Tuesday, April 27, 2010
References
Monday, April 26, 2010
Henry Louis Gehrig was born on June 19, 1903 to Wilhelm Heinrich Gehrig and Anna Christina Fack , poor German immigrants who moved to the United States with barely any money in their pockets and no friends or relatives to meet them. Lou’s parents met in 1901 and gave birth to their first child on May 26, 1902. Their daughter Anna Christina would unfortunately die as an infant. At the time, everything was changing. Houses began using electric light bulbs, Teddy Roosevelt, the youngest President yet, took office, and a new sport called baseball began sneaking up on the ever-popular horse racing. Baseball assimilated nicely into New York’s alleys and sandlots.
On June 19, 1903, Willhelm and Anna Christina Gehrig gave birth to their first son, Henry Louis-or “Louie” to Anna. He was his parents only child to survive into adulthood, and survive he would. He would soon become one of the nation’s most beloved athletes and a leader in research for ALS. His father was absent most of the time, drinking beer and playing pinochle and so it was his mother whom he formed the strongest relationship with. He would later say that, “If it had not been for my mother, well, I’d be a good natured, strong-armed and strong-backed boy, pushing a truck around New York, loading and unloading boxes that less powerful truck drivers could not handle.”
At the beginning of the twentieth century, baseball was quite different from today. Games usually began in the evening that way people could get a full days work in. Uniforms were flannel and worn without a number or a name. Foul balls were thrown back onto the field by fans. At the age of seven, Gehrig witnessed the first City Series in which the Highlanders-a team that would later become the Yankees- and the Giants played each other, the Manhattan Bridge was completed, and the seventh annual World Series was being played between the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago Cubs. Caught up in the hype, Gehrig wished to be a professional baseball player yet he was slow on the bases and slow to learn. He would later say that, “Some ballplayers have natural born ability,” “I wasn’t one of them.”Above is a photo of Lou after his grammar school graduation from P.S. 132. At the time, most families expected their children to graduate and begin working full time but Lou’s mother encouraged him to go to high school. 
Gehrig went to the High School of Commerce at 155 West 65th Street and did not play any sports during his first year. He kept to himself and would later tell the press that he did not join any teams due to both his mother and lack of courage. By his junior year he played soccer, football, and baseball-his weakest sport of all. Due to his clumsiness his coach placed him at first base and he practiced. As a hitter he proved to be one of the best if not the best. His homeruns spoke for himself and began to build a reputation. During his high school years, Willhelm fell ill and could not work and so Christina found a job as a cook and housekeeper for a fraternity at Columbia University.
In November 1920 Gehrig’s football team at Commerce played DeWitt Clinton High School at Columbia University. Robert W. Watt, Columbia’s manager of athletics found interest in Gehrig and went to talk to him and his father after the game. Little did he know Gehrig’s mother had cleaned Watt’s fraternity house years earlier when he attended Columbia. Lou soon found himself registering at the University in February of 1921 and practicing with the baseball team by April. During his first exhibition game he hit two homeruns and that spring scouts for the New York Giants began their persuasion for him to quit college and join the big leagues. Not sure if he wanted to cut his education short, the Giants asked him to at least tryout in front of their manager, John McGraw. During the tryout Gehrig let a ball roll through his legs at first base and McGraw decided he had seen enough. Not giving up, Lou began playing illegally for a summer team called the Hartford Senators. Fully aware that he could not play semiprofessional ball and receive pay while attending college, he changed his name to Lew Lewis. His coach at Columbia would eventually find out and force him to quit immediately.
In April of 1923, scout Paul Krichell, a retired catcher, saw Gehrig play at Columbia and announced that he had found the next Babe Ruth. He told the college player to show up at Yankee stadium the very next day. On the 30th of that same month Gehrig signed his first contact. His family would never be poor again.
By June 1925, Gehrig had not yet become a regular on the Yankees lineup. However his luck would change on June 2, 1925. The Yankees first baseman, Wally Pipp, allegedly complained of a headache and so Gehrig was put in his place for the day. Pipp would never get his position back again. For the next fourteen years Gehrig played every single game. “That was the great kick of my career,” he said, “the knowledge that I was the regular first baseman of my home town team. It wasn’t that I’d beaten out Pipp, a really fine chap, who would play regularly on another club, but that I could go to my parents, who at first had looked as baseball with mild disapproval, and tell them that I had regular work at good pay so long as I could hit the ball and hustle.”
By 1927, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were the greatest hitters baseball had ever seen. Together they hit 107 home runs while the rest of the American League hit only 332. Above is a picture of the two men shaking hands with Lloyd and Paul Waner of the Pirates after the 1927 World Series in which the Yankees won in a four-game sweep.
By ’27, there was an increase in the number of broadcasts of games. At first, owners were nervous that being able to listen to the games on the radio would decrease the number of fans in attendance. There worries were soon put to rest, however, because it allowed for an extreme amount of publicity and advertisement. The year also brought “The Great Home Run Derby,” and Americans were excited to watch the strength of their most beloved athletes. These feelings were in accordance with the roaring twenties, a time when industry was soaring, stock prices were rising, cars were being built, and now more home runs were being hit.
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and the nation’s economy fell apart. Baseball, however, pushed through and provided entertainment during a time of darkness. Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Dizzy Dean would rise to stardom during the 30’s and while Ruth was a hero during the glorious times, Gehrig became a dignified hero for hard times.
By the 1938 season, Gehrig’s strength on the field seemed to diminish. Little did he know he was suffering from the beginning stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Messages are sent from the brain to the nerves and are received by the muscles. Those who have ALS have nerves that die and therefore the muscles do not receive the messages from the brain. One by one, bodily functions shut down and muscles waste away. By the time Lou Gehrig became sick, there had been little to no research done since its discovery. Many doctors had never even heard of the disease let alone treated it. To this day there is no cure.
By the late 1930’s Gehrig decided to take a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He was examined by one of the hospital’s top doctors, Dr. Harold C. Habein. Habein would later write in unpublished memoirs, “ When he took off his clothes for the examination, the diagnosis was not difficult, there was some wasting of the muscles of his left hand as well as the right. But the most serious observation was the telltale twitchings or fibrillary tremors of numerous muscle groups. I was shocked because I knew what these signs meant-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.” Gehrig was then sent to Dr. Henry W. Woltman who would ultimately confirm ALS.
Due to his illness, Gehrig had to announce his retirement from baseball yet he would continue to sit in the Yankees dugout. On July 4th, 1939, Barrow scheduled Gehrig’s day. In between a doubleheader with the Washington Senators, Gehrig and his 1927 teammates returned to the ballpark. Mayor La Guardia would make the opening speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4msaZTJrTA&feature=player_embedded
In this video, Gehrig makes one of the most moving speeches of all time. Although his wife would later write that he outlined some of the major parts of the speech, most was spoken from the heart.
Today, ALS in the United States is known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His celebrity helped raise awareness about what was once an obscure disease. Millions of dollars have now been raised for scientific research. “ALS is a disease of weakness, but Lou Gehrig’s disease is associated with strength-the strength of a stricken man who said he felt lucky.”