Stephen Piscotty, the newest member of the A’s, loved his time in St. Louis and gets choked up thinking about his memories there. Ultimately, though, he’d rather be near his mother, Gretchen, who was diagnosed with ALS in May.
Thursday’s trade brought the outfielder home.
“Sometimes there are things more important than baseball,” Piscotty said on a conference call Friday. “This opportunity here is a great combination of family and baseball. I think it’s really the best thing for myself and my family. A lot of good is going to come out of it.”
Piscotty, who lives at his parents’ home in Pleasanton during the offeseaon, said that things have become more challenging with his mother’s condition, but his father, Michael, has been out in front of things, making sure that Gretchen Piscotty has all the right medications and equipment as she deals with the increasingly debilitating nature of ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.