For Piscotty, family, MLB’s Lou Gehrig Day a milestone
Major League Baseball will launch its inaugural Lou Gehrig Day today in an effort to raise awareness and accelerate the fight to cure ALS. Oakland A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty and his family have been key contributors in baseball’s efforts.
Piscotty lost his mother, Gretchen Piscotty, to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in 2018. He, his brothers Nick and Austin, and his father, Mike, started the ALS Cure Project to raise money and awareness toward a cure for the deadly disease.
“The national attention it’s getting, it’s cool to see that,” Piscotty said on Tuesday. “We’ve been working
hard within our local community. But to see folks working hard in other places in the country, it’s awesome to see and really exciting.”
Starting this season, MLB will host Lou Gehrig Day every June 2. The event will be celebrated on the anniversary of the day Gehrig was penciled into the starting lineup for the first time as part of his then-record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. It is also the day he died, in 1941. It will be baseball’s third day to recognize a former player attached to a cause, joining Jackie Robinson Day and Roberto Clemente Day.
Acknowledging ALS traditionally on baseball’s platform gives those impacted, like Piscotty, hope that awareness and progress toward a cure will skyrocket.
“It’s not going to be a oneoff thing where it kind of fades away,” Piscotty said in March, when MLB announced the new day. “Another fascinating thing is it’s been 80 years, and there’s really been no advance in this field. We feel like that’s just unacceptable. Hopefully, this is something that will keep up that will be a reminder in people’s minds and hopefully, the organizations in this fight can align and really make some significant advances. It’s not going to be easy, but I think this is a good starting point.”
On June 2 MLB players, managers and coaches will wear a “Lou Gehrig Day” patch on uniforms and red “4-ALS” wristbands. MLB will sell Lou Gehrig Day-inspired T-shirts, host auctions and release a non-fungible token (NFT) featuring Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” farewell to baseball speech delivered on July 4, 1939 after his ALS diagnosis. All proceeds will go to ALS charities, including the Healey Center for ALS.
All 30 teams will host individual ceremonies to commemorate Lou Gehrig Day. Piscotty’s dad, Mike, will join the A’s broadcast for their game against the Mariners to discuss his ALS CURE Project’s #ALSChatter campaign, intended to keep up the conversation about ALS.
“He’s put a tremendous amount of effort into making this day happen,” the A’s outfielder said of his dad. “He was part of the committee that pushed for this, and he’s been working hard on this as well as other things. He’s basically taken on a full-time job running our foundation.”
Since the A’s will be on the road in Seattle for the actual day, the team will host pregame ceremonies for Lou Gehrig Day prior to their June 8 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Ten dollars from each Field Level ticket sold for that game and proceeds from sold autographed photos of Stephen Piscotty will be donated to the ALS CURE Project.
On June 7, teammates Chris Bassitt, Seth Brown, Jake Diekman, Mike Fiers, Cole Irvin, Jesús Luzardo, Sean Manaea, Matt Olson, Lou Trivino, Chad Pinder and Trevor Rosenthal will join Piscotty for the inaugural ALS CURE Project Golf Tournament, with proceeds to go to the ALS CURE.
“Really awesome to get the support from my teammates,” Piscotty said. “That in itself is special for me to have them there and show their support.
“A lot of excitement coming up.”
HIP STRAIN LANDS LAUREANO ON INJURED LIST >> Oakland A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano has been placed on the 10day IL retroactive to May 28 with a right hip strain. Outfielder Skye Bolt was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas as the corresponding roster move.
Laureano missed the past four games with what manager Bob Melvin deemed groin tightness.
The A’s are 1-7 when Laureano is absent from the lineup, 1-3 over the last four-game stretch. The outfielder has been a spark plug, batting .257 with 22 RBIs in 48 games. His 11 home runs ranks second among MLB center fielders. He hit .292 with eight home runs in 24 games in May.
Bolt will be added to his second big league roster this year after a brief stint with the San Francisco Giants in late April, where he played in two games with one at-bat. Bolt, drafted by the A’s in 2015, was designated for assignment on April 1 to make room for Jed Lowrie on the 40-man roster prior to the start of the season.
The Giants claimed him off waivers on April 5 and designated him for assignment on April 30. On May 5, the Giants traded him back to Oakland for cash considerations.