Honor Now Titled Tom Walter/Pete Frates College Baseball
Inspiration Award
RICHMOND, Va. –
CollegeBaseballInsider.com, which has covered Division I
baseball on the national level since 2002, today announces that
is renaming its College Baseball Inspiration Award to include
Pete Frates, the inspiration of the wildly successful Ice Bucket
Challenge.
The award, previously named the Tom
Walter College Baseball Inspiration Award, was started in 2011
to recognize examples of inspiration in college baseball and
named for Wake Forest coach
Tom Walter, who
donated a kidney to freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan before the
2011 season. Moving forward,
CollegeBaseballInsider.com’s honor will be called the Tom
Walter/Pete Frates College Baseball Inspiration award.
Frates, a 2013
recipient of the Tom Walter College Baseball Inspiration Award
for his courage and passion to raise awareness of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS),
of which he was diagnosed in 2012. Frates – pronounced
Fray-tees – starred at Boston College and was known for playing
with intensity, energy and heart and joined the Eagles staff
when coach Mike Gambino hired him as the team’s director of
baseball operations when he was no longer able to keep his sales
job because of his health.
This summer, Frates
has been one of the
key inspirations behind the Ice Bucket Challenge,
a viral sensation that has raised nearly $100 million for ALS.
“We were inspired by
Pete’s mission to raise awareness of ALS last year, but how his
story has inspired millions of people is truly remarkable,” said
Sean Ryan, co-founder of CollegeBaseballInsider.com. “Adding his
name alongside Tom Walter made perfect sense as both epitomize
what our honor is all about. How can you not be inspired by what
Tom Walter and Pete Frates have done over the past few years?”
Walter, in his sixth
season as coach of the Demon Deacons, said: “No one in the
history of college baseball has made a bigger impact on the
world around him than Pete Frates. Thanks to Pete’s courage and
vision, ALS will be defeated. Pete Frates is a symbol of hope,
and his crusade is a miracle. To have my name next to his is one
of my life’s proudest moments. Thank you Pete.”
Added John Frates,
Pete Frates’ father: “Pete has always felt it a privilege, honor
and the culmination of a dream come true to play college
baseball at the highest level. He has always attributed his
success to the tireless effort, passion, knowledge and integrity
to his coaches, and Tom Walter epitomizes that.
“It is a special gift to be able to translate and transfer one’s
knowledge of the game to young players of differing abilities
and backgrounds in a team framework, but the ultimate gift of
donating his kidney so another may live, thrive and play college
ball, is what sets Tom Walter apart as not only a great coach,
but also a better man. Pete is so honored, humbled and moved by
Coach Walter’s suggestion to share the College Baseball
Inspiration Award with him. Thank you Coach Walter.”
The 2014 Tom Walter/Pete Frates
College Baseball Inspiration Awards will be announced on
September 4.
Past recipients of the award include:
· 2011
– Walter was honored along with Georgia outfielder Johnathan
Taylor and Arizona State outfielder Cory Hahn, both of whom were
paralyzed during games in the 2011 season, and Bayler Teal, a
7-year-old boy whose battle with cancer inspired 2010 and 2011
national champion South Carolina in 2011.
· 2012
– Marty Gantt of College of Charleston, who was born with an
underdeveloped right hand and overcame the disability to become
the 2012 Southern Conference Player of the Year; Mike Kent of
Clemson, who was weakened by preparations for a bone-marrow
transplant for his brother but pitched against doctor’s orders
and helped the Tigers to a key win over Maryland; Alex Silver of
Texas, who returned to the Longhorns after battling Stage 1
Hodgkin’s lymphoma; Carter Smith of UT Martin, who was born
without a right hand but made an impact as a pitcher for the
Skyhawks; and Tanner Vavra of Valparaiso, who became a star
despite two severe injuries to his right eye that left him
totally blind in that eye.
· 2013
– Frates was honored along with Davidson head coach Dick Cooke,
who overcame numerous injuries, including bleeding on his brain,
broken ribs and a collapsed lung to coach the Wildcats after a
severe car accident; Minnesota pitching coach Todd Oakes and
pitcher Jordan Jess, with Oakes received a bone marrow
transplant and Jess became a bone marrow donor to a needy
recipient; Illinois State pitching coach Bill Mohl, who lost his
wife to a rare form of cervical cancer during the season and
came back to help guide the Redbirds to a conference title,
raising $25,000 on his own for cancer research; Cody Stevens of
Northwestern, who returned to action after being hit by a pitch
in the head and needing emergency surgery for a blood clot that
nearly took his life; and the UTPA baseball team, which
befriended a pair of young children needing bone marrow
transplants and held numerous bone marrow and blood drives in
their community.
