .311 in 1996. His 41 RBIs were the fewest of his career to that point. He batted .158 in 10 postseason games. But in Game 4 against the Braves in the World Series, with New York trailing two games to one, Leyritz and Boggs played momentum- changing roles.

Leyritz replaced catcher Joe Girardi in the sixth inning and hit a three-run homer in the eighth to tie the score. It was still 6-6 when the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the 10th. Boggs, batting for rookie Andy Fox, drew the walk that forced home New York's go-ahead run in the Yankees' 8-6 victory.

The 3-1 series lead Atlanta had envisioned was gone. Two games later, back in New York, so were the Braves.

``The World Series victory was right up at the top [of greatest moments],'' Boggs said. His smile during his warning-track ride told it all.

The 1997 season came and went. Boggs appeared in 103 games, second-lowest of his career to that point, and batted .292 with a career-low 28 RBIs and nearly as many strikeouts (38) as walks (48). The Yankees lost to the Indians in the divisional playoff series.

Boggs' best days as a player were behind him, save for one - his 3,000th hit.

But he'd have to go home to get it.

World Champion

Wade Boggs had more than his share of individual achievements, but went the first 14 years of his career without a World Series title.

Although he came within an out of the championship in 1986, it wasn't until the Yankees beat the Braves in six games 10 years later that Boggs finally got a ring - and a replica of the Series trophy (above).

And Now Pitching For The Yankees ...

The game in Anaheim on Aug. 19, 1997, was a blowout - the Angels leading the Yankees 12-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning - and, with a doubleheader the next day, Manager Joe Torre wanted to send a position player to the mound in order to save his bullpen.

Several players suggested third baseman Wade Boggs. He threw a pretty mean knuckleball, they said. He'd learned it from his father, Win Boggs, who had excelled as a softball pitcher at a variety of military bases, but Wade hadn't thrown one since his days at Plant High more than 21 years prior.

When Torre broached the subject, Boggs sprinted to the bullpen. ``I didn't give him the opportunity to say no,'' Boggs told The New York Times.

He faced four batters, throwing 16 knucklers and one 74-mph fastball. None got a hit. One walked. Two of Boggs' outs came on Tim Salmon's grounder and Todd Greene's strikeout. Each had hit two- run homers off Yankees starter David Wells.

``It's something I've always wanted to do in my career and I never really had the opportunity,'' Boggs said. ``Then I started feeling like Phil Niekro. I was Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough all rolled into one. It was great. I was glad it worked out.''

- Bruce Lowitt

Boggs Vs. Teams

How Boggs fared against each major- league team:

Team Hits Avg.
Angels 215 .335
Orioles 241 .319
Red Sox 71 .296
White Sox 216 .332
Indians 249 .332
Tigers 260 .356
Royals 230 .332
Twins 234 .341
Yankees 156 .319
Athletics 204 .297
Mariners 236 .342
Devil Rays - -
Rangers 216 .328
Blue Jays 235 .327
Braves 2 .167
Marlins 11 .297
Brewers 212 .322
Expos 10 .286
Mets 9 .360
Phillies 3 .136
Note: Boggs never played against the Cubs, Reds, Rockies, Astros, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Pirates, Cardinals, Padres or Giants.

He Said It

''He was like Tony Gwynn. Any time he went up to the plate, you expected a hit. He's one of the guys that every time you played Boston, him and [Roger] Clemens were the faces you saw. Any time you can put your face with Clemens in a baseball sense, then it becomes legendary. -- GARY SHEFFIELD, Yankees outfielder