Tides will help fight ALS

By rbrown
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Updated: June 15, 2021

The Portland Sea Dogs will be away on Friday, but there will still be some great baseball played at Hadlock Field that evening.

The Northeast Tides (New Hampshire), the Lexington Blue Sox (Massachusetts) and a Great Northern Collegiate Baseball League of Maine (GNCBL) select team will unite to play two baseball games and raise awareness and money for an extremely important cause: This will be a charity and fundraising event to benefit the Peter Frates Family Foundation.

Frates passed away at age 34 after an eight-year battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Following his diagnosis in 2012, Frates made his mark in battling this disease as he advocated for increased ALS education and prevention methods with the hopes of someday finding a cure. He did this by inspiring and popularizing the famous “Ice Bucket Challenge” through social media platforms. To state that the Ice Bucket Challenge was popular might be a bit of an understatement as videos of the challenge went viral worldwide and captured the hearts and attention of millions of individuals.

Frates played baseball and graduated from Boston College. He played professional baseball in Europe before playing for the Lexington Blue Sox of the Intercity Baseball League (ICL) and manager, Rick Deangelis.

The Blue Sox are known as the premier team of the ICL and currently roster two former Major League Baseball pitchers in Ryan O’Rourke (Mets/Twins) Manny Delcarmen (Red Sox).

Delcarmen pitched for the Red Sox from 2005 to 2010 and was a key member of the World Series Championship team in 2007. During that season, Delcarmen was dominant in his relief role by making 44 appearances while compiling a 2.05 ERA.

The return to Portland will be a reunion for Delcarmen as he pitched for the Sea Dogs in 2005, the same year that he would later debut as a rookie pitcher for Boston.

Delcarmen will pitch for the Blue Sox at Hadlock on Friday and will also conduct a pregame “meet and greet” with autograph signing at the Hadlock Field ticket gate.

Admission to this event is free, however the Tides, Blue Sox and the GNCBL ask that monetary donations are considered and appreciated. This will be organized at the front gate entrance to Hadlock.

Friday’s Schedule:

5-6:30 p.m.: GNCBL Select vs Northeast Tides

6:30 p.m.: Manny Delcarmen “Meet and Greet” with autograph signing

7-10 p.m.: Northeast Tides vs. Lexington Blue Sox