ALS Game Always Means More Than Baseball

There's something magical about Fenway Park.

It's the most historic monument in New England. Fenway celebrated its 106th birthday on Friday and it's seen virtually everything: the World Series, the MLB All Star Game, hockey, football, boxing and Irish hurling. Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z played concerts on its lawn, as have Jason Aldean, the Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, Backstreet Boys and Zac Brown Band. It's a museum capable of writing history as it is for telling stories.

There's something about Fenway that makes it more than just stepping onto a ball field. It's a piece of Boston's soul. So on Saturday, it became, for the second straight year, the perfect venue for Boston College's annual ALS Awareness Game.

"If you can't have fun playing baseball at Fenway Park, then you need to play another sport," BC head coach Mike Gambino said. "I'm 40 years old and was fortunate enough to work (for the Red Sox) at one point. But if you come into this ballpark as a fan or as anyone else, it gives you chills."

From a pure baseball standpoint, Boston College and Florida State aren't exactly bitter rivals. The Seminoles have long standing matchups against other Sunshine State teams and having been playing other ACC teams for longer. FSU's series with Florida, for example, began in 1956, with matchups against Clemson, Duke, Miami and Georgia Tech all beginning during that same time period. In a state full of college-rich baseball tradition, Florida State is a blue blood with 22 College World Series appearances and 40 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths.

In contrast, BC didn't play FSU before joining the ACC for the 2006 baseball season and the two teams still haven't faced each other 40 times. But the Seminole program leaves no doubt that it shares a common bond with the Eagles and a link that made Saturday's game among its most special.

"The date works out how it works out with the Red Sox, but I was hoping it would work out to have Florida State here," Gambino said. "Before people talked about ALS, they did ALS games. Coach Martin and his career and the type of person that he is - it would've been more fun to pick up a win - but it's special to have Coach Martin and the Florida State baseball community here."

It was in the early part of the decade when Florida State first hosted its own ALS game. That's when Tyler Everett, a Seminole pitcher from 2008 to 2011, received news that his father, Jimmy, was diagnosed with the disease. Jimmy, a former football player at FSU in the 1970s, wound up living in Tallahassee, where Tyler was born. FSU began playing games in those days in his name, both while he was alive and after his death in 2011.

Warriors like Jimmy Everett are the reason Pete Frates and his family continue its fight against ALS and it underscores the importance of BC's ALS Awareness Game. The game is in its seventh year and every year, it seems to bring out the best in both Boston College and the baseball community, both on and off the field.

"For us to be invited to play in this event is meaningful for us," FSU head coach Mike Martin said. "We're proud to be able to play in this (game). I thank BC for inviting us to play."

Frates continues to defy logic and statistics. ALS is irreversible and progressive as it slowly robs people of their motor skills. The average ALS patient survival rate is three years and only 20 percent survive longer than five years. Frates received his diagnosis over six years ago, with the Team Frate Train fight serving as the catalyst for some of medical research's most advanced breakthroughs.

The FDA approved its first new treatment in 22 years last year but Radicava only slows patients' physical decline. Though that's a major medical advancement, the goal has always been the same: destroy and eradicate ALS. That means that the ALS Awareness Game is still needed to keep the disease at the forefront. As Frates' ability to fight on his own diminished, others now stand to fight for him. It always included Boston College, but it's since expanded to include the region's largest and most powerful sports brands: the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park.

"Pete Frates took (ALS research) well over the mountaintop with his interest in beating this disease," Martin said. "The Ice Bucket Challenge is something we'll always remember. Raising money for it and people everywhere getting involved. I feel so proud to be a teeny, teeny part of it. When Pete came out, I had a chance to tell him I loved him. I really get emotional because he used to wear us out (as a player)! We couldn't get him out!"

As for the game itself, the score ended with Florida State winning, 13-7, but it began as a seesaw battle. BC scored twice in the bottom of the first when sophomore Dante Baldelli slapped a two-run single through the left side. FSU responded immediately, scoring three in the top of the second to take their first lead. It didn't last as the Eagles scored three of their own in the bottom of the frame to go up, 5-3.

FSU tied things up with one run in third and another in the fourth before finally hitting the gas pedal for good. They scored seven across the fifth and sixth to put distance between themselves and the Eagles, finishing the evening with the six-run victory.

"We fought and fought and fought and that's what we want to do," Gambino said. "We want to play hard and smart and have more fun than anyone else. On the baseball side, it came down to walks. If we threw (more) strikes, we would've won that game."

"It's so funny about baseball," Martin said. "When one guy gets hot, the next guy says, 'Heck, I can do what he can do.' Then another time, a guy has a good at bat, and one thing leads to another and it can just turn (your team) on."

Neither team truly stopped competing, though, and that's what makes events like Saturday so important. It's the type of event that makes players throw a little harder and run a little faster. The need for an ACC win drove both teams, but it further represented an opportunity to win the most important standalone game on this year's schedule.

"Pete's mission is to raise awareness," Gambino said. "It's another 5,500 people talking about Pete, talking about the Frate Train and talking about ALS. It's just awesome to see the support that the Boston College community and the Boston baseball community has. We saw a couple of high school teams come down and it's just awesome to see everyone rally like that around (Pete).

"(Boston Red Sox President and CEO) Sam Kennedy has done so much for Pete," he continued. "It can't be lost how much he's supported Pete and saying thank you isn't enough. This is a special day for all of us."

Like Fenway, the ALS Awareness Game both teaches and writes history. On Saturday, it drew its largest attendance as 5,433 fans filed through the turnstiles. A basic walk through the concourse bore witness to conversations about ice buckets, Fenway homers, ALS and Boston College baseball.

But there's a difference. Fenway Park will continue to write history but the hope is for ALS to one day become history. When that day comes, it will be because of games like those played between Boston College and Florida State on Saturday afternoon.

"That's the mission," Gambino said. "The mission is to play a game at Fenway Park but we're playing the 'Pete Frates Classic' talking about when there once was a disease. And we're talking about what Pete did to end this. That's the goal."

Players Mentioned

Dante Baldelli

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