Dozens of ballplayers from across Massachusetts spent 36 continuous hours on the diamond at Adams Park in Quincy this week, grinding through the 23rd annual 100 Innings of Baseball marathon — an event whose cumulative fundraising total for ALS research has surpassed $1 million. The total reflects more than two decades of volunteer umpiring, sleepless innings, and a cause that has touched the very organizers running the show.
A Grassroots Game Becomes a Seven-Figure Fundraiser
The 23rd annual event kicked off Saturday, October 10, 2026, at Adams Park, with dozens of athletes taking the field, according to Boston 25 News. The marathon has raised money for ALS research since 2004, and organizer Brett Rudy has said the event's very first year brought in $100,000. Over its 23-year run through this October, the game has raised $1,004,000 cumulatively for ALS research, according to figures from 100 Innings of Baseball.
Rudy created the marathon game in 2004 as a fundraiser called Curt's Pitch for ALS, timed to Curt Schilling's debut season with the Boston Red Sox, with Schilling and his wife Shonda actively supporting and participating in the early years of the event, per the same account. The game later shifted its sole beneficiary to The Angel Fund for ALS Research in 2012, the Wakefield-based charity that now hosts the event and directs over 90% of its expenditures directly into research, according to UMass Chan Medical School.
Organizers Living With the Disease They're Fighting
Rich Kennedy, president of The Angel Fund for ALS Research, was diagnosed with the disease ten years before this year's game and told Boston 25 News that ALS leaves the brain intact while the body gradually deteriorates. Kennedy has lost his father to ALS, as well as his younger brother, who was diagnosed at age 28 and died at 30. Kennedy was diagnosed in 2016 after already losing his father and two brothers to the disease, and he became the first human subject to receive an experimental gene-silencing treatment developed in connection with UMass Chan research, according to the Boston Park League. Kennedy later ran the Boston Marathon six years after his diagnosis, following that gene therapy, per the same account.
Walter Bentson, who runs the event for The Angel Fund, was diagnosed with ALS in 1999 and told Boston 25 News he remains involved and is proud of the game. The Massachusetts Baseball Umpires Association supplies more than 80 volunteer umpires who officiate the 36-hour marathon in two-hour shifts, and Bentson traditionally takes his own turn behind home plate at midnight, calling pitches with the help of a modified baseball bat used as a cane and requiring assistance putting on his protective gear, according to the South Shore Umpires Association.
Players Push Through 36 Hours on the Field
Some players stay on the field for roughly 36 hours straight, with ballplayers coming from across Massachusetts to take part. Patrick Keady said the game is tiring but hard to complain about given that Kennedy and Bentson participate despite living with ALS. The event's connection to the broader ALS community runs deeper still — former Boston College baseball captain Pete Frates was associated with the marathon game and later co-created the viral Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, while local amateur teams played that year's game in solidarity with Frates following his diagnosis.
The marathon's cultural footprint even extended to film: the game served as the focus of the 2023 documentary The 100th Inning, directed by player Alex Koppelman, which premiered at Salem Cinema in Massachusetts before streaming on Amazon Prime Video, according to TV Guide. The 90-minute film features organizers Bentson, Kennedy, and Rudy alongside the amateur ballplayers who keep the tradition running.
Where the Money Goes
The Angel Fund awarded $800,000 to UMass Chan Medical School in March 2026 to advance gene therapy and neurodegenerative disease research led by Dr. Robert H. Brown Jr. and Dr. Daryl Bosco, per UMass Chan Medical School. IRS financial records compiled by Candid showed the charity generated $895,977 in total revenue during fiscal year 2024 while maintaining over $3.17 million in total assets, as reported by the Worcester Business Journal, which noted the 501(c)(3) operates with minimal overhead.
Nearly 35,000 people in the United States currently live with ALS, according to the CDC, while UMass Chan Medical School research statistics put the global figure at roughly 450,000, with about 90% of cases classified as sporadic and 10% stemming from inherited genetic defects. UMass Chan says Dr. Robert H. Brown Jr. discovered the first gene linked to hereditary ALS. Hoodline has also covered new ALS research space expanding in Watertown as the fight against the disease continues across Massachusetts and beyond.
