by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–There is hope in finding the cure for ALS Lou Gehrig’s disease since the former Yankee great past away in 1942 and as you know the medical profession has been fighting cancer and heart desease for decades. So it’s hope the campaign to get donations to find a cure works, there is one thing that Major League Baseball does a great job with and that’s getting it’s players, community, and charity organizations together for a drive of this magnitude and raising funds for these deseases and it’s a good idea.

ALS is a terrible desease it’s a debilitating of the muscles and effects the motor skills of a person, it effects you mechanics and how you move. It starts in the brain, I hope they can do something about this and MLB is involved in doing these fund raisers. As recently as Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander had a ice water bucket dumped on him for the donation drive and Verlander is a good spokesman so the league is in good hands.

Lou Gehrig played in a era where their was no use of helmets required in the 1920s and 1930s, it was said that Gerhig had been hit in the head by pitches and other concussion related incidents which led to his getting ALS. The Giants Brandon Belt who is out with a concussion and had to drop out of a series in Milwaukee when he struck out four times after previously getting hit in the head during fielding practice.

You never know what the results are going to be when you get hit in the head especially by a thrown or hit ball, if you are a catcher like former Giant Mike Matheny he had to retire from playing after getting hit in the head by foul tips in the helmet. He’s now managing in St.Louis. He would have continued to play but the concussion forced him out.

I’ve seen a lot of teams do the ice bucket campaign and it’s caught on and it’s been successful, people have suffered with this disease long enough and now it’s time to find a cure. This is a very rich country and folks can donate $1 to $1,000 it would be worth while.

A’s sharing a roughed up field with Raiders: The A’s have ten games left in the month of August and majority of those game are here at the Coliseum starting this weekend. The Angels are here for three games and the Halos are in first place by a half game over Oakland. It could be a race to the end and it could come down to the last game of the season.

It’s a shame that the A’s have to share the same stadium as the Oakland Raiders but that’s the way it is until the two teams can get their stadium issues resolved. Centerfield is not looking too bad yet but wait until the end of next month then it’ll be tough as the Raiders would have had two months worth of football on the field. There is going to be baseball here no matter what so this could go onto October. The A’s will make post season the only question is are they going to win the division or are they going to be the wild card winner.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com