The Boston Red Sox family received some unfortunate news Monday, as longtime color analyst Jerry Remy announced he’s been diagnosed with cancer.
Remy first announced the news via his official Twitter account Monday afternoon.
Remy, who’s been a part of NESN’s Red Sox broadcast team since 1988, met with reporters prior to Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. The 64-year-old announced he’ll have surgery to remove the cancer, followed by a period of recovery. He hopes to return to the broadcast booth sometime after the MLB All-Star break.
The former MLB second baseman took most of his media availability to stress just how important it is to visit your doctor and get checked out.
“The point I’m trying to make to everybody is that you should go see your doctors,” Remy said. “This is the fifth time I’ve had cancer, but each time I’ve had it, it’s been caught early. It is what it is, I’ll deal with it, but my message to people at home is if you don’t go to your doctor, you don’t have much of a chance to find out. They can really help you.”
Remy has received an outpouring of support since his announcement, and he couldn’t thank the fans enough for reaching out.
“The fans have been great, they’ve been behind me since Day 1,” he said. “My Twitter has been blowing up today and it’s nice to know that people care. But I also want to try to teach people that the stuff that I’m going through, they need to take care of themselves, too. I think that’s very, very important. I really hope that’s the message that gets out. The fact is, other people can avoid it and I’d really like to see them try to do that.”
And while Remy acknowledged the difficulty of the situation, he isn’t letting it affect his outlook moving forward.
“It’s not easy, I’ve been through a lot for a long period of time,” he said. “But life goes on. I have baseball here to keep me occupied, it keeps my mind occupied. I feel strong, and I don’t feel like there’s anything that can stop me.”
