By Edwin Cooney
Last Friday, we celebrated the 238th year of
American independence. That, of course,
was patriotic. However, 75 years ago on
July 4th, 1939, a Tuesday, an absolutely awesome event also occurred.
The time was midafternoon.
The place was Yankee Stadium. Lou
Gehrig, who had just celebrated his 36th birthday, had been
diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic on that birthday with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
an incurable and fatal disease that would eventually paralyze and literally strangle
him to death. He told 61,808 fans and millions listening over the radio: “…today
I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth...I might have
been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”
Born to German immigrant parents, Heinrich and Christina
Gehrig, on Friday, June 19th, 1903 in the East Harlem community
called Yorkville, New York City, Henry Louis (Lou) Gehrig was their only child
to live to adulthood. (One sister died
of whooping cough and the other of the measles while a brother died in
infancy.) A dutiful lad, Gehrig assisted his mother throughout his youth with
household and other chores as his father, a sheet metal worker, suffered from the
intermittent effects of alcoholism.
His baseball skills were first widely noticed in the summer
of 1920 when he was just 17. Commerce
High School, from which he would graduate in June of 1921, was playing
Chicago’s Lane Tech High School on Friday, June 26th, 1920 at Cubs
Field (now known as Wrigley Field). In
the top of the ninth inning with Commerce already leading 8 to 6, Gehrig hit a
grand slam that completely left the park.
It was a feat unheard of by a seventeen-year-old!
Lou Gehrig would sign a Yankee contract on Friday, June 15th,
1923, just four days before his 20th birthday.
What Lou Gehrig demonstrated for all to see that day 75
years ago was the root of an awesome nature and character. His baseball statistics (only a few are cited
here) explain his monumental athletic prowess.
Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games played, his 493 home runs, his lifetime
.340 batting average, his four home runs on Friday, June 3rd 1932
against the Philadelphia A’s, his five time accumulation of more than 400 total
bases in a season, his 15 steals of home and his 12 consecutive years of
hitting .300 or better only tell part of his story.
Although equally (if differently) talented than his famous
teammate George Herman (Babe) Ruth, Lou Gehrig was content to live in Babe’s
shadow. When asked about it, Gehrig responded:
“It’s a pretty big shadow. It gives me lots of room to spread myself.”
Comparisons of the two men were inevitable. Both men were left-handed. Ruth was a Roman Catholic and Gehrig an
Episcopalian. Ruth was gregarious and
Gehrig reserved. Ruth was twice married
and Gehrig was married only once. Both
were of German heritage. Ruth was
primarily a cigar smoker; Gehrig smoked cigarettes and a pipe. Ruth never attended college. Gehrig, although
he didn’t graduate, majored in engineering at Columbia University. Ruth was 6 feet 2 inches tall and Gehrig was
just 6 feet. Ruth weighed in at 215,
while Gehrig was 200 pounds. Ruth began
his major league career as an outstanding pitcher. Gehrig only played first
base as a professional – although he did some pitching for Columbia University.
Perhaps the most amazing comparison is the following
description I once read of baseball’s reaction to their powerful swings. Witnesses
to the two men’s power assert that Babe Ruth’s home runs, due to the slight
upper cut in his left-handed swing, were high soaring majestic drives. On the other hand, Gehrig’s left-handed swing
was more level. His line drives were
“frozen ropes” hit with tremendous force which, more than the Babe’s much
higher trajectory hits, were especially intimidating to opposition infielders –
especially pitchers and first basemen who stood only 60 and 90 feet away from
Gehrig’s awesome left-handed shots.
What the world witnessed that July 4th afternoon was
the combination of Lou Gehrig’s physical, emotional and spiritual
strength. Only Eleanor (Twitchell)
Gehrig, whom Lou married in September 1933, would have been in a position to
tell us if fear or despair might have attacked Lou in the 23 months left to him
after that heart-wrenching and historic occasion. However, she appropriately kept such knowledge
to herself.
Offered lucrative public appearances and other private
positions, Lou Gehrig accepted a ten-year appointment by Mayor Fiorello H.
LaGuardia as a youth parole commissioner in the city’s prison system. The appointment was made in October 1939. Gehrig was sworn into office on Tuesday,
January 2nd, 1940. He
stipulated, however, that all of his activities should garner no publicity. Gehrig regarded this assignment as an
opportunity to give something back to the community. He met his responsibilities until physical
weakness set in shortly before his death when he quietly resigned.
Lou Gehrig died at 10:10 p.m. on the night of Monday, June 2nd,
1941 in Riverdale, New York. (Note: Eleanor
Gehrig lived until Tuesday, March 6th, 1984, her 80th
birthday. She never remarried and was interred
next to her husband at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.)
“Lucky” was of course the word Lou Gehrig chose to describe
himself. However, even as he spoke that
afternoon, he demonstrated that he was much, much more than “lucky!”
It might be more accurately observed that Henry Louis Gehrig
was perhaps the most wholesome man on the face of the earth.
If there’s a better adjective than wholesome to describe Lou
Gehrig, I’m open to suggestions!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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