CLEVELAND -- When the ALS Association reached out to David Hollister to serve as the co-chair of the 2023 Cleveland Walk to Defeat ALS, there was only one answer he could give them.

Sure, he was well connected in the community. He’s worked in real estate, which is how he met the Dolan Family, the group at the helm of the Cleveland Guardians. He’s continued that friendship with club chairman/CEO Paul Dolan and his wife, Karen. Connections can certainly benefit when it comes to fundraising, but it was Hollister’s tie to the disease that made him the perfect candidate.

Hollister has known people who have battled and passed away from ALS. The first name he mentioned when talking with MLB.com was Donna Ott, who used to work in the Dolans' suite at Guardians games and developed a close relationship with the family and their friends. Ott passed away over the winter from ALS, which made this Lou Gehrig Day celebration even more important to the Guardians this year. Hollister was also diagnosed one year ago with a degenerative motor neuron disease, which is in the family of illnesses that includes ALS.

So, who better to honor this disease and the club’s tie to it than him?

To celebrate the Guardians’ Lou Gehrig Day on Tuesday, Hollister threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The team also asked the children of Alexander Claudio, a local Guardians fan living with ALS, to serve as the Play Ball kids before the game. The ALS Association, which Hollister knows well, was also provided kiosk space throughout the main concourse to share information with fans.

“I am throwing out the first pitch in honor of all organizations that are fighting the good fight and for families of ALS patients who bear such a large burden,” Hollister said.

Hollister admitted to being nervous for the first pitch. He even joked that he did not want to look like Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who spiked his first pitch earlier this season. But the weight of this day is more than throwing a ball from just in front of the mound to home plate in front of a crowd of people. Hollister is representing a group of people desperately searching for answers for one of the most brutal diseases.

“If Lou Gehrig played today and had the same disease, you’d have the same prognosis,” Hollister said. “Something not right about that.”

Hollister took a moment to think more deeply about a topic that he rarely likes to discuss. And who would? This disease is one that provides little hope, as patients are given an average of a two-to-five-year life expectancy at the time of diagnosis.

“It’s been over 80 years [since Gehrig’s diagnosis],” Hollister said. “And there’s some medication out there that is slowing things down. But think about all the breakthroughs we’ve had in other diseases since then.”

As MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, who is battling ALS, explained countless times during MLB’s Lou Gehrig Day celebration on Friday in multiple interviews, ALS is not rare, it’s simply underfunded.

“It’s sort of like when you’re in the market looking for a car and you decide what car you want and then you see them everywhere,” Hollister said. “It’s because you’re aware of it, you suddenly realize how many of that car there are. I think it’s a similar phenomenon.”

It’s this phenomenon that Major League Baseball and the Guardians are trying to take part in. Having events like this that get more eyes on ALS and more voices talking about the disease spreads awareness, which eventually can lead to more attention and funding to help more answers get discovered.

Even with the importance of this night on his shoulder, Hollister delivered a perfect strike before the series opener against the Red Sox at Progressive Field. This was the start of his efforts with the ALS Association to promote the ‘23 Cleveland Walk to Defeat ALS. And if Tuesday’s pitch was any indication of how this charitable endeavor will go, there’s a good reason he immediately told the ALS Association, “Yes,” when asked to be the co-chairman of the event.