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Former Boston College Baseball Captain Battles Through Lou Gehrig’s Disease

During his prime, Pete Frates was a leader of Boston College baseball — one of the team's captains, in fact.

Frates grew up in Beverly, Mass. and attended St. John’s Preparatory School, graduating in 2003. He played all four years on the baseball, hockey and football teams, and was an honor student. He then moved on to BC's 2007 class, majoring in communications and history, and becoming captain of the baseball team in his senior year. He also played summer ball in New England and Hawaii.

After college, Frates took an interesting road, moving to Hamburg to play in the German Baseball League, also coaching youth baseball in the country.

However, Frates' life took an unfortunate turn, as he was recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease — a condition in which the muscles slowly atrophy. Annually about 5,600 people in the United States are diagnosed with ALS, and although the prognosis is generally a two-to-five-year lifespan after diagnosis, some can live with the condition for much longer — the famous physicist Stephen Hawking has lived with the disease for almost 50 years.

There is no known cause of or cure for ALS.

Thursday at 10 p.m., NESN Daily will air a segment profiling Frates and his battle against the disease with some of the leading specialists at Mass General Hospital. Likewise, those interested in learning more about Frates' fight can find his personal website and blog by clicking here. Anyone looking to find out more about the disease in general can visit the ALS Association's website, or donate to medical research at The Angel Fund.

Photo via Twitter/PeteFrates3