Does Wade Boggs' No. 26 Deserve to be Retired by the Red Sox?

That question has been circulating the internet and conversation between Red Sox questions today.  The Boston Globe has an article about it here: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/2013/04/09/wade-boggs-buys-into-field-dreams-and-dreams-retired-number-fenway/RYaF0q0DXUd6A348sIBo3I/story.htm

My boyfriend, who is in Phoenix this week, even started our morning conversation with a link to an article on NESN followed by the text message: Morning!  What do you think?  Of course, I knew my answer right away.

Basically, the Red Sox have two "official" criteria for having a player's number retired by the organization: 1) Be inducted in the Hall of Fame wearing a Red Sox hat, and 2) Played for the Red Sox for at least 10 years.  Those are the two rules listed on the Official Red Sox website (see here: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/history/retired_numbers.jsp).  According to those rules, Boggs' number should be retired, since Boggs is wearing a Red Sox hat in the Hall and played with the Red Sox from 1983-1992.

However, in The Boston Globe article, the Sox organization is saying a player must retire as a member of the Red Sox.  Boggs retired with the Rays in 1999.

Wade Boggs was a career .328 hitter, and had 3,010 hits.  His 3,000th hit was a home run as a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  There are newspaper reports that Boggs said he would go into the Hall of Fame as a member of the Devil Rays, but the Hall stepped in and used its authority and didn't let that happen (Boggs played from 1998-1999 with the Rays).  Despite that, the Rays still have Boggs' #12 retired.

I understand the Red Sox organization are a little stingy when it comes to retiring numbers.  Players that many fans consider "great" like Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Tim Wakefield, and probably even David Ortiz will most likely not have their numbers retired by the organization.  Johnny Pesky even had his number retired by the Red Sox despite not being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

So, why won't the Sox retire Boggs' number?  I think it deserves to be retired.  Like I pointed out, it meets the Red Sox criteria on their own website.  I do think that after the publicity this story has been getting, the Red Sox will come around and retire No. 26, anywhere from mid-this-season to about a year-and-a-half.  It will happen, and sooner rather than later.

While we're on the Wade Boggs subject, I want to point out two things.  One, Wade Boggs is in the group who recently purchased the Field of Dreams (in Iowa!).  Two, I mentioned before how my boyfriend and I wore "Drink Like Wade" shirts for St. Patrick's Day.  Here's a photo: