Mets’ High-A affiliate to host ALS Awareness Night

Mets’ High-A affiliate to host ALS Awareness Night

Lou Gehrig gave his iconic farewell speech to

baseball more than 85 years ago. Even doctors

are baffled by the symptoms of Lou Gehrig’s

disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral

sclerosis, or ALS. It is described as “a nervous

system disease that affects nerve cells in the

brain and spinal cord” by the Mayo Clinic I. ALS

eventually impairs the ability to regulate the

muscles involved in breathing, eating, speaking,

and moving. So while scientists and doctors

continue to try and find clues that prove

frustratingly elusive, ALS awareness is at an all-

time high. It is drawn into the baseball world’s

consciousness every June 2 when MLB celebrates

Lou Gehrig Day. On July 20, during the Cyclones’

game against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws at

Maimonides Park, the Mets’ High-A club will host

its inaugural ALS Awareness Night. The event

has a very personal origin story in addition to its

goal of increasing awareness about ALS. “We

have been keeping an eye on this for a while

now,” assistant general manager Billy Harner of

the Cyclones stated. We felt that this would be a

wonderful way to memorialize [Club Vice

President] Steve Cohen, who lost his father to

ALS last year, as well as to contribute to the

effort to combat the illness. Cohen (not to be

confused with Mets and Cyclones owner,

chairman and CEO Steve Cohen] has been with

the club since its inception in 2001, shared a

photo after his father’s death. It showed his dad

in a City College (located in Manhattan) baseball

uniform when he was younger, and the Cyclones

will wear special white uniforms in his honor

that have red trim that matches the official ALS

Association colors.

“I was saddened when I learned that someone I

knew had ALS, but I also believed that it was

incredibly uncommon,” Harner remarked. “For

whatever reason, it appears to be considerably

more common these days. The more people we

spoke with about [ALS Awareness Night], the

more we discovered how many more people it

has affected. Brooklyn has a long history of

charitable activities. The group participates in

community activities and works with groups

such as the American Cancer Society. In order to

raise money for different causes, the club also

organizes an annual event called “Play Ball

Weekend” when staff members and

neighborhood children teams compete in a

series of games over the course of 24 hours.

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