Wade Boggs discusses unfair criticism he received after switching from Red Sox to rival Yankees - "Media outlets in Boston said he's a traitor"

Former ace third baseman Wade Boggs primarily played for the Boston Red Sox during his storied MLB career. Boggs recently spoke to Talkin' Yanks, discussing how he was criticized by several Boston media outlets when he decided to join the Red Sox's rival team, the New York Yankees.

"We negotiated through spring training, and then at the end of the 92 season, they let me walk, but the only thing that the media outlets in Boston said said said was, 'Traitor, traitor, he's a traitor, he's gone to New York because he this and that.' And that was far from the truth because actually, I just turned... the day before I signed with New York... I had turned down a deal with the Dodgers to go there."

At the end of the 1992 season, Boggs left the Red Sox, with whom he had spent his entire career up to that point. Both the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers intensified their pursuit of him. When the Yankees added a third year to their contract that the Dodgers would not, he decided to join them.

Clarifying his decision to join the Yankees at the time, Boggs said:

"But so it was. It wasn't had nothing to do with it. I just want to stay in the American League and just so happened that the Yankees came calling and after that the rest was history."

You can listen to Boggs' comments here:

Throughout his baseball career, Wade Boggs won a total of two World Series championships. He earned his first and only World Series title while playing for the Yankees in 1996.

Colorado Rockies v Boston Red Sox

Boggs also played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but he could not help them to a World Series victory.

Wade Boggs wore his Yankees ring at Red Sox team reunion

The 1986 Red Sox team, which won the American League pennant but was infamous for falling to the New York Mets in the World Series, observed its 30th anniversary in 2016. At the event, Boggs wore the World Series ring he won with rivals the New York Yankees, disappointing many Red Sox fans.

Wade Boggs wears Yankees World Series ring to ceremony for '86 Red Sox, makes fans furious. http://thesco.re/1RtPQ1s - theScore

Boggs was elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.