Former Boston College baseball player PETE FRATES yesterday signed a "professional contract" with the Red Sox. Frates, who suffers from ALS, was "wheeled to an area in front of the mound" where team GM BEN CHERINGTON "stood, holding a Red Sox contract." While "everyone in the park stood," Cherington "presented Frates with his contract." Red Sox players led by 2B DUSTIN PEDROIA "paraded from the dugout, greeted Frates, then presented the No. 3 Frates jerseys they wore at JetBlue Park back in their spring training opener against Boston College back in March" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/14).
IN THE PRESENCE OF GREATNESS: The biggest names in college basketball, including North Carolina's ROY WILLIAMS, Kentucky's JOHN CALIPARI and Michigan State's TOM IZZO, are "coming together for an incredible, unprecedented event to help defeat cancer." The event was the brainchild of Oakland Univ. coach GREG KAMPE. The highest bidders for each of the coaches "get to play golf, dine and socialize with any and all of the aforementioned names." Each winning bid for the 10 coaches "gets to bring two other guests." The event "takes place May 31 and June 1." On Sunday, May 31, the winning bidders and their guests "will be put up in hotel rooms" at the MotorCity Casino in Detroit and then eat dinner in a private room with a "chance to schmooze and swap stories with some of the biggest names in college basketball." Bidding prices "start at $10,000 but for those well off enough to do this and who don't want the chase, there's a buy-it-now option at $60,000 for any coach" (CBSSPORTS.com, 4/13).
GIVE IT AWAY NOW: Warriors co-Owners JOE LACOB and PETER GUBER, after buying the team and "studying the almost moribund Warriors Community Foundation," decided to "rejuvenate the program and relaunch it" in '13. Just this season, they have "donated more than" $1.5M to youth development efforts in the Bay Area -- a number that "leaps the Warriors into the NBA’s top five." The Warriors "receive about 75 applicants for grants that range from $10,000 to $50,000 a year." The Foundation's Chair and Lacob's fiancee, NICOLE CURRAN, has "decided to aim the Warriors’ efforts at education for underserved youth" in S.F. and the East Bay. The Warriors Community Foundation "isn’t like most endowments, which raise money and then give about 5 percent away each year." Lacob "wants to raise the money and give it away right away" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 4/13).
