A baseball legend has revealed he’s cancer-free.
Hall of Fame third baseman Wade Boggs said Friday during a return to Fenway Park that he no longer has prostate cancer, two years after he was diagnosed.
“I’m a cancer survivor now. Prostate cancer is null and void. Thank God,” Boggs said after he threw at the first pitch before the Red Sox beat the Rays, 2-0.
Boggs, 67, revealed in September 2024 that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and wrote on social media last year that, at that point, he was cancer-free.
In attendance to honor the Red Sox’s first-ever home game at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds 125 years ago, Boggs told reporters on Friday night, that early detection and testing made his recent news possible.
“It’s a process that you have to go through, and I encourage all young men to get your PSA tests,” Boggs said, according to the Associated Press. “Please go out there. Because mine, it wasn’t even on the radar. It was a 3.3, and they don’t even start talking about it until it gets to four. But I had the bad one, and we caught it early. … I had my checkup a month ago, and I’m completely cancer-free.”
Boggs, as part of the ceremony, took a photo with Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski during what he called a “great night” in Boston.
Boggs played 11 of his 18 big league seasons with the Red Sox, making eight All-Star teams and winning five American League batting titles — leading MLB in hitting four times in that span — with Boston. He later joined the Yankees, winning the 1996 World Series, and then finished his career with the Rays, with whom he reached 3,000 career hits.
Boggs added Friday night that he never wanted to leave the Red Sox. After former owner Jean Yawkey died, Boggs said a “substantial” offer to stay with the club was taken off the table.
“My heart’s always been in Boston, and they know it,” Boggs said. “And everyone from the ground up knows it, that Boston is the special place in my heart.”