Writing in the July 13, 1939, issue of The Sporting News, famed New York sports writer Dan Daniel, who described himself as an early booster of Lou Gehrig Day, described the July 4 ceremony at Yankee Stadium as maudlin. "When I saw Lou standing out there before 61,000 persons, with tears streaming down his face," Daniel wrote, "I was sorry I ever suggested such a proposition." In retrospect, of course, it was there that day when Lou Gehrig, stricken with ALS, described himself as "the luckiest man on the face of the earth," a speech that came to define the New York icon. Less than two years later, after Gehrig, 37, succumbed June 2, 1941, to the disease that for decades would bear his name, The Sporting News, in an unsigned editorial, said, "Gehrig’s baseball deeds were dwarfed by the courage with which he met his last fight."
The Sporting News, June 5, 1941
Gehrig’s Death Shocks All in Game
NO BASEBALL death in many a year has shocked the nation as did the passing of Lou Gehrig, one of baseball's wonder men, in his native city of New York on the evening of June 2. It wasn't so much the dying of the great Iron Horse which stunned so many of his fellow citizens, for death may have brought a surcease to physical suffering, but there was a soul-felt regret that such a sterling character should have been struck down so soon. Even in a state of physical disability, he would have had much to give to the boys of the nation that he prayed he might live a few more years to serve.
The fickle goddess of fate has dealt some strange hands in baseball, but none stranger than the one which was dealt to Lou Gehrig. With the physique of a Greek athlete, the strength of a lion, and an indomitable will, Gehrig cracked record after record. His feat of playing in 2,130 consecutive games was only the most publicized of these many records. Frequently players themselves marveled at the amazing endurance which enabled Gehrig to appear at his work bench for fifteen successive seasons without a break. Once Babe Ruth, himself no mean record breaker, remarked of his fellow son of swat: "Why, the guy isn't human." Yet, the Iron Horse was human after all. He was struck down at the very height of his career and his dauntless spirit now has passed into the game's Valhalla as many of the brittle players who played with and against him have many years of earth life still ahead.
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Yes, Lou Gehrig was a very human fellow. He died of an insidious disease; a disease which science still does not understand. And, even in that disease he tried to help his fellows. He constantly was in correspondence with other victims of the same disease, hoping to find a remedy, and when he sued a great newspaper over something it had printed about his ailment, he announced that if he won his case he would use the money to establish a fund to try to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (infantile paralysis).
After a severe bombing of London, Quentin Reynolds, famous magazine writer and former baseball scribe, was asked: "Have you ever seen such an exhibition of courage in America?"
"Yes," replied Reynolds, "on the part of a professional ball player, Lou Gehrig. A healthy, strong man, and one of the nation's great sport figures one season, he was a helpless cripple the next. But he took it with his chin up and with never a whimper."
Gehrig did plenty of grousing when he was a ball player, with the umpires, opponents and his fellow players. He was such a hustler himself that he had little patience for an associate who was not constantly on his toes and did not hustle as much as he did. But, in his great fight of the last two years, he didn't grouse. It was part of life's great play, he once remarked. "It has given me some pretty high moments, so now maybe I am getting a few bumps," he then said.
Gehrig's deeds as a ball player have been written into the archives of the game, and will be kept alive at the great baseball shrine in the game's birthplace, Cooperstown, N.Y. No less a baseball man than John McGraw, a confirmed National Leaguer, called this first baseman of the rival club in New York the No. 1 first baseman of all time. Lou's last manager, Joe McCarthy, went even further, classing Gehrig as the greatest player of all time. However, even Gehrig's baseball deeds were dwarfed by the courage with which he met his last fight. On the surface it was a losing fight, but in the greater book, in which is recorded the character of the soul, it goes down as a glorious victory.
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To Lou's beloved parents, "Mom" and "Pop" Gehrig, and to his devoted wife, Eleanor Gehrig, we offer our heartfelt sympathy. Lou was the only one of four Gehrig children who lived to grow up, and then these earnest, hard-working people saw their prize son stricken down.
When Eleanor Twitchell married Lou at the top of his career in 1933, who could have suspected the tragedy which was only a few years away? It is difficult to offer words of sympathy and condolence on such an occasion. All we can think to say to the elder Gehrigs is, "Fortunate you were to have given birth to such a son." To the younger Mrs. Gehrig: "Fortunate you were to have had such a husband."