Bill Lyon, right, meets with his doctor, Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish.
After decades of Bill Lyon sharing his gift with the Philadelphia sports community, he’ll be thanked Wednesday evening in the middle of the Phillies infield.
The “sportswriter emeritus” will throw the ceremonial first pitch of Alzheimer’s Association Night at Citizen’s Bank Park.
Working for The Philadelphia Inquirer for more than 40 years, Lyon had covered the biggest moments in sports: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Olympics. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times.
But, as one dedicated reader told him in a letter that “dropped me to my knees,” “of all the millions of words you’ve written, these are gonna turn out to be the most important.”
Three years after receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease at the Penn Memory Center, Lyon began fighting “Al” with his greatest weapon; he penned a series of weekly columns detailing what it is to live with the disease.
“My hope is that the columns will be cathartic and perhaps be of some help to anyone else who’s going down this same long and winding road,” he wrote at the beginning of the series.
Lyon’s columns were syndicated through a Chicago Tribune wire service, and readers from across the nation — as far as the north shore of Maui — began reaching out with an “overwhelming” show of support.
“I’m still trying to answer emails from that series. I passed 2,000 the other day,” he said. “They either have Alzheimer’s or have someone who has Alzheimer’s.”
Letter after letter after letter written to the Inquirer called for a tribute to honor Lyon. And so Inquirer parent company Philadelphia Media Network partnered with the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to plan Wednesday’s event.
“I’m very humbled by it, I’ll tell you that,” Lyon said.
Lyon, a lefty, said he’s been practicing his pitch, but he’ll likely take a few steps off the pitcher’s mound before winding up.
“It may be the one time someone can throw a wild pitch and they don’t get booed,” he said with a laugh.
Visit www.phillies.com/alzheimers to purchase tickets. Ten dollars from each ticket sold will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association of the Delaware Valley.
Read Bill Lyon’s columns below:
Part I: My Alzheimer’s fight: Never, ever quit
Part II: My Alzheimer’s fight: Adjust, adapt, push on
Part III: My Alzheimer’s fight: Mind, Body, Meds
Part IV: My Alzheimer’s fight: Shaping Other Minds
Part V: My battle with Alzheimer’s: Finding my way back
Bonus: Dr. Jason Karlawish: ‘So how does he do it?”