Hey everyone,

Please consider visiting this site and leaving a comment or rating on the blog posts, or on one of the news stories, that MLB has put out on ALS Awareness day this July 4th - http://mlb.mlb.com/4als

Also, I am pleased to announce that we now have more than 100 BBQ For ALS Awareness events signed up to happen this upcoming Independence Day weekend! You can see a map of them here: http://www.als.net/4als We will be sending out an email blast to the ALS TDI network later this week with more information on this program and other ways that folks can become involved in what has become the single largest ever grassroots fundraising and awareness event for ALS TDI and perhaps this disease overall since Gehrig’s retirement 70 years ago.

All of these events will join with and stand together with all the MLB clubs and players taking part in MLB's 4ALS Awareness campaign. We hope to provide additional information on those activities soon, but if you have specific questions, please feel free to ask or email/call me directly. ALS TDI is proud to partner with MLB and the three other ALS organizations on this campaign and look forward to continuing to work together with them to hasten the day when ALS can and will be stopped.

This week I will update this post a few times with more information on other news stories and events taking place on the fourth to raise awareness (and yes research funding) for ALS.

Best,
Rob

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Robert A. Goldstein
Director of Communication
ALS Therapy Development Institute
617-441-7295
rgoldstein@als.net

Hey everyone,

Here is an article on the effort that appeared in the Boston Globe today:

Charity begins at home plate
BY: Dan Shaughnessy
July 1, 2009

Going to Fenway Park for Red Sox-Mariners Saturday? Bring a box of tissue. Bring your checkbook, too. Boston’s ancient baseball theater will be one of 15 major league parks honoring the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech (“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth’’) and raising funds to support ALS research. It’s called “4ALS Awareness’’

Nice going, MLB. In 1939, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis took Gehrig off the field after 2,130 consecutive games and now baseball is joining the fight against the deadly disease.

“We’re involved with a whole series of charities,’’ explained commissioner Bud Selig. “We get asked a lot. But I’ve had inquiries about ALS from a fair number of people over the years, because of the Lou Gehrig connection. I said to myself, ‘This disease is so horrible and it affects so many people and it’s as dreaded today as it was in 1939.’ This is our chance to increase awareness, raise some money, and reach out to all the people affected and show people we do care.

“I can’t give any more reason than that. That’s how it happened. I wish my other decisions were as easy as this one.’’

Throughout baseball Saturday, players will wear 4ALS patches. First bases (Gehrig’s position) will be auctioned, and during the seventh-inning stretch there will be a reading of Gehrig’s famous speech, delivered to 61,808 fans at Yankee Stadium July 4, 1939.

“You know how I feel about the tradition of our sport,’’ said Selig. “Ask me how many times I’ve watched Gary Cooper in ‘The Pride of the Yankees.’ At least 100 times. He was such a wonderful human being. To be struck down the way he was and gone in two short years - he was an indestructible player.’’

How good was Gehrig? You often read and hear about the 1927 Yankees. Buffered by performance-enhancing hot dogs, Babe Ruth smashed a record 60 home runs that season. But did you know that Gehrig hit .373 with 47 homers and 175 RBIs?

Never missing a game, the Iron Horse kept going strong into the late 1930s. He felt weak at the end of the 1938 campaign and took a $3,000 pay cut for the following season.

FULL STORY: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2009/07/02/als_event_saturday_proves_charity_begins_at_home_plate/

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Robert A. Goldstein
Director of Communication
ALS Therapy Development Institute
617-441-7295
rgoldstein@als.net