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Building Character
Lou Gehrig
~ The Iron Horse ~
Lou Gehrig was a New York Yankee, the infamous number “4”. He is a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame and is arguably one of the most complete and talented players to ever don a baseball uniform. He recorded a career batting average of .341; a post-season batting average of .361; he won the American League Triple Crown in 1934 with a .363 batting average, 49 home runs, and 165 RBI’s; had a career-high .379 batting average in 1930; was a veritable RBI machine with 184 in 1931, 509 from 1930-32, and 1995 in his career; he earned his “Iron Horse” nickname by playing in 2,130 consecutive games; and he was the first athlete to ever have his number retired in any sport in 1939.
As famous as he was for his on-field accomplishments, unlike many modern day sports “heroes”, Gehrig was an athletic icon who exuded character – a kind heart, a winning attitude, and humility. A team player in every sense of the word, he pulled himself from the starting lineup on May 2, 1939, when the affects of a crippling disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS and later to be known as Lou Gehrig Disease) caused his remarkable skills to be diminished. Two years later and just short of his 38th birthday on June 2, 1941, Lou Gehrig succumbed to this tragic disease.
As a tribute to this living legend, 62,000 fans packed Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, to honor this beloved sports hero. In one of the most famous speeches in the annals of sports history, Gehrig addressed the crowd with the following remarks:
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.
"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
"So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."
Author and literary critic Wilfrid Sheed wrote of that tribute, “All present in Yankee Stadium that day had been given a license to love a fellow human to the limit, without qualification, and to root for that person as they had never rooted for themselves … if the Stadium had emptied out suddenly, and he had been left standing there alone, Gehrig would have felt no less lucky, because the appearance merely confirmed what he already knew, that he was having a good day … a day like that was worth a thousand of the old ones.”
Finally, as a dedication to Gehrig and baseball days of yore, author Howard Newhard wrote the following poem entitled "The Way it Was" in July, 1989, as a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. As a young boy, Howard attended this game and tribute with his dad on July 4, 1939, to watch his hero be honored. The beginning and ending quotes within the poem are derived from a silver plaque which Gehrig's Yankee teammates gave the Iron Horse on this special day.
The Way it Was
by Howard Newhard, July, 1989
“We’ve been to the wars together, we took our foes as they came,
and always you were the leader, and ever you played the game”.
Said the Yankees to Lou Gehrig, he of iron frame fame.
There were similar thoughts from players and fans, who really loved the game.
And across the land, whether player or fan, there was excitement about the game.
Played by boys, and teens, and men of great skill, Baseball was its name.
A whole day of fun, lots of “pepper” and “BP”, and autographs for free, the way it ought to be. It was all part of the game.
The owners of teams were men of the sport, making some money for sure, but they loved the game, keeping their players in team plans, and that made an army of loyal fans, whose loyalty was pure.
And the fans loved the game and their heroes remained, with the team that they knew was theirs. Win or lose, while it mattered, their faith never shattered that the team was playing for them.
Yes, the fans loved the game and there was much more, it was a whole day of fun and the game was the core.
The players, owners, and fans, made up that core, some with no name, and others with fame, creating the soul of the game.
It always came, like a refrain, to “ get on the bus,” or, “ don’t miss the train ‘cause we’re goin’ see a game”.
Today there is greed that destroyed that fine breed, that once took the game to its height,
It will never return , and in history they’ll learn the soul of the game took flight.
For the lawyers are there, running that fair, focused on money and fame, and because of this, they don’t even know, they’ve helped take the soul from the game.
Money/profit is king and most owners bring their kisses for his big ring.
What’s it all mean? Its sure a bad dream. We know baseball its not, and whats left will rot, while players keep changing their teams.
Oh, I don’t think I‘ll hear, or, I’ll turn a deaf ear, should they come to say again,
To get on the bus, or don’t, miss the train, ‘cause we’re gonna’ see a game. For it has said its good-bye and will never be the same.
The Yankees concluded in honoring Lou, that glorious 4th of July,
When the players and fans who loved the game, listened with not a dry eye,
“But higher than that we hold you, we who know you best, knowing the way you came through every human test,
Let this be a silent token of lasting friendship’s gleam, and all that we left unspoken, your pals of the Yankee team.”
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