A’s, Piscotty family go to bat against disease
Mike Piscotty interrupts himself from his impassioned discussion, saying, “I have to take a pause.”
From section 121 at the Oakland Coliseum, he turns his full attention to home plate, where his oldest son, Stephen, is stepping into the batter’s box. Stephen connects with the pitch, looping it into shallow right for a hit. Mike is delighted, as are his seatmates, Dr. Jon Katz, a leading doctor in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Joe Lewcock, a leading researcher on ALS.
This is a baseball game, but it’s more. For the three men in the stands, it’s also a business and brainstorming meeting on a life-and-death issue.
“We really need to come up with a business model that produces a cure,” Mike Piscotty said.
In May, Gretchen, Mike’s wife of 33 years — mother to three, including Stephen — died of ALS after a brutal and relatively brief struggle. The story was well documented, with the Piscottys letting The Chronicle and a few others into their Pleasanton home to tell their story in an effort to raise awareness.
“If no one else has to suffer this fate, I’m happy to do it,” Gretchen would say to requests.
Monday, the A’s will host an ALS Awareness Day. Their opponent will be the Yankees, whose pinstripes have done more to raise the profile of the disease than anything in history. For years, the cruel affliction was called Lou Gehrig’s disease for the late Yankee slugger who retired at 35 after being diagnosed with ALS. He died two years later, in 1941, at age 37.
Before the game, the A’s will present a check for $150,000 to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, the largest ALS research institute, based in Cambridge, Mass. The money was raised on Stephen Piscotty’s Gofundme site, with contributions from MLB, the Yankees, fans and a $75,000 donation from the A’s. In addition, a portion of proceeds from tickets sales and Piscotty’s jersey and shirt sales will go to the ALS institute.
It’s a start toward Mike’s vision of an organized plan of attack against one of the cruelest diseases of all. The body deteriorates piece by piece, while the patient’s mind stays sharp and aware of what is happening.
“The hope is that we can come up with a new business model that will incent drug and pharmaceutical companies to invest their A team and their A team-level resources towards the cure,” he said.
A stumbling block is that ALS is classified as a “rare disease.” Only about 20,000 in the United States are affected, with about 6,000 being diagnosed each year, and the same number dying from the disease. That makes it hard to get the attention of the drug companies that need a large target population to be profitable.
Mike still works full-time in IT at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. But he is devoting his energy and focus to building a business panel of smart people who will think in novel ways.
“Hard problems don’t scare me,” said Mike, who has a master’s in business administration. “I think this is solvable.”
Gretchen’s battle was unusually quick. In December, Stephen was traded to Oakland by St. Louis to fulfill his desire to be home. Five months later — just 16 months after diagnosis — Gretchen, just 55, died.
While Stephen went back to his job, hitting a home run in an emotional return after his mother’s memorial, his father retreated for about a month. After spending months trying to learn everything about the disease, he took a break.
But then, one day in June, he was riding a stationary bike at his local gym alongside his friend Mike Crawford, Brandon Crawford’s father. The news broke that Dwight Clark had died of the same horrifying illness.
“I think I have to reengage,” he told his friend, “and do what I promised Gretchen.”
Mike Piscotty attended Clark’s memorial, connecting with former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, who offered his support. He also has the support of A’s team president Dave Kaval.
Piscotty envisions putting together a tight business plan, first to fund the science to find biomarkers for the disease so that it is readily identifiable. He hopes he can get significant donations, including from MLB and the NFL. That makes sense if you think of the millions of times Gehrig’s “Luckiest man” speech and Clark’s “Catch” have been replayed as iconic moments in sports.
Next, the group would approach philanthropic organizations (like the Gates Foundation), in hopes that they would be willing to fund an enormous prize — in the billiondollar range — that would be awarded to the group that finds a cure. The goal is to incentivize funding for a drug that isn’t needed by millions of people.
“It’s a scourge we don’t need on this planet,” Mike said.
His dedication and ideas have impressed his seatmates. Katz, who was Gretchen’s doctor, is the director of the Forbes-Norris ALS Clinic in San Francisco. Lewcock is the head of Biology Discovery at Denali Therapeutics in South San Francisco.
“I like the idea that he’s thinking bigger than anyone else is,” Katz said of Piscotty. “He’s upping the ante.”
In addition to working, and networking over ALS, Mike spends a lot of his time watching baseball, not only at the Coliseum but also on the road. A 25-year A’s season ticket holder, he is enjoying every moment of watching his son play in green and gold.
“It’s been a real blessing,” Mike said. “It’s been healing for (Stephen). For me. For what our family’s gone through.”
One day in June, Mike was invited to come out with the grounds crew to drag the field between innings. He took the field in khaki shorts and an employee shirt. As his son was running out to right field, he shouted, “Hey, Steve.” When there was no response, he resorted to the childhood nickname. “Hey, Momo!” That got a response from his surprised son, and a laugh when Mike said it was “embarrass your kid at work day.” The nickname came from the “Three Stooges” tag Gretchen and Mike put on their three sons (including Nick and youngest Austin, who was recently drafted by the A’s). Stephen, on one of his youth baseball teams, decided to go by Mo, and then Momo.
Those connections to home and childhood have been important for Stephen, as has the A’s surprisingly fun and successful year.
“It’s been an emotional year, a bit of a roller coaster,” Stephen said. “Right now I feel I’m going up. I’m having a lot of fun on a special team that’s on a special run.
“I’m so thankful that I’m here. I can’t imagine going through this without being close to home.”
On Monday, the A’s and Yankees will play a game with postseason implications. And for something much more important.