Ever since I was in elementary school I have been a huge fan of Lou Gehrig and being a baseball fan from Houston it was not exactly the player to fall in love with but I did. Lou Gehrig was a baseball player from the 1920s through the 1930s and he was arguably as good as Babe Ruth was. However, his career ended early because of the disease now named after him. ALS or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurological condition that does not have a cure and will ultimately kill you.
Someone with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease has a very short life expectancy once diagnosed. The issue is though little is known about the disease as it is extremely rare. Direct testing for it currently does not exist and doctors typically spend a year ruling out other conditions before arriving at this diagnosis. ALS attacks the brain's ability to communicate with the rest of the body and eventually will attack the autonomic nervous system. This system is in charge of all the things that our body does without us thinking like breathing, digestion and keeping your heart beating. When anything messes with this system it is extremely dangerous and due to ALS preventing communication your heart will stop beating or you will stop breathing and will die due to this.
Even with baseball legend Lou Gehrigs name tied to this disease baseball did not do a ton of public things to bring attention to this. When the ice bucket challenge was large MLB did participate but besides that not much was done. After years of individuals advocating for a day in his honor it finally happened for the first time this year. Each year their is an award given out to the play who best exemplifies Lou Gehrig. The award was actually started by the fratinity that Gehrig was apart of at Columbia, Phi Delta Theta, in 1955 and is awarded annually. The winner does not nessisarily have to help rase awareness to ALS but rather to a charitable cause. Former winner Albert Pujols raised awareness for Downs Syndrome something his daughter suffer from and Derick Jeter won it for raising awareness for children in need.
This years winner though was extremely special as it was outfileder Stephen Piscotty a player for the Oakland Athletics. Piscotty was drafted in 2012 and made his Major League Debut in 2015 for the St. Louis Cardnials where he established himself as an everyday player and a good player at that. Not long after he signed his contract extension in 2017 though his life was dramatically altered. Initally he did not reveal what had happened to his team but he soon told coaches that his mom had been diagnosed with ALS. After the conclusion of the 2017 season he asked the Cardnials to trade him to be closer to his mom in Oakland.
This is not that common in baseball as it is in other sports but from time to time does happen. In a remarkable selfless move St. Louis reaced out directly to the Athletics to try and get him moved to Oakland. Together the two teams hashed out a good trade all around to send Piscotty home to where his mom was and importantly her medical care staff was located. It was applauded throughout sports as teams doing something for the player even if it hurt both teams to do initially. Piscotty was able to spend the remainder of his mothers life located by her and sadly she passed away in May of 2018.
After taking a little over a week off to be with his family after her passing he rejoined the team. His first day back he was supposed to be a "bat off the bench" which is someone who could start if needed but was really getting a day off. Bob Melvin, manager of the Athletics, has since stated that in a stroke of divine intervention the team needed Piscotty to start the game. Piscotty himself said that the first two pitches he saw in his first at bat he did not really even see. On the third pitch though Piscotty who is not a known power hitting hit a home run. Both he and his coach say that his mom was there with him for that at bat and that swing in a moment no one at that game will ever forget.
In the years since Piscotty has really tried to bring attention to this and get MLB to do something for the day. Finally it has paid off for his family and himself and the day was created. It was thus really amazing to see that he was the winner of this years award with his history with how the disease has impacted his family. Every once in a while sports does something beautiful and this is one of those examples and personally helps remind me that there is a bigger picture.
