Tampa Bay Rays v New York Yankees / Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

Yanks Go Yard’s Adam Weinrib spoke with iconic Yankees announcer John Sterling at the ALS United Greater New York Lou Gehrig Legacy Gala on Tuesday night, where Sterling was being honored as a recipient of the Lou Gehrig Sports Award, alongside Adam Graves of the New York Rangers and Thomas Morstead of the New York Jets. For next steps and ways to get involved, check out their website (https://als-ny.org/), as well as details of their upcoming Walk ALS event here.

On Tuesday night at Pier 60 at the edges of Manhattan, the iconic voice of the Yankees John Sterling took to the microphone once more, using his booming instrument to raise both awareness and hope.

Sterling, one of three recipients of ALS United Greater New York’s Lou Gehrig Sports Award, dedicated his speech to highlighting just how long it’s been since Gehrig’s diagnosis, and how relevant his pain still remains today, in search of both mitigation and a cure for the dreaded disease.

“Lou Gehrig was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic 85 years ago,” Sterling told Yanks Go Yard. “So I think we have to make a little more progress in finding out the disease and being able to delay it or stop it, of course.”

Sterling’s inclusion in Tuesday night’s gala, which included a well-stocked silent auction to benefit the cause, helped collect over $600,000 to add to a total of more than $26 million raised by the Gala over the years. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, herself touched by ALS after losing her mother in 2014, presented the night’s Jacob K. Javits lifetime achievement award to Dan Doctoroff, battling the disease himself after helping to rebuild New York after Sept. 11.

In all, the night was a quintessential representation of the city and its urgency to fight. ALS United Greater New York President & CEO Kristen Cocoman noted that Tuesday’s centerpiece event represented a chance to thank and center all who are involved in the fight at every level.

“It’s a great way to raise awareness,” Cocoman related. “We’re able to bring the community together. We have not only our staff, our nurses and social workers here, but we have our clinics throughout the greater New York area. Our clinicians, our physical therapists, our social workers…all of the team members that are in those multi-disciplinary clinics that we fund are able to come here tonight and join in the recognition of what we’ve been achieving. We’re also able to bring the patient community and the families together, as well as some of our local fundraisers who’ve raised millions of dollars for us on an annual basis.”

Of course, with Sterling on site and on the dais, it was impossible not to also ask about someone else who should become a similar part of this city’s fabric, and the iconic broadcaster had a personalized recruiting pitch for Juan Soto at the ready:

Yankees’ John Sterling’s pitch to Juan Soto: “I’d take the $500 million”

“I happen to be a very pragmatic person, and I know people won’t believe this, but if I got offered $500 million with a team I want or $600 million from another team, I’d take the five,” Sterling told us. “You’re never gonna spend it, and your families are gonna be well-to-do for generations.”

After a brief pause, he interjected, in classic Sterling tonality, “But he may not be pragmatic! Maybe he wants to be the highest-paid one ever, I don’t know.”

“I hope [he’s pragmatic],” he added.