FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – The Fort Wayne TinCaps (Minor League Baseball’s High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres) will be donating to the ALS Association in memory of Kathy Winter, the late wife of the team’s longtime head groundskeeper Keith Winter.
The team released the following:
The TinCaps will auction off their game-worn, special-edition 15th-anniversary jerseys at the end of the season. Fort Wayne’s roster this year features some of the top prospects in baseball, including Ethan Salas (MLB.com’s No. 1 prospect among catchers) and Dylan Lesko(one of the sport’s best young pitchers). The jerseys will be available to bid on at a later time via tincaps.com/auction.
Kathy passed away May 3 at the age of 66, about three and a half years after her first symptoms of ALS. Her own choreographed “fun”-eral will be held at Parkview Field, the home of the TinCaps, on Saturday morning.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord. When these cells die, voluntary muscle control and movement dies with them. Patients in the later stages of the disease are totally paralyzed, yet in most cases, like Kathy’s, their minds remain sharp and alert. Currently, there are no cures for ALS or effective treatments to stop the progression of the disease. Kathy donated her body to the Indiana University School of Medicine for ALS research.
While May is ALS Awareness Month, on June 2, Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball will celebrate Lou Gehrig Day to raise awareness and funds for the fight against ALS. June 2 was specifically chosen as the date for Lou Gehrig Day as it marks when Gehrig became the Yankees starting first baseman, thus cementing the start of his incredible streak of consecutive games played, as well as the day he passed from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
As shared in a feature story by WANE 15, Kathy and Keith were high school sweethearts, married for more than 40 years, parents of three, grandparents, and active members of Fort Wayne’s City Church. Kathy was a nurse at Parkview Health. Since Keith joined the TinCaps in 2010, he has been awarded the Single-A Sports Turf Manager of the Year numerous times and in 2017, Parkview Field won the Sports Turf Manager Association’s “Field of the Year” award for all of professional baseball.
Visit MLBtogether.com/4ALS today to learn more.
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