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the game today needs more lou gerhig's. fast read, interesting for both a sports fan or not.
not only for the history but for an insight on what living with ALS will incure. If You are a history buff this book will be for you. I have not finished the book but continue to read it each day. This book was suggested by a Social worker at the VA Hospital. I was happy I found the book on Amazom.com for duch a low price. I am interested and learning about the Mam thus Disease gets its name from. I was told I have Lou Gehrig's or ALS diesease. This book has the whole history of the New York Yankees.
Gehrig and his wife during the last months in the life of the "Luckiest Man." The book, which bears this title, is highly recommended, not just for baseball fans, but for anyone who appreciates a well-researched biography of a great man. Mr. Eig's book takes the reader beyond these limitations, and we learn in great detail the extraordinary pain and suffering--physically and emotionally--inflicted upon Mr. Jonathan Eig's biography of Lou Gehrig is a superb account of one of baseball's greatest. "The Pride of the Yankees," a 1942 film starring Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright, is inspiring and entertaining; but, with the limitations of the motion picture industry, the emphasis was uplifting, even though it, as in real life, ended with the tragic illness which struck 'The Iron Horse,' and which still today bears his name. in the days when the sport truly was a game. And, for a two-hour movie, this approach was appropriate.
A moving biography of a great player and a great man, not to mention one of the golden ages of Yankee history. I am new to baseball and this was a wonderful way to begin.
They were friends by dint of their sequential place in the Yankees' batting order, and by their incredible talents on the field which made them natural allies. Eleanor Twitchell Gehrig may have been played by Theresa Wright in the movies, but she was a harder, more savvy woman than the film portrays, a former flapper, and a somewhat jaded drinker. The Yankees were mystified. As a result, he was hugely overprotected. Gehrig kissed his mother goodbye." This brief quote illustrates like nothing else the vast difference between the two men. He grew up with the immigrant mentality of never risking his employment. Gehrig was the quintessential "quiet man," whose preferred activity away from baseball was fishing.
Lou reported "improvement" himself from time to time, but every "improvement" was followed by a sharper fall-off. "Babe tipped the two call girls. In photographs taken over that year Lou seems to be shrinking, but no one seemed to take notice.By Opening Day of 1939, denial was no longer an option, but neither Joe McCarthy nor Gehrig wanted to face facts. Lou Gehrig passed away on June 2, 1941. He lacked charisma. Based on primary sources, some only recently rediscovered, this is the most well-rounded portrait of "The Pride of The Yankees" as there may ever be. After Ruth's departure, the press embraced Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, making him the next Yankee icon. This leads to progressive muscle wastage, and eventual death.
My only real familiarity with Lou Gehrig, prior to reading this book, were his baseball stats and The Pride of the Yankees, an adoring and largely inaccurate film. ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is a disease in which the motor neurons become brittle and nonfunctional. He kept smiling, and kept reassuring everyone of his "50/50 chance," even as he obviously lay dying. Fans booed him and opposing players razzed him. Eig postulates an early onset date of January 1938 and a late onset date of June 1938, but Eig also documents a few anomalous moments in Gehrig's life that may (or may not) have been harbingers of the disease---a chronic cramping backache which recurred at intervals in 1937, and "a strange tingle in his spine" that same year. Of course, having played some 1800 consecutive baseball games to that point may have just been wearying. Gehrig remained the sidekick for years, a relationship which suited the Babe perfectly, but did little for Lou.
The sportswriters that could make or break a player's public image largely ignored him except as an adjunct to Ruth. His father was a cipher, but his mother dominated him to such an extent that he often brought her along on Yankees road trips. No one seemed close to Lou Gehrig, except perhaps his mother. He moped over his own errors, and often wept at losses, particularly when he failed to come through in the clutch.Much of Gehrig's insecurity seems fearsomely misplaced. Clearly, something was very wrong, but a kind of shared delusion of denial set in among teammates, friends, family, fans, and Gehrig himself, which carried him through the 1938 season. The Yankees took advantage of this, touring them together and creating competing novelty teams (The "Busting Babes" and the "Laruppin' Lous") which they each captained in exhibition games.
His power at the plate simply vanished overnight and his ability to field faded. Where he couldn't command attention in his prime, where he was seen as remote at his best, the fans embraced him sympathetically as he lost his skills. Eig never comments on the Gehrig marriage, but it seems that it was hardly bucolic---Gehrig suspected Ellie of having an affair with Babe Ruth, and never spoke to Ruth again. He made the most he could of the last few months of his short life, working until April of 1941.
Mrs. He snubbed men he thought were not giving their all. The Babe was a celebrity, the Iron Horse a naive albeit extraordinary ballplayer. He was not quotable. Gehrig figured he needed more work, and pushed himself harder in batting practice, but at best he could wring out an occasional good game.
He came from an immigrant family that had buried three children, leaving him the sole surviving son. A grand war erupted between the two Mrs. He blossomed briefly, becoming a gregarious raconteur, as though he wanted his baseball memoirs to be recorded before he lost the power of speech. Gehrig stayed away from the usual male vices of liquor and women (Eig speculates that he may have been a virgin well into his twenties); no woman was good enough, not by Lou's lights but by his mother's. Gehrig interfered successfully in every relationship Lou had until he was thirty when he married his wife. Nonetheless, he maintained a positive attitude, even in the face of his own mortality. Despite Gehrig's fame, he was not a fan favorite, largely because he was painfully shy and hardly could carry on conversations with strangers. He seemed to have no close male friends, and no confidants.Gehrig's rock solid dependability led Manager Joe McCarthy to name him team Captain, but (as Eig states) "he was not a fiery captain." He was helpful and friendly to the rookies and the younger men who sought the benefit of his experience, but he looked askance at some of the behaviors of his more seasoned teammates.
calves the size of hams."This seemingly superhuman specimen though, was carrying a ticking time bomb inside himself. There is still no effective treatment available, and most patients die within five years. During all these years there was Gehrig, playing in game after game, setting records. For a while. Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, July 4, 1939, during which Lou uttered the immortal phrase, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" transformed him into a folk hero, vulnerable and gracious under pressure, and beloved. Not for nothing was he "The Iron Horse." In so many ways he was a living embodiment of all the best American virtues, an icon in and of himself.
He benched himself in his 2,130th game, although he continued to dress for the games and captain the team. The public embraced the seemingly teddy bear-like Babe. A power hitter par excellence, Eig gives us a picture of Gehrig around 1935: "His torso formed a perfect V. not an ounce of fat on his belly. In '39, Gehrig bravely played eight games, but his deteriorating skills were costing the Yankees their standing in the league. He was a bulwark of the Yankees, and indeed a bulwark of the game of baseball as a whole. Hence, for years the Yankees shamefully underpaid him, playing on his fears of being cut from the lineup. Jonathan Eig has written what will be the definitive biography of Lou Gehrig for decades to come.
and was his hits record by Derek Jeter, but both these records stood for a half century, and in the absence of steroids and sports medicine. Gehrig fell into a batting slump at the end of the '37 season. (He was known as "Babe Gehrig" in his earliest playing days for his prowess at the plate). It is the quiet dignity with which he addressed his condition that made him the "Pride of the Yankees," and for which he is so well remembered. I found the Lou Gehrig who appeared on these pages to be---well, far more boring than legend makes him.
ALS devastated Lou Gehrig. His consecutive games record of 2,130 was eventually broken by Cal Ripken Jr. Although Lou Gehrig was a great ballplayer he did not attain personal greatness until faced with the ultimate crisis of his life. In his decline, Gehrig caught the imagination and the sympathy of baseball fans everywhere. his thighs were wider than most men's waists. He was an impressively handsome wallflower who blushed and became tongue-tied when he spoke to women. For most of his career he played in the shadow of Babe Ruth, who WAS eminently quotable, who loved the spotlight and engaged in showy philanthrophies, and who was an epicurean in all realms of hedonism. Exactly when ALS first attacked Lou Gehrig is unclear.
Gehrig had often said he wanted to play 2500 consecutive games, and over the years McCarthy and Gehrig had cooperated in keeping the streak alive (once, a flu-ridden Gehrig took the first at-bat in a game, struck out messily, and retired to the clubhouse). All athletes eventually lose their edge, but Gehrig didn't lose his edge, he fell off the edge. There was little that could be done for Lou, though he tried experimental drugs such as histamines and superdoses of Vitamin E. He played in every Yankee game from 1925 to 1941. He had no vices (except pipesmoking). Gehrigs that lasted their lifetimes.
Interestingly, his correspondence to and fom his doctors in this period was full of encouraging though ultimately false reportage from his doctors, mostly for purposes of morale. His kindnesses were kept private. Once he fell over backward from the momentum of a caught ball. She was dedicated to having Lou promote himself (once, he was asked by "Huskies" cereal, a sponsor he endorsed, what his favorite breakfast was, and he answered "Wheaties."), and she was dedicated to driving a wedge between mother and son. Still, the public kept their distance from the indefatigueable "Iron Man." As much as paragons are extolled, they are often unloved.Yet, Gehrig was hardly inhuman. Yes, they were friends, but they were never truly close.
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