Wrigley Field honors Lou Gehrig—Boog Sciambi pushes ALS help

Boog Sciambi – On Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, pregame ceremonies tied the memory of Lou Gehrig to a message that ALS patients aren’t forgotten—led by Cubs broadcaster Jon “Boog” Sciambi, whose personal mission includes fundraising, awareness, and outreach to families liv

For at least one night at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, the initials weren’t just initials. They were a reminder that ALS can take away mobility, shrink communication, and leave people with a world that feels suddenly too small.

The Cubs marked Lou Gehrig Day with pregame ceremonies honoring the memory of the New York Yankees’ Hall of Famer—along with fans with ALS and their families invited onto the field. It was a baseball ritual with a sharper purpose: to keep the focus on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis not only once a year. but until a cure exists.

ALS is a progressive nervous system disease that affects how nerve cells communicate with your muscles. Over time, it leads to muscle weakness that gets worse, affecting how people move, speak and breathe. “It’s a beast that shows no mercy,” Sciambi said.

Jon “Boog” Sciambi, the Cubs’ TV play-by-play man, has spent years pressing for more than awareness. He wants people to remember the disease as something that lives in real households—where patients may start to lose the ability to reach others, and where families can feel stranded.

“When people are being affected by ALS. ” Sciambi said. “their mobility starts to disintegrate and their ability to communicate declines. and so their world gets really small. So [it matters] when you’re able to reach out and say, ‘Hey, what’s up?. Do you need help?. Would you like to go to the Cubs game on Lou Gehrig Day?. What can we do?’”.

He described what he came to understand over time: how badly people can long to feel seen. “I just think I realized how small your world gets after a while when you’ve had the disease — that you just want to feel seen. And I didn’t realize that you have the ability to give that to people. to say. ‘Hey. we didn’t forget about you. What can we do to make today special for you?’”.

That plea lands with added weight on Lou Gehrig Day. because the public story of the disease still carries its cruel irony. Gehrig, ALS’ best-known victim, was the “Iron Horse” for his durability. He played in 2,130 consecutive games, a streak that ALS brought to an abrupt end on April 30, 1939. Seven weeks later, on Gehrig’s 36th birthday, he announced his diagnosis. He died less than two years after that announcement.

Gehrig’s streak stood as the major-league record until Cal Ripken Jr., another Hall of Famer, broke it on Sept. 6, 1995—56 years later. And even now, nearly 85 years after Gehrig succumbed, there is still no cure. “To date, no one has survived ALS,” the exact cause of which remains unknown. The Mayo Clinic reports that about 10% of cases are inherited from a parent. The Cleveland Clinic says patients typically live another three to five years after diagnosis, although 10% to 20% live at least 10 years.

Sciambi adopted ALS advocacy as a personal mission after Tim Sheehy. a childhood friend from Roosevelt Island in New York. was stricken in 2005. Sheehy had about two years left and founded a charitable organization called Project Main Street. Sciambi became an early supporter and continued in that role for nearly 20 years.

One piece of that work has become part of the Cubs’ Lou Gehrig Day effort. Sciambi and Project Main Street partnered with Chicago-based Obvious Shirts to sell T-shirts that say “End ALS” in the colors of all 30 major-league teams. For the sixth consecutive year. the Cubs and Sciambi’s employer. Marquee Sports Network. have sponsored an online auction to benefit Project Main Street. with bidding at cubs.com/alsauction.

MLB’s charitable arm also ran an auction connected to the cause, including a Pete Crow-Armstrong-autographed bat among the items.

Sciambi said fundraising can be both practical and deeply personal. “I mean. you’re trying to raise money. and you’re trying to help people with their quality of life. but there’s that intangible component where you can do this thing for people that I hadn’t really contemplated. ” he said. For him, that intangible part circles back to the same goal: letting people know they haven’t been forgotten.

“There’s an element of it that’s just so [expletive] sad, because ultimately everybody dies,” Sciambi said. “But there are families that I stay in touch with, and that’s really cool.”

The Long Road to Today runs through school friendships and shared grief across baseball.

Sciambi attended Boston College. It was there that Pete Frates—diagnosed with ALS—came to national attention alongside Pat Quinn. a New Yorker diagnosed with the disease around the same time. Together with a third figure tied to the story’s origin. the group created the Ice Bucket Challenge that raised millions for research. Sciambi remains friends with John and Nancy Frates, Pete’s parents.

Across the sport, there are other families who have pulled the game closer to the fight. Stephen Piscotty, then an outfielder for the Athletics, lost his mom, Gretchen, to ALS. His dad, Mike Piscotty, has spearheaded numerous fundraising endeavors for ALS research, and has been in regular contact with Boog.

The late Chris Snow. a baseball and hockey writer who was hired by the NHL’s Flames for groundbreaking data analysis. lost his dad Bob. two uncles and a cousin to ALS before being diagnosed himself. Sciambi gave Snow’s family a lasting memory when he invited Chris and Kelsie Snow and their two children. Cohen and Willa. onto the field.

And in the last stretch of the pandemic era. Sciambi’s connection to ALS research shifted from personal mission to professional collaboration. He worked with MLB researcher Sarah Langs for ESPN during the pandemic. Sciambi broadcast from ESPN’s studios in Bristol. Connecticut; Langs. who had once been sports editor of the University of Chicago Maroon. provided him with the kind of information only she could.

If there is a face of ALS in MLB today. it is the ongoing presence of Langs. the article said: her smile. her persistence. her work despite what ALS has taken from her. Langs continues to work through all that ALS has thrown at her. while tweeting “Baseball is the Best!” on a daily basis. multiple times a day.

When Sarah told her best friend, baseball reporter Mandy Bell, of her diagnosis, Bell later wrote that she cried.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said.

“What on earth are you apologizing for?” Mandy responded.

“Because I don’t want to make you sad,” Sarah said.

In a day marked for a legendary player—one who once was known for durability—Sciambi’s message landed like a promise that the disease will not be reduced to a date on a calendar. The hope, he and others keep pushing toward, is that research finds the cure, yes. But until then. the work includes reaching out to people while their world is still big enough to be reached—and making sure they feel seen.

Lou Gehrig Day ALS Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Wrigley Field Jon Boog Sciambi Cubs Project Main Street Marquee Sports Network Obvious Shirts End ALS Pete Crow-Armstrong Cal Ripken Jr Tim Sheehy Sarah Langs Ice Bucket Challenge