For the Taylor family, baseball is more than a sport. "Baseball is like the whole life of our family," said Lynn Taylor. Take her son Gehrig. Yes, he was named after the legendary Yankee Lou. "It was pretty cool," Gehrig said after he learned who he was named after. "He's always been my hero. Always played through anything."
Lynn says naming her son after a ball player wasn't even a question. "I agreed so long as I could choose the middle name. So I chose Nolan Ryan," she said. Naturally, with a name like Gehrig Ryan, the youngest Taylor picked up a baseball bat at the age of one and quickly excelled, often getting placed on team's above his age group.
He advanced so far that the New York Yankees planned on flying out to see Taylor throw a bullpen session on Friday. "It meant a lot because Lou Gehrig was on the Yankees for all of his career and maybe I could be the second one," Taylor said.
But anyone who follows the game knows the sad history of Gehrig. Nicknamed "The Iron Horse", he set a record for consecutive games played before the disease ALS took him off the field and then two years later, took his life.
For this Gehrig, a pitcher who's fastball hit over 90, there's sad irony in finding out that last week, life threw a curve. For the last few years, Taylor has been battling chronic back pain and doctors recently diagnosed the problem as spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that can lead to more extreme condition which includes paralysis. He was told he would never play the game again. "It broke my heart," Lynn Taylor said. "Because it means to much to him."
At Centennial High School, where he pitched last year, practices for the upcoming season carry on in his absence but with Gehrig ever on the minds of players and coaches. "He knows he's got coaches and teammates here that care about him and pray for him," head coach Dan Durham said. "We just want to make sure he feels comfortable asking for whatever he needs."
Due to the intense pain, Gehrig will finish high school being home schooled, all the while hoping to get a surgery that his parent's insurance doesn't cover. "I have a 17 year old that may go paralyzed and that alone is scary," Lynn said.
"I'm not allowed to go workout, I'm allowed to walk. That's pretty much all I can do," Gehrig said on what doctors are allowing him to do. For the kid who attracted the eye of baseball's best, as his spine narrows, so too do his chances of ever throwing again.
His family has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for the surgery. Click here if you'd like to donate.
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