Red Sox News: Wade Boggs wonders if he got coronavirus from Chris Sale

Wade Boggs wonders if his recent illness was actually the coronavirus, which he might have caught from Chris Sale while visiting Red Sox spring training.

Boston Red Sox legend Wade Boggs revealed that he was hospitalized in the middle of the night near his home in Tampa Bay in early March. Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia but given everything that’s happened since then amid a global health crisis, Boggs is now wondering if the illness was the coronavirus.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Boggs plans to take an antibodies test to confirm if he carried the disease. While he tested negative for the flu at the time, this occurred before the outbreak was recognized in this country. Now that the symptoms of COVID-19 can be clearly identified, Boggs is curious if the illness that led to a “rough few days” of recovery was more than the initial diagnosis led him to believe.

Boggs hasn’t tested positive for COVID-19 yet but that hasn’t stopped him from speculating how he might have come in contact with the virus, a path that leads directly to the Red Sox. The Hall of Famer made an appearance at a team event last month where he came into contact with Chris Sale, who missed time early in camp with his own bout with pneumonia.

"“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.”"

Sale had concerns earlier this month about if his illness had actually been COVID-19, as reported by Masslive’s Chris Cotillo. Boggs may have heard those quotes from Sale and is now connecting the dots between the Red Sox ace and his own health issues.

The report from the Tampa Bay Times says that Boggs “joked” about blaming Sale but the coronavirus is no laughing matter. However, before we start pointing fingers at Sale, we should note a few important factors.

1. We don’t know if Sale had COVID-19.
2.  Boggs isn’t certain if he had it either.
3. Even if both men had the disease, it’s impossible to know if Boggs was infected by Sale since the latter was deemed healthy before he returned to camp.

It’s certainly possible that the doctors were correct with their diagnosis of pneumonia in both cases. If it turns out they both had the coronavirus, Sale shouldn’t be blamed for spreading a virus he didn’t know he had. There was no readily available testing for the coronavirus at that time and his interaction with Boggs was well before the sports world was shut down as social distancing practices were put in place.

The mere possibility that Sale could have infected Boggs or anyone else around him is exactly why we remain in a holding pattern waiting for sports to return. Without a vaccine or an improvement in the process for testing for the disease, the virus is too easily spread to risk a return to normalcy.

Sale has been out of the woods from his illness for a while now but will miss the 2020 season, if there is one, after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Boggs suffered through a rough patch last month but noted he is now feeling fine.

Boggs will have his answers soon once he gets the test results back and perhaps Sale should do the same. The important takeaway is that both men are currently healthy and safe.