Piscotty earns Gehrig Memorial Award

SEATTLE — A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty is involved deeply in the effort to raise awareness and pursue a cure for ALS, the disease that took the lives of Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig eight decades ago and Piscotty’s mother, Gretchen, in 2018.

Now, Piscotty holds an honor featuring Gehrig’s name.

Piscotty is the recipient of this year’s Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, presented annually by the Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity “to a Major League Baseball player who best exemplifies the giving character of Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig, a member of the Fraternity’s Columbia University chapter,” the fraternity announced.

Piscotty is the first Oakland A’s player to receive the award, first given in 1955. Names of each recipient are on a plaque at the Hall of Fame. He will be presented with the award in a pregame ceremony Tuesday, when the A’s hold ALS Awareness Day at the Coliseum, the team announced.

“Obviously, it means a lot,” Piscotty said. “I feel like I’m sharing in it with a lot of other people, especially my dad, all the work he’s done and a lot of the people in our foundation that are putting a lot of time in. I’m the one kind of in the spot where I’m put in the spotlight, but I know they’re sharing in it with me. So very humbled and thankful for it, that’s for sure.”

After Gretchen Piscotty’s death in May 2018, the Piscotty family started the ALS Cure Project, which works to raise funding for research into a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Mike Piscotty, Stephen’s father, guides the ALS Cure Project and was part of the committee that spurred MLB to create Lou Gehrig Day. The first Lou Gehrig Day aimed at raising awareness and funds to fight ALS was observed leaguewide Wednesday.

The A’s will observe Lou Gehrig Day at the Coliseum on Tuesday. Several A’s players will also take part in the Project’s fundraising golf tournament on the team’s offday Monday.

“That was one thing going into this and knowing that the Lou Gehrig Day was happening, to make sure there was some momentum afterward to keep the conversation going,” Piscotty said.

Piscotty learned he would receive the Gehrig award Wednesday from manager Bob Melvin, who also brought it to the team’s attention before the A’s played the Mariners. “What an honor and deservedly so,” Melvin said.

According to the award announcement, the ALS Cure Project has funded $700,000 of ALS research since its inception. Previous award recipients include Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial, Willie Stargell and Lou Brock. The 2020 recipient was Giants catcher Buster Posey.