Mother of Athletics’ Piscotty dies

Gretchen Piscotty’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease has ended less than a year after the mother of Oakland Athletics outfielder Stephen Piscotty was diagnosed with the terminal illness. Piscotty, 55, died late Sunday night at her Pleasanton, Calif., home, according to Piscotty’s friend and former Stanford teammate, Sahil Bloom. Stephen Piscotty took a leave of absence from the St. Louis Cardinals on May 26, 2017, shortly after his mother was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease without a cure that gained prominence after Gehrig, the New York Yankees’ Hall of Famer, died with the condition at 37 in 1941. In a rare baseball trade that had a dash of humanity, the Cardinals traded Piscotty to the A’s in December, largely so Piscotty could be closer to his ailing mother. He grew up in Pleasanton with two baseball-playing younger brothers.