The 8th Annual 100 Innings of Baseball Game for ALS

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The 8th Annual 100 innings of Baseball game for ALS will be held once again at Adams Field in Quincy, MA over Columbus Day weekend starting at 9:00am on Saturday, 10/08, and continuing for 33+ straight hours, ending sometime Sunday afternoon, 10/09.  Details from prior years, and graphics can be found at www.bostonbaseball.com/100innings.php.

Curt Schilling will once again be playing this year. His son Gehrig, a high school junior from Medfield, is expected to pitch some. I’d like to thank both Curt and Shonda Schilling for their continued support of the ALS cause. They’ve been true champions and have been directly responsible for raising over 10 million dollars for ALS since Curt began his major league career.

Reeboks is sponsoring the game for their 8th consecutive year, providing durable game equipment to those ironmen playing in this world’s longest game.

Donations can be made at:  http://www.gratefulnation.org/100innings

Since it’s inception in 2004, the 7 previous games have raised a staggering $488,000 for ALS, an incredible amount especially in these tough times.

In 2011, participants in the 100 innings and umpire chief Walter Bentson will align with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the ALS Clinic at BIDMC to help patients and programs in their clinic. Walter is an ALS patient himself, yet continues to be the umpire chief for this game, and for more than 14,000 regular season games around Boston during the regular season.

Here are some of the highlights from last year’s charity game…

Red Sox’ legend Curt Schilling threw his 7th annual 100 Innings of Baseball to raise money for ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Curt named his son after Lou Gehrig. This year, from innings 96 to 99, the 15-year-old Gehrig Schilling took the diamond, joined by his Medfield teammates, as Curt Schilling managed the squad. The game was at Adams Field in Quincy, MA.

For the first time in the game’s history, it was won in walk-off fashion. With the score tied 72-72 in the bottom of the 100th inning, Chad Griffiths of the MABL Boston Tigers drove in his teammate Dan Field to win the game dramatically. Notes:

• Gehrig Schilling was thrown out at the plate on a bang-bang play in the top of the 99th inning attempting to gain the go ahead run. He then pitched the bottom of the 99th scorelessly to send the tie game to the 100th inning.

• Bryan Curran of the Yawkey League’s McKay Club Beacons was the only player to homer in the game, and he did it twice.

• Walter Bentson umpired an inning at exactly midnight, as has been his custom in the 100 inning game.

• Brent Campbell of the Men’s Adult Baseball League’s Blue Jays pitched the first 30 innings of the game and recorded 21 strikeouts. Brent was like a Pitching Machine out there (I think I faced him twice…I was in the line up for 18 innings) as his goal was to break the game’s record of most consecutive innings pitched…I believe he came up just 3 innings or so short of his goal (someone please correct me if I’m wrong)

The approximate 150 adult amateur players playing came from more than a dozen amateur baseball leagues across Greater Boston. In addition to Team Medfield, the teenage players came from the Newton Central Little League team and The Stable Baseball Academy in Woburn. 19 “Iron Men” played all 100 innings.

2010 proceeds benefit ALS and the Walter Bentson Scholarship Fund, a fund that supports the children of PALS (patients of ALS) for their higher education. Walter Bentson is president of the Boston Park League, the oldest amateur baseball league in the country, and is also the Umpire Chief of several amateur baseball leagues. He also has ALS. See photos. Read the Press Release.