An Apology From Our Editors: Lou Gehrig Did Not Get ALS From Eating Too Many Baseballs

In the rush to print, publications must balance due diligence with experience. Regrettably, we at Sports Riot failed to do so on June 3, 1941. The editors at Sports Riot sincerely apologize for incorrectly reporting that Yankees legend Henry Louis “Lou” Gehrig Jr. contracted his ALS by eating over 30 MLB regulation baseballs per day.

New evidence has come to light that the disease Gehrig suffered, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—or “ALS”—is apparently contracted via a mix of genetic and environmental factors, with baseball munching only marginally linked with diagnosis. Multiple press statements in which Gehrig admitted to occasionally housing entire baseballs in the privacy of his own home led us to falsely conclude that he participated in baseball-eating in enough quantities that would lead to ALS. Regardless, we spoke to several physicians who confirmed to us that giving into your ravenous hunger for baseballs is, in fact, still horrible for your health.

Further, we would like to apologize to the Spalding corporation, whose official MLB baseballs we unfairly characterized as “spherical agents of death,” leading many of our readers to send threatening letters to the company’s CEO as well as burn down their corporate headquarters. In our defense, a Spalding baseball would be implicated in the mid-air collision death of a dove at a spring training game at Tucson Electric Park over 50 years later. As far as we know, though, this is the only fatality linked to Spalding’s products. Again, Sports Riot regrets the error.

To remedy this, we asked our reporters to conduct new research into Gehrig’s illness, and sources now inform us it was actually the 7 MLB-regulation wooden bats Gehrig ate per day which ultimately led to his death.