Happy Independence Day everyone! Today, I combine my love of history and my love of baseball to go back 80 years ago - July 4, 1939 - to Yankee Stadium in New York. Lou Gehrig, the Yankee first baseman from 1925 - 1938 had been diagnosed with a rare disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Gehrig had earned the nickname "The Iron Horse" because of his seemingly indestructible body. He played in a major league record 2,130 games between 1925 and the early part of the 1939 season. It was a record that would stand for over 50 years. Now, in a twist of fate that was both cruel and ironic, he was dying of a disease that would render him physically useless and would ultimately bear his name. ALS is widely known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease."
Gehrig's baseball career was extraordinary. He wound up with 2,721 hits, 494 home runs, 1995 RBI's and a .340 batting average. His hit total was a Yankee record until Derek Jeter broke it in 2009. His RBI total remains a Yankee record and is 7th in baseball history. He played on six World Series championship teams, he was a 7-time All-Star and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 in a special election.
His speech on July 4, 1939 was historic (
Click here to view it). He showed us that while the body of "The Iron Horse" would atrophy away, the spirit never would. He did not want to give that speech, but his manager, Joe McCarthy, nudged him to the microphones after the crowd had roared for a speech. He gave a speech that was courageous, strong, and heartfelt. He had a disease for which there was no cure. Yet he declared that he was the "luckiest man on the face of the earth." He even received a hug from his longtime teammate, and nemesis, Babe Ruth. The two men did not like each other while they played for the Yankees, but this day was for burying that hatchet.
Lou Gehrig died June 3, 1941 at the age of 37. There is still no known cure for ALS - "Lou Gehrig's Disease."
