Red Sox retire Boggs’ No. 26 in pregame salute

8:43 PM ET

BOSTON — The “Chicken Man” has lost a little of the shimmer from his trademark mustache over the years, but every pilgrimage Wade Boggs makes to Fenway Park still feels like old times for the Red Sox legend.

“I’ve come back home,” Boggs said.

On Thursday night Boggs added to his cache of memories when the Red Sox retired his No. 26.

“Today is the final piece of my baseball puzzle,” he said during the pregame ceremony.

Boggs became the 10th former player to have his number affixed to Fenway’s right field facade. He joined Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Johnny Pesky, Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Martinez and Jackie Robinson, whose No. 42 is retired throughout baseball.

It was the culmination of a weeklong celebration of the Red Sox’s 1986 American League championship team, which came within a strike of winning the World Series title before falling to the New York Mets. It is infamously remembered for Bill Buckner allowing a routine ground ball to go through his legs at first in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Mets the win in Game 6. They went on to take Game 7.

Members of that team were on hand for Thursday’s ceremony along with a few special guests, including Yastrzemski and Ryne Sandberg, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Boggs in 2005.

“I never in my wildest dreams ever thought that …

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