Wake Forest, N.C.: As baseball people, we all should know about “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This disease attacks the central nervous system and spinal cord and renders the person unable to move to the point where they cannot blink their eyes or even breathe. Two New York Yankees were unfortunate enough to contract this debilitating and most frightening disease, Lou Gehrig and Jim “Catfish” Hunter.
This is the 70th anniversary of that famous speech by Lou Gehrig where he said that, “he felt like the luckiest man on the face of the earth”. Major League Baseball, Inc. has partnered with the ALS Foundation to raise money for this organization and they felt that they should do something too.
"We want the kids that play baseball in this area to become more aware of their community and start to give back. In participating in this event we feel that our ballplayers will begin to think about their surroundings and other, less fortunate people", says Bobby Follmer the director of Track-Out Baseball.
The way it will work is easy. The ballplayers make a pledge to raise a certain amount of money and on the day of the event, they will present (as a team) their goal and what they in fact, realized at the end. The team who raises the most money will receive the largest trophy and possibly be interviewed on NBC-17 News in Raleigh as they will be covering this event.
The “24 Hours of Baseball Marathon” will start on Friday July 10 @ 6:00 PM and we will end @ 6:00 PM on the 11th. We will have an area where all teams that would like to, can set up tents and stay all night and camp out. There will be no fires or open flames on the fields (had to say that). We invite grills, near the building only. We will have an “off duty” police officer to control the gate and prevent any mischief.
For more information please visit: www.capitalcitybaseball.com for more information.
