Mike Andrews, the Jimmy Fund chairman and former Red Sox second baseman, never played with Monbouquette, but he hit against him. "He was very tough," remembers Andrews. "The ultimate battler. Nobody wanted to mess with him. He was very determined."
That's still the case.
Monbouquette has been through six cycles of chemotherapy. He needs a transfusion every three weeks. Ten years ago, there would have been no hope, but he's on trial drugs, and the acute myelogenous leukemia is in remission. That could be the case for two months or 2-3 years, according to his doctors at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
But injections that were working for a year and a half are no longer working. He needs a bone marrow and stem cell transplant, but so far, there has not been a match.
"The doctor says you can't go into a transplant failing," says Monbo, who still looks good and has kept his hair despite chemotherapy. "I go to Tufts to work out four or five times a week and walk the treadmill, but I don't have that kind of stamina anymore. I can only do 15 minutes."
Hometown pride
Monbouquette came up with the Sox in late 1958 and played the next seven seasons of an 11-year career in Boston.
In 50 years in professional baseball, he had stints as a pitching coach with the Yankees and Mets, and in the minors with the Tigers and Blue Jays. He was inducted into the Sox' Hall in 2000, and was honored with a 2004 World Series ring. In 2006, he joined Boston's Single A team in Lowell for one night as a coach so he could officially retire as a member of the organization. He'll be at Fenway Park tonight and all weekend at "Autograph Alley" at Fenway Park, greeting fans before the games and reminiscing, as if nothing was wrong.
Born and bred in working-class Medford, Monbouquette still lives there, in a middle-class house on a nice street. He didn't make big money, despite being the Red Sox ace. In fact, he earned in a year about one-10th of what Sox ace Josh Beckett makes per start. Beckett's deal, worth $6 million per year, earns him $200,000 per start, based on 30 starts. Monbouquette's salary was barely $20,000 annually.
"We didn't care," he insists. "We loved the game."
