A DAY FOR LOU
MLB designates June 2 as day to honor Gehrig in fight against ALS
Major League Baseball will hold its first Lou Gehrig Day on June 2, adding Gehrig to Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente on the short list of players honored throughout the big leagues.
Each home team will have “4-ALS” logos in ballparks to mark Gehrig’s No. 4, and all players, managers and coaches will wear a Lou Gehrig Day patch on uniforms and may use red “4-ALS” wristbands. Teams that are off on June 2 will observe Lou Gehrig Day on June 3.
MLB said Thursday that the day will focus on finding cures and raising money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, which is known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The day honors Gehrig and others who died of the progressive disease that attacks nerve cells controlling muscles throughout the body.
June 2 marks the 96th anniversary of when Gehrig started at first base for the Yankees in place of Willy Pipp. Gehrig’s streak actually started the day before, when he entered as a pinch-hitter. He went on to play 2,130 consecutive games until he took himself out of the lineup due to poor performance caused by his illness on May 2, 1939.
Gehrig’s record stood until September 6, 1995, when it was broken by the Orioles’ Cal Ripken Jr.
Gehrig was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939. He died of ALS at age 37 on June 2, 1941.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement that Gehrig’s “humility and courage continue to inspire our society” and “the pressing need to find cures remains.”
MLB’s committee includes Oakland outfielder Stephen Piscotty, whose mother died of ALS; Colorado outfielder Sam Hillard, whose father has been diagnosed with ALS; and Milwaukee catcher Jacob Nottingham, whose family includes six people who died of ALS.
MLB teams and players helped raise millions of dollars in 2014’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The Yankees often mark the anniversary of Gehrig’s farewell speech on July 4, 1939.