If you’ve been on baseball media the last 24 hours, chances are you’ve seen your fair share of love towards Lou Gehrig and his eponymous Lou Gehrig Day, which became an MLB-recognized occasion in 2021 that raises awareness for ALS, the very disease that took the life of the Hall of Fame first baseman for the Yankees. It’s a day to realize that baseball is bigger than baseball, when we acknowledge and cherish the achievements of MLB researcher Sarah Langs, New Orleans Saints hero Steve Gleason, and others who have been afflicted with the chronic disease. Many MLB teams honored fighters of ALS during last night’s festivities, as we begin a month honoring Gehrig, who sadly passed on June 2, 1941, but was born on June 19, 1903.
When I wrote my children’s baseball history alphabet book back in the mid-2010s, I made the decision to donate the money I made from its sales to charity. One of those charities ended up being the ALS Association because of its affiliation with baseball through Gehrig. Fellow Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, a pitcher for the A’s and Yankees, also succumbed to the disease, and now Langs, who has been a stats afficionado professionally since 2015, has it, too. To have a disease associated so closely with your favorite sport brings new meaning to the disease and the sport itself. In the sinister way life works, tragedy bonds those who most feel it closer together. The rallying cry heard from baseball fans when it comes to ALS research over the years has been the loudest. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the summer of 2014 was started by Red Sox fans, and Langs just started her #FistBumps4ALS fundraising campaign to spread ALS awareness (the “4” is symbolic of Gehrig’s uniform number).
To demand a donation from the world for ALS causes would seem useless on a date that seems hundreds of years from curing an incurable disease. But “awareness” is such a broad term, isn’t it? Advertising agencies talk about brand awareness for their clients’ public relations, social media influencers want literal awareness (“traffic”, if you will) of their posts, and forest patrol wants you to be “aware” of any bears in the woods. But when it comes to a disease, to what, where, or whom should we show awareness? Is ALS a disease? Yes. Is it bad? Yes. Does that acknowledgement constitute awareness? Sure. Is that good enough? It depends on if you have the disease or not.
“Awareness” might just be the word that makes the most sense in the context of ALS, but there are deeper, more powerful ways to fundraise for ALS, even without donating. “Understand” ALS. “Consume” its content. “Care” about it in tangible ways. And sure, “donating” is great, but not everyone has the income to do that. Pour a bucket of ice on your head. Record a video of you fist-bumping. Just “do” something for ALS because the one thing that people who have the disease need more than ever is a show of support.
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