BOSTON -- Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs said he has been declared cancer-free two years after announcing that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"I'm a cancer survivor now. Prostate cancer is null and void. Thank God," Boggs said Friday night after throwing out a ceremonial first pitch before Boston's game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.
Boggs was alongside other living Red Sox greats who've also had their numbers retired. The group, which included Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz and Jim Rice, was on hand to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the club's first home game, a 12-4 victory on May 8, 1901, at Huntington Avenue Grounds over the Philadelphia Athletics.
Boggs, 67, said early detection testing led to his diagnosis in 2024 and the subsequent radiation and hormone treatments he received in Florida.
"It's a process that you have to go through, and I encourage all young men to get your PSA tests," Boggs said. "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 spent 11 of his 18 major league seasons with the Red Sox. That was followed by five seasons with the New York Yankees, with whom he won a World Series ring in 1996. He played the final two years of his career with Tampa Bay and retired after the 1999 season at age 41.
But he said he never wanted to leave Boston, which retired his No. 26 on May 16, 2016.
"I think the one thing that's lost in translation is that Mrs. [Jean] Yawkey had offered me a seven-year deal to stay with the Red Sox for substantial money. And then, coincidentally, her dying, and the offer was taken off the table," Boggs said. "And I had to find employment elsewhere. ... But no, I never wanted to leave Boston. My heart's always been in Boston, and they know it. And everyone from the ground up knows it, that Boston is the special place in my heart."
Boggs hit .328 in his career, finishing with 3,010 hits, 118 home runs and 1,014 RBIs. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first try in 2005, appearing on 91.9% of ballots.
