New York Yankee Legend’s Disease Battle Rages 82 Years Later

82 years ago, a debilitating disease took down one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all-time at the young age of 38. Today, the baseball media world watches one of their own suffer at 29-years old with the same disease ALS, still with few answers.

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On July 4th 1939, Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig gave his infamous speech to a somber Yankee Stadium crowd. "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth," Gehrig told the crowd. Now 82 years after his death on June 2, 1941, Major League Baseball is banding together to help continue the fight against Gehrig's deadly disease that has hit another one of their own.

Sarah Langs is a researcher for MLB.com. She has worked for SNY, MetsBlog and ESPN. Just shy of turning 30, Sarah Langs finds herself facing a death sentence. According to als.org, ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Mayoclinic.org says that people diagnosed with the disease generally die within 12-18 months. However, ten percent will live a decade or more.

Sarah appears to be ever the optimist. Her famous twitter tag line is "Baseball is the best." So when faced the rest of her life spent with a deadly disease, Sarah had advice for compassionate baseball fans on espn.com, "We should be telling people who aren't dying how much we appreciate them. We should be approaching each day with that mindset. I appreciate every single word, every single punctuation mark from every single person, but everyone deserves to know how appreciated and loved they are. I look at people who are healthy and fine, and they're just as appreciated, but no one's telling them. Please, express your appreciation for others. Tangibly." You can donate to Sarah's fundraiser for ALS by clicking here.