Ex-College Player Who Inspired Ice Bucket Challenge Honored
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who inspired the ice bucket challenge has been honored for helping to raise millions of dollars for Lou Gehrig's disease research.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh on Tuesday declared Sept. 5 Pete Frates (FRAY'-tees) Day as the former Boston College baseball star was feted by more than 100 people outside City Hall.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred, Boston Red Sox officials, the BC baseball team and Frates' family were on hand for the festivities.
Red Sox president Sam Kennedy says Frates "belongs on the Mount Rushmore of sports" for his contributions to finding a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Frates can no longer speak. He says in a statement read by his wife it's an "amazing" and "humbling" day.
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