A week to remember for Ralph "Rocky" Fratto and his entire family

Life has a funny way of altering plans. The New York State Boxing Hall of Fame induction ceremony was originally scheduled for April 2024, then was postponed to Sept. 8, and then again once more to Sept.

15. The change of dates gave the Fratto family a nice gift: a day to celebrate Ralph “Rocky” Fratto’s career with an induction into the Hall of Fame, and on his son Mario’s 40th birthday, no less. That alone would have been enough for a lifelong memory for the whole family.



However, a week later, life threw a left hook at them; although unlike in boxing, this one was a cherished gift. One week following Rocky’s induction, Mario and his wife, Mariah, were preparing a salad to bring to the party at Ventosa Vineyards. However, neither of them showed up.

Mario and Mariah were rushing to Canandaigua hospital. “We were going out the door to the party and my wife started having contractions,” Mario said. “She’s trying to make a salad and doing all this stuff, and the contractions are now every two minutes.

I then said, ‘This is happening now.’” A 20-minute drive — which Mario noted was more like a race at that point — commenced and between the speed zones, roundabouts on County Road 4 and pulling up to the wrong entrance at the hospital, it’s needless to say the couple was no longer thinking of missing the birthday celebration. Right at the time where the cake was to be cut one Finger Lake over, Mario’s wife gave birth to their second child, Marcello Vincenzo Fratto, five weeks early, five pounds and perfectly healthy.

“Right as we went to the hospital, they end up cutting the cake, and singing happy birthday to my new son,” Mario said. “It was just unbelievable.” The week was a whirlwind.

With honors to be received, the Frattos packed up and headed to Russo’s On The Bay in Howard Beach, where Rocky was to be inducted into the NYS Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024. Alongside Rocky being inducted was Joan Guzman, Tyrone “The Harlem Butcher” Jackson, Johnny Davis, Alfonso “Panama Al” Brown, Johnny Colan, Peter Scalzo, Phil Terranova, Bruce Beck, Billy Calogero, Sparkle Lee, “Elegant” Eddie Post, Leo P. Flynn, George Kanter, Bill Maze and Bob Waters.

Dressed in a sleek suit and a big smile, Rocky accepted the honor with great humility and gratefulness alongside his sons. Mario spoke on behalf of his father, who thanked everyone in attendance and spent a large portion of the day shaking hands and speaking with fellow boxers and admirers. “For me, it was just the best present,” Mario said.

“It was just a great honor. He was so happy and moved to see all the people that were there.” Two of Rocky’s biggest admirers on the day was the New York State Boxer of the Year in Teofimo Lopez, who flew in last minute to be at the ceremony and insisted on meeting Rocky.

“He rushed to be there,” Mario said of Lopez. “He literally came off the plane and got there at the end to accept the award (for NY Fighter of the Year) and he was so grateful and for him to want to meet my dad and be so humble and respectful, it really made (my dad) realize what he did for boxing in New York State. “For (Rocky) to have heard of all these guys and to have his name in there with people like Carmen Basilio, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta; he saw them his whole life,” Mario said.

“These kind of guys that were part of boxing’s history and to have him right there with them was really cool. “He’s really in his rightful place with them,” Mario added. “You couldn’t ask for more.

I was just a really special day and you couldn’t ask for more.” Another admirer of Rocky’s was the legendary Vito Antuofermo — the opponent of Rocky’s sparring and training partner, Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the world title fight in 1979. Vito and Rocky shook hands, smiled and laughed as Antuofermo reportedly told Rocky, “You did a good job training Hagler!” “It was so cool because Vito was laughing and telling my dad, ‘Man, you really got Hagler into good shape for that fight,’” Mario said.

“I want to thank my mother and father for their support,” Rocky said. “My manager Tony Graziano, the late Billy Harris and the late Billy Joe Carter. I want to thank my wife, Sally, for always being there for me through thick and thin and being a strength to me throughout my career and being a wonderful mother to our sons; and I want to thank my boys for always making me so proud of them and giving me the most beautiful grandchildren a grandfather could wish for.

” Though perhaps a tad overwhelming, it was a week-long span the family will remember forever. “We’re so tight-knight and so close,” Sally Fratto said of her family. “All of that love and that strength all stuck together.

” “This story and then with my dad’s hall of fame induction really sums up our life, think, a lot of other people’s lives,” Mario said. “I that when you think you lost something, you look at what you gain. “Instead of having a birthday that was all about me, I got to honor my father for his Hall of Fame,” Mario said.

“And then, again, instead of my birthday party, I get a son. You can’t ask for more than that.”.