Mayor Marty Walsh and the city of Boston honored Pete Frates today at a rally at City Hall Plaza for his courage and dedication to ALS research. Frates was diagnosed with the disease in 2012.

ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease -- named after the baseball great who also had the illness.

Frates, a former Boston College baseball star and an alum of St. John’s Prep School in Danvers, is known for inspiring the "Ice Bucket Challenge," a creative fundraising campaign for ALS research. The campaign went viral worldwide and has raised more than $220 million dollars for ALS research since 2014.

John Frates spoke with WGBH Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu and told him that Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred would be a guest speaker at today's rally.

To listen to Joe Mathieu's entire conversation with John Frates, click on the audio player above.