A Winning Pitch: An Update to Our Nov. 10, 2008, My Turn
Michael Goldsmith advocated for MLB to play a bigger role in fighting ALS. Baseball listened.
It's been three years since Michael Goldsmith received what he calls his "death sentence": a diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In recent months, Goldsmith has seen the paralyzing muscular disorder, which has no cure, progress rapidly. His speech is impaired, and he's more reliant on a wheelchair.
Still, Goldsmith, 58, plans to be at Yankee Stadium July 4 to partake in baseball's 70th-anniversary celebration of what may be the sport's most memorable non-game moment: Gehrig's "luckiest man" farewell speech. Before every major-league game, a ceremony will honor the great Yankees first baseman as part of the launch of MLB's "4ALS Awareness" campaign.
It was Goldsmith's My Turn last November that triggered events. Since his diagnosis, Goldsmith has found solace in the game he loved as a boy. Baseball and ALS are inextricably linked through Gehrig—and to Goldsmith, it made sense that MLB should assume a leadership role in fighting the disease. "It's time to end the heartbreaking legacy that bears his name," he wrote. "I now look to the game of my youth to give me and others like me a chance for life."
New York Times columnist George Vecsey picked up on the idea—and, most important, baseball commissioner Bud Selig did, too. Selig says he has watched the Lou Gehrig biopic, The Pride of the Yankees, at least 50 times (and still cries at the end). "If our history can … help find a cure for this horrible disease," he tells NEWSWEEK, "it's the right thing to do."
Less than a week after the My Turn was published, MLB, working with Goldsmith, had already begun planning its Gehrig tribute. It's only the start; Selig promises an ongoing partnership with the ALS community. At all 15 games on July 4, the 4ALS logo will be prominently displayed on uniforms, batting helmets, and first base, and there will be live and video readings of Gehrig's speech as well as fundraising activities.
Goldsmith has been buoyed by MLB's commitment to his cause. While he may not consider himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth," he recognizes the enormous potential of this campaign. "ALS robs us of our future," he e-mails. "MLB's decision has produced renewed hope."
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Mark Starr was named a senior editor in March 1998. He continues to serve as Newsweek's Boston bureau chief, where he has been headquartered since 1985. Starr has also held the title national sports correspondent since 1992. Before moving to Boston, he spent four years as a general editor in National Affairs.
Starr has covered eight Olympics, beginning with the Winter Games in Albertville and the Summer Games in Barcelona back in 1992. Before the Salt Lake Olympics, he wrote a cover story on American skating queen Michelle Kwan and, during the Games, covered both figure skating's judging scandal and Sarah Hughes' upset gold medal. In December 2001, Starr profiled Hughes in Newsweek's year-end issue as the "Athlete to Watch" in 2002, calling her a strong upset possibility in Salt Lake.
He was also prominently involved in four cover stories on the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga, which climaxed on the ice in Lillehamer, Norway in 1994. Starr has also covered three World Cups, writing cover stories on the shocking French men's home triumph in 1998 as well as America's "girls of summer," after they beat the Chinese in a thrilling Rose Bowl shootout in 1999. Starr has always been interested in women's sports. In 1996, he wrote on the U.S. women's basketball team hopes for an Olympic gold medal to jump-start a pro league. A year earlier Starr sailed with the women of America3 before its America's Cup challenge in San Diego.
Starr was a major contributor to Newsweek's special issue on the retirement of Michael Jordan, "The Greatest Ever" (October/November 1993) and the March 20, 1995, cover story on Jordan's first return to basketball, "Hoop Dreams." Starr has profiled a wide range of top personalities and performers in all sports including basketball's Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, baseball's Pedro Martinez, NFL coaches Steve Spurrier and Bill Parcells, skating star Tara Lipinski, tennis' Martina Hingis, boxing champ Evander Holyfield, track stars Marion Jones, Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis, soccer superstars Roberto Baggio and Mia Hamm, Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller, speedskating queen Bonnie Blair and golfer David Duval.
Starr has also covered some of the more dramatic political stories out of Massachusetts, including John Silber's longshot bid to capture the State House, congressman Barney Frank's revelation that he was gay and Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign for the presidency. Starr rode the Dukakis "bus" from New Hampshire until the November election.
Prior to Newsweek, Starr covered Central America for the Chicago Tribune during the Sandinista revolution of the late '70s. He was also a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury-News.
Starr, a native of Boston, holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A. in journalism from Stanford.
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