Tampa resident and Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs reunited with some Red Sox teammates on Friday night to celebrate a historic milestone in Boston, where he played for 11 seasons.
But he also shared a personal accomplishment with the fans of Fenway Park: He's had no recurrance of prostate cancer since ending treatments 15 months ago.
"I had my checkup a month ago, and I'm completely cancer-free,” he said.
Boggs, 67, was with other Red Sox greats who have also had their numbers retired: Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz and Jim Rice, They were commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Red Sox's first home game, a 12-4 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics on May, 8, 1901 at Huntington Avenue Grounds.
Boggs said early testing led to his diagnosis in September 2024, when he began radiation and hormone treatments at the Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute. He announced receiving his last treatment on Nov. 13, 2024.
“I'm a cancer survivor now. Prostate cancer is null and void. Thank God,” Boggs said after throwing out a ceremonial first pitch before the Rays-Red Sox game at Boston's at Fenway Park.
On Feb. 7, 2025, he posted on X that he was cancer-free, and thanked his Tampa physicians, oncologist Dr. Alexander Engleman and urologist Dr. Howard Heidenberg.
“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.
A PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test measures the level of a protein produced by the prostate gland to screen for prostate cancer and other prostate conditions.
Boggs, who lives in Tampa Palms, was drafted out of Plant High School by the Red Sox in 1976.
After beginning his 18-year career in Boston, he went on to play five seasons with the New York Yankees, where he won a World Series ring in 1996.
Boggs played his final two years with his hometown Devil Rays, where he achieved his 3,000th career hit before retiring in 1999 at age 41.
He is in the Rays' and Red Sox's Hall of Fames and his jersey has been retired by both teams.
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.
WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.
