CLEVELAND — All 30 Major League Baseball teams are celebrating the inaugural “Lou Gehrig Day” on Tuesday, June 2.
The celebrations are not only meant to honor the legacy of the “Iron Horse,” but also raise awareness and funds for ALS — the disease that took his life and informally bears his name.
At Progressive Field, the Cleveland Indians are supporting and hosting the local ALS Association Northern Ohio Chapter.
Rain postponed the @Indians game ⚾️ But it’s not stopping the @MLB from celebrating the inaugural #LouGehrigDay. Players, managers & coaches will wear these “4 ALS” wristbands & patches to honor the Iron Horse – All to raise awareness & funds for @alsassociation @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/pOz423X4SG
— Micaela Marshall (@MMarshallTV) June 2, 2021
There are special Lou Gehrig baseballs and two families who have lost loved ones to ALS will be recognized through remembrance graphics during the game.
MLB players, managers and coaches will also wear a special uniform patch that says “4-ALS,” “4” being Lou Gehrig’s retired uniform number with the New York Yankees.
ALS advocates said more awareness and funding is needed to find a cure.
“I think the difficulty is the majority of people it’s still considered a sporadic disease. It comes out of nowhere. People who were very healthy, active, never sick a day in their lives — so that’s the harder part to figure out what’s the mechanism there,” said Lisa Bruening, the director of Care Services of the ALS Association Northern Ohio Chapter.
The ALS Association estimates a little more than 5,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year.
Many people may remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge back in 2014. That was a major fundraising campaign that raised $115 million for ALS research.
But when you compare cancer to ALS for example, there is a big gap in research dollars.
The National Institutes of Health estimates in 2020, $111 million was spent on ALS research and more than $7 billion went to cancer.
But of course there are many different kinds of cancer and cancer has a higher incidence rate.
“We have to keep the hope and we have to keep fighting and trying to find that cure while we’re helping people negotiate every day like, how do we adapt to this. Every day they’re adapting to something new, a different loss of function or the technology,” said Bruening.
June 2 is a significant date in Lou Gehrig’s story. It’s the day he became the Yankee’s starting first baseman in 1925, which kicked off his iconic streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. June 2 is also the day he died in 1941, about two years after his ALS diagnosis.
During his famous farewell speech in 1939, Lou Gehrig said he considered himself the “luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” Spectrum News met an Ohio woman living with ALS who shares a similar outlook. Check out her story here.
Lou Gehrig is the third MLB player to be honored annually with his own dedicated day. He joins Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente who are other Hall of Famers celebrated with a league-wide day.
The hope is events like “Lou Gehrig Day” will continue to spread the word and help raise more funds in the fight for a cure. The ALS Association just announced a big goal: Make ALS a “liveable disease” by 2030.
