MLB.com researcher Sarah Langs continues to be one of the very best in the business despite her ongoing fight against ALS, an incurable, degenerative disease. And on Sunday, thanks to the use of AI, she narrated over a very touching feature on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball ahead of Lou Gehrig Day on Monday.
Langs wrote the feature that premiered in between half innings of Sunday’s matchup between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But due to the effect that ALS has on the vocal cords, Langs has been using an AI-assisted voice technology system created by ElevenLabs that allows for “Professional Voice Clones” to accurately depict her voice from the past.
She used this system again for Sunday’s game, narrating over a tribute to Lou Gehrig and his impact on the debilitating disease she and thousands of others continue to fight.
“We can’t tell the story of ALS without Lou Gehrig,” said Langs. “I have loved baseball my whole life and I am so proud of what our baseball community does to honor both his incredible Hall of Fame career, and the legacy of raising awareness he inspired in so many, including his wife Eleanor. Baseball and ALS is such a unique connection. No other sport is so closely associated with a specific disease in this way.
“Gehrig, who was known as the Iron Horse, who held the record for consecutive games played for so long, was the paragon of durability. Even before I was diagnosed, I have never been able to get over how tragically poetic that is. The player most known for constant and unchanging presence struck with the disease that most directly affects that ability.”
After the feature from Sarah Langs, ESPN MLB play-by-play voice Karl Ravech spoke to the kind of person that Langs is, praising her for her love of baseball and likening her to Gehrig by pointing out her constant presence in the sports media space despite her disease.
“Written by, and you heard the voice with the use of AI, Sarah Langs,” said Ravech. “Our beloved Sarah Langs, who is watching and working on this game with us. We invite everybody, with Monday, June 2nd being Lou Gehrig Day, to join Major League Baseball in the fight against ALS. Engage in the fight if you have the time, the financial resources, the energy. Can’t throw enough at the disease of ALS.
“Sarah, like the Iron Horse, continues to battle and be involved in the sport she loves. I know she feels as lucky as anyone to have made a living, and a life, and a career of being in this great game of baseball. From the time she was a little girl, she wanted to be in this sport. Mother wanted to be a sports broadcaster, wanted to call baseball. Comes from a baseball family. We know so many of you out there have been impacted by this disease. Please, please, do what you can to fight. T-shirts are available, Baseball is the Best, with all of the money going to the Project ALS Program. There are a bunch of great ALS fighters out there. They all could use the resources and the energy and the support. We are certainly behind all of them.”
Sarah Langs took notice of Ravich’s kind words to her, thanking him in a post on X along with everyone else who has shown her support over the years.
“So grateful to everyone who made this happen,” wrote Langs. “And to Karl for such kind words. Baseball is the best because its people are the best #EndALS.”