MLB honors Yanks’ Gehrig

Derek Jeter helped Major League Baseball commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s luckiest man speech Saturday, reading the famous line from the icon’s stirring words during a video tribute before the Yankees’ game against the Blue Jays in New York.

The Yankees also placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers by Gehrig’s monument in Monument Park and made a $25,000 donation to MLB’s “4 (diamond) ALS” initiative, an effort to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – the disease that forced Gehrig out of baseball in 1939 and took his life two years later.

“It’s one thing to me to have the game taken away from you before it should be but when you start talking about taking your life before it should, the way he handled it was incredible,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who has an uncle with ALS.

“I think any time you can pay tribute to this man I think you should do it.”

All major league players, coaches and on-field personnel wore patches Saturday to honor Gehrig’s legacy and the initiative’s logo was displayed on first base in each ballpark.

Reynolds sounds off

A day later, Mark Reynolds had no regrets about unloading his frustration over the Arizona Diamondbacks’ lackluster play.

With the cameras rolling Friday night, the third baseman seethed, “I don’t want to say guys are packing it in, but it sure seems like it.”

Reynolds said he just wants the team to get their act together.

“I back up everything I said,” Reynolds said. “I was pretty hot. But everything I said needed to be said.”

Indian pitchers debut

Two former aspiring cricket players who won a reality show in India have made their professional baseball debuts.

Left-hander Rinku Singh and right-hander Dinesh Patel, neither of whom had heard of baseball before appearing on “The Million Dollar Arm,” each got a strikeout for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Rookie-level minor league team.

Singh, who came in first on the show, allowed one run and two hits in one inning. Patel, who was second, threw eight pitches in a scoreless inning. Both are 20 years old.