TAMPA, Fla. _ Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs is wondering if had a bout with the coronavirus last month and, if so, whether he may have gotten it from Red Sox ace Chris Sale.
Boggs said Friday that he was so sick in early March that he had to go to a hospital near his Tampa home in the middle of the night, and was diagnosed at the time with pneumonia and sent home for a "really rough" recovery.
But now that symptoms of COVID-19 have become clearly identified, he is hoping soon to take an antibodies test to find out if he had the disease that has spread around the world.
"About the beginning of March I had pneumonia and just three days of high fever and cough and all that good stuff," said Boggs, 61. "I went to the hospital and tested negative for flu, but I had pneumonia. I'm curious to find the antibody test and see if I actually did have (COVID-19). ... It was a rough, really rough few days."
If so, Boggs, who makes appearances as an ambassador for the Red Sox team he spent the bulk of his career with, wonders if he could have been infected from talking with Sale at a team event for sponsors and limited partners in Fort Myers.
Sale was sidelined at the start of spring training with what was thought to be pneumonia, but the lefty pitcher, who recently underwent Tommy John elbow surgery, has since told reporters he wonders if coronavirus was the cause of his illness.
"Various players were around, and I wound up having a lengthy conversation and shaking hands with Chris Sale," Boggs said. "I was asking him, 'How was your pneumonia?' and he says, 'It was killing me' kind of thing. He got that in the beginning of February so I'm wondering when they do his antibody test whether or not it comes back that he had it."
Boggs, a longtime Tampa resident who finished his career with the Rays, joked about blaming Sale and said he feels fine now.
But, still, he said, "I'm really curious to see if I did actually have it."
