Boston College Athletics To Name New Baseball & Softball Practice Facility For Pete Frates

Boston College Athletics announced on Wednesday afternoon that Phase II of the Harrington Athletics Village, BC’s new baseball and softball facility, will be named for Eagles baseball legend Pete Frates. Phase II of the project, scheduled to break ground this month, is expected to be completed in summer 2020.

Per Boston College, the Pete Frates Center should be a wicked impressive investment in BC’s baseball and softball programs:

The Pete Frates Center will provide a 31,000-square foot indoor baseball and softball facility featuring locker rooms, hitting tunnels, indoor turf field, strength and conditioning space, and a hospitality area. It will be located adjacent to the Harrington Athletics Village [the new fields], which opened in 2018.
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The center will provide BC’s baseball and softball student-athletes with a space to practice and train year-round, and will include sports medicine areas for treatment and recovery, as well as seven hitting tunnels with retractable cages, and space for a full-team practice on a turf surface. The baseball and softball teams will have their own locker rooms and player lounge areas on the ground level of the facility. Locker rooms and lounges for each coaching staff, plus a game-day space for umpires, will be included, as well as a hospitality area for donor and alumni use on game days.

Needless to say, this should be a boon for baseball and softball recruiting.

Naming the facility after Pete Frates is a no-brainer. Frates is one of the most recognizable names associated with Boston College Athletics, thanks in no small part to the viral Ice Bucket Challenge that swept across the world and is credited with raising more than 220 million dollars for ALS research.

According to Boston College, the naming of the facility as the Pete Frates Center is “thanks to the generosity of the Yawkey Foundation and a growing community of donors.” Good for Yawkey Foundation Chairman John Harrington (as well as the other donors involved) for recognizing how important Pete Frates is, not just to the baseball program but for the all Boston College alumni, in choosing to name the new facility on his behalf.

Congratulations of course to Pete Frates on the honor, and to the baseball and softball programs on having a brand new facility that will remind them of this great Eagle every time they walk inside!