After Jerry Remy was again diagnosed with cancer in August, he made sure to have a winter he wouldn’t forget — and he did just that.
The Boston Red Sox color analyst received his fifth cancer diagnosis since 2008 late in the season and was forced to step away from the booth in order to focus on his treatment. Remy announced he was “kicking cancer’s ass” during the Red Sox’s World Series victory parade and told NESN’s Adam Pellerin he had “a good offseason” in January.
The 66-year-old now is cancer-free, and his broadcast partner opened up about how Remy has “a new lease on life.” Dave O’Brien, who’s been alongside Remy since the 2016 season, appeared on “The Mike Lupica Podcast” on Tuesday to talk all things Red Sox and his co-worker’s health.
“He is doing exceptionally well,” O’Brien told Lupica. “He has totally rallied. He is cancer-free. He’s gonna start doing spring training games in about a week, or 10 days. … I always wanna find a piece of word to knock it whenever I talk about him.”
When the play-by-play announcer showed up to JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Fla., for the start of spring training, he noted how many people would stop and ask how Remy was doing. But what amazed him the most was how active Remy was over the winter.
“Every five steps at the ballpark someone will stop you and ask you about Jerry Remy and how Jerry’s doing,” O’Brien said. “He had an amazing winter. Every time I turned around he was doing something I never expected Jerry Remy to do. … He’s not necessarily the guy who’s gonna go out and conduct the Boston Pops one day and do four speaking engagements the next day … but I expected to see him doing the lead in Hamilton on a Friday night.
“He had one of those winters where he was running around New England doing all sorts of things and it was great,” he added. “I don’t know how to describe it — a new lease on life I guess is the best way. And every time I talked to him he cannot wait to get cracking at baseball again.”
It’s probably safe to say Remy will be excited to get back to the booth in a few short days.
You can listen to the entirety of O’Brien’s interview with Lupica below.
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