Wade Boggs To Sell Fishing Boat An MLB Team Gave Him For His 3000th Hit, Needs 'Extra Cash' For Hunting Trips

Wade Boggs has one of the most interesting relationships imaginable with the Tampa Bay Rays. For years he was on retainer by the team just to be around the clubhouse from time to time, but essentially the team was just paying for all of his fishing trips and asking that he show up to like one game a year. Before he retired, Wage Boggs signed a 2-year contract with the (then) Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and upon hitting a home run on August 7, 1999 for his 3000th hit the team gave him a bass fishing boat to commemorate the occasion. That beautiful monstrosity of a boat is now hitting the auction block, and you may soon be able to get your hands on a piece of history.

If you’re not familiar with the nuances between a bass fishing boat and a saltwater fishing boat, the first thing you need to consider is that bass boats are built for freshwater, and therefore the materials and decorations don’t have to take salt corrosion into consideration. Often bass boats look like they’re straight out of a bowling alley, with hulls the same patterns as a bowling ball, and felt or carpeted boat decks that’d make 1970’s Hugh Hefner cringe. Here’s the description of the boat given to Wade Boggs by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (per the report of ESPN’s Darren Rovell):

The Hall of Famer consigned the $50,000 custom 19-foot Ranger bass fishing boat, which has a facsimile of his signature and “3000” and the old Devil Rays logo on it, to New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions.
The boat, which is carpeted in Rays blue and silver, has not been used since Boggs received it in August 1999.
“When (owner) Vince Naimoli asked my wife what I would want as a gift, she told him a bass boat,” Boggs told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “I never used it because I kind of thought it was more valuable out of the water than in it.”
“I have some hunting trips coming up and I could use the extra cash,” Boggs said.
Boggs tried to sell the boat once before, in November of last year, but it received no bids, he said.
In order to attract more bidders, Boggs is throwing in a daylong fishing trip with the person who wins the bid when they pick up the boat.

Here’s Wade Boggs sitting in his boat, taking a lap through the outfield at The Trop (the greatest stadium in baseball):

Wade Boggs selling bass boat Rays gave him for 3000th hit http://t.co/zwl4Ah7DJs pic.twitter.com/xO7LeHOP8f

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 30, 2015