1941 Obituary ... Lou Gehrig

The New York Times, June 3, 1941

Gehrig, 'IRON MAN' OF BASEBALL, DIES AT THE AGE Of 37

Rare Disease Forced Famous Batter to Retire in 1939-Played 2130 Games in a Row

Set Many Heading Marks

Native of New York, He Became Star of Yankees-Idol of Fans throughout Nation

… Lou Gehrig, former first baseman of the New York Yankees and one of the outstanding batsmen baseball has known, died at his home, 5204 Delafield Ave., in the Fieldston section of the Bronx, last night. Death came to the erstwhile "Iron Man" at 10 o'clock. He would have been 38 years old on June 19.
… Regarded by some observers as the greatest player ever to grace the diamond. Gehrig, after playing in 2130 consecutive championship contests, was forced to end his career in 1939 when an ailment that had been hindering his efforts was diagnosed as a form of paralysis.
… The disease was chronic, and for the last month Gehrig had been confined to his home. He lost weight steadily during the final weeks and was reported twenty-five pounds underweight shortly before he died.

MEMBER OF PAROLE BOARD

… Until his illness became more serious Gehrig went to his office regularly to perform his duties as a member of the New York City Parole Commission, a post he had held for a year and half following his retirement from baseball. Ever hopeful that he would be able to conquer the rare disease-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a hardening of the spinal cord-although the ailment was considered incurable by many, Gehrig stopped going to his desk about a month ago to conserve his strength.
… Two weeks ago he was confined to his bed, and from that time until his death his condition grew steadily worse. He was conscious until just before the end. At the bedside when he died were his wife, the former Eleanor Twitchell of Chicago; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Gehrig; his wife's mother, Mrs. Nellie Twitchell, and Dr. Caldwell B Easselstyn.
… It was said last night that funeral services would be private and would be held tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock in the Christ Episcopal Church in Riverdale. The Rev. Gerald V Barry will officiate.
… The body was taken this morning to the E Willis Scott Funeral Parlor at four West seventy-six Street.

RECORD SPANNED 15 YEARS

… When Gehrig stepped into the batter's box as a pinch-hitter for the Yankees on June 1, 1925, he started a record that many believe will never be equaled in baseball. From that day on he never missed a championship game until April 30, 1939 - 15 seasons of Yankee box scores with the name of Gehrig always in the lineup. He announced on May 2, 1939, that he would not play that day, and thus his streak came to an end.
… But as brilliant as was his career, Lou will be remembered for more than his endurance record. He was a superb batter in his heyday and a prodigious coulter of home runs. The record book is literally strewn with his feats at the plate.
… Only in his first season, 1925, and in his last full campaign, 1938, did he fail to go over the .300 mark. Once he led the American League in hitting with .363, but on three occasions he went over that without winning the batting crown - .373, .374 and .379.
… But baseball has had other great hitters before and other great all-around players. It was the durability of Gehrig combined with his other qualities that lifted him above the ordinary players and in a class all his own.
… And one little incident gave Gehrig his start and an even stranger disease, one almost totally unknown for a robust athlete, brought it to an end. Columbia Lou's string of consecutive games began, innocently enough, when the late Miller Huggins sent him up to bat for Pee-wee Waanninger on June 1, 1925. The Husky 22-year-old promptly singled.
… Huggins was impressed by the way Gehrig had delivered, but according to the tale that is told he had no notion of using him as a first baseman. The Yankees had a star at the initial stack in those days. Wally Pipp. But Pipp was troubled with frequent headaches.
… On June 2 he was bothered by pains in his head.
… "Has anyone an aspirin tablet?" asked Pipp.
… Huggins overheard him and, on a sheer hunch, decided to use the "kid" … Gehrig… at first base. He never left the lineup again until his voluntary resignation 14 years later. Perhaps that story is not cut from the whole cloth. Gehrig has denied it, but Pipp insists just as vehemently that it is true. At any rate, it is an interesting sidelight on how a spectacular career was begun.

SLIPPED IN 1938

… The beginning of the Gehrig playing days was abrupt but the ending was a much slower process. In 1937 The Iron Horse batted .351, his 12th consecutive season over the .300 mark. But in 1938 the Yankee captain slipped to .295, the same figure he had established in his 1925 campaign.
… Not only his hitting but his fielding had lost much of its crispness. Batted balls that the Gehrig of old had gobbled up easily skidded past him for base hits. In fact, the situation had developed to such an extent that there was continual talk in spring training in 1939 that the endurance record was approaching its completion.
… This became even more obvious in the early games of the campaign. Yankee followers were amazed to see how badly Gehrig had fallen from the peak. He was anchored firmly near first base and only the fielding wizardry of Joe Gordon to his right saved Gehrig from looking very bad. The second sacker over shifted to cover the hole between him and his captain. Lou couldn't go to his right anymore.
… At-bat Gehrig was not even a pale shadow of his former self. Once he had the outfielders backing up to the fences when he stepped to the plate. But this time he could hardly raise the ball out of the infield. On one occasion when he caromed a looping single to left - a certain double for even a slow burner - Gehrig was thrown out at second, standing up.

LAST GAME AGAINST SENATORS

… That day he saw the handwriting on the wall. And on April 30, 1939 he played his last big-league game against the Washington Senators. The bombers lost and Gehrig realized that he was a detriment to his team. When the Yanks took to the field again in Detroit on May 2, Gehrig- his batting average down to .143 - withdrew from the lineup, his first missed game after 2130 straight.
… He acted as nonplaying captain from that point on. On June 12, when the Yankees engaged in an exhibition game in Kansas City, Lou played the last three innings, did nothing and promptly left for the Mayo Clinic. He was there a week, determined to discover just what was the matter with him. That something was wrong he was certain.
… On June 21 the diagnosis was made. It was that he had a mild attack of paralysis. His career thus was brought to an abrupt conclusion. And an amazing career had been.

TRIBUTE BY 61,808 AT RETIREMENT

… The public's reaction to Gehrig's swift retirement gave rise to one of the most inspiring and dramatic episodes in all sports when on July 4, in ceremonies preceding the afternoon's holiday double-header, a crowd of 61,808 joined in the Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day exercises at the Yankee Stadium and thundered a "hail and farewell" to baseball's stricken Iron Horse.
… Players, officials, writers and employes at the park showered Lou with gifts, the climax of the spectacle coming when the Yankees themselves paraded on the field their world championship team of 1927. From far and wide these diamond stalwarts had returned to join in the tribute to their former team-mate, who had managed to carry on long after their own retirement from the game.
… The group included such Yankee immortals as Babe Ruth,Walte Hoyt, Bob Meusel, Herb Pennock, Joe Dugan, Tony Lazzeri, Mark Koenig, Benny Bengough, Wally Schang, Everett Scott, Wally Pipp, George Pipgras and Bob Shawkey.
… Overcome by this spontaneous reception, Gehrig finally mastered his emotions, and, perhaps the most remarkable valedictory ever delivered in a sports arena, literally poured his heart out to his great throng of listeners, thanking them for their appreciation and assuring them, with characteristic pluck, that he still considers himself "the luckiest fellow on earth, with much to live for."
… From then until the end of the season Gehrig stuck by his guns as retired field captain, and spent every day on the bench. He accompanied the club on all its road trips, and at the finish sat through all four of the 1939 World Series games in which his colleagues crushed another National League rival.
… With the close of the campaign, Lou retired himself within a small circle of close friends, spent much time in fishing, a sport second only to baseball in its fascination for him, and on October 11 figured in another surprise when Mayor LaGuardia announced his appointment to a 10-year term as a member of the three-man Municipal Parole Commission at a salary of $5700 a year. He tackled with considerable enthusiasm this newest job that was to launch him upon a new chapter in his astounding career.

IN SPOTLIGHT AGAIN

… Although anxious to go quietly about his new task and remain as much as possible incomplete retirement, Gehrig was catapulted prominently into the spotlight again in mid-August of the 1940 pennant campaign when a New York newspaper, in a featured article, intimated that the extraordinary collapse of the four-time world champion Yankees might be attributable to the possibility that some of the players may have become infected with Lou Gehrig's disease.
… The story brought vehement protests from the Yankee players, who insisted they were suffering from no physical ailments and then, as if in final rebuttal to the charge, the Yanks, within a few days after publication of the article, launched their spectacular drive which was to lift them from fifth place into the thick of the flag race throughout the month of September.
… In the meantime, Gehrig had papers served for a $1 million libel action, while the publication printed an apology to Gehrig, stating that thorough investigation revealed that Lou's ailment was not communicable. No legal action was taken after this.
… Gehrig was born in New York on June 19, 1903.
… His career began unobtrusively enough when, as a husky youngster, he reported for the Height School of Commerce nine in New York. He was tried in the outfield, where he was no Joe DiMaggio at catching fly balls. He was tried as picture but was as wild. He was tried as a first baseman and clicked. In later years Lou explained that, with his ever ready grin, by saying "we were mighty short on infielders in those days."
… In his first season on the Camaros team he batted .170. Then he started hitting until he cracked the headlines with a crash in 1920. Commerce, the New York school boy champions, played Lane Technical of Chicago in a Scholastic "World Series." A single game was played at Wrigley field and Gehrig was awed by his surroundings. But he was not too awed. In the ninth inning with commerce one run behind and the basis fall he drove a home run over the right-field fence.

COLUMBIA ALL-AROUND PLAYER

… Buster Gehrig was beginning to take shape. He matriculated at Columbia, pitching, out fielding and playing first base. He was a good enough college pitcher but did have the knack of hitting home runs. For one year there he also tried football, but that sport did not have the same appeal that baseball bore.
… The diamond game carried such a zest for him that he quit before he had been long at Morningside Heights, joining the Yankees in 1923. He played 13 games before Huggins decided that he was not yet ready for major league ball. Farmed out to Hartford in the Eastern League, he batted .304 for the rest of the season. Back with the Yanks the next campaign he followed the identical procedure. He took part in 10 games and then it was a return trip to Hartford, where he began to belabor the fences in the circuit, hitting .369. That figure was an eye-opener to Huggins, who recalled him the following season.
… That was in 1925. Gehrig batted .295 in 126 games and then he began to rocket through the baseball firmament. His first full season showed him with .313, but after that his excessive batting averages were .373, .374, .300, .379, .341, .349, .334, .363, .329, .354, .351 and finally he was back to .295 in his last full campaign. The .363 average gave him the batting championship in 1934, but single honors had come to him before that. In 1927, his second full campaign with the Yankees, he was voted the most valuable player in the American League.
… Seven times he participated in World Series and, oddly enough, was a star on the Yankees of 1926-27-28 and with the All-Star contingent of 1936-37-38. Each of these groups has its supporters as the greatest baseball team of all time. Ruth-Gehrig-Meusel, the famed "Murderers' Row," or DiMaggio-Gehrig-Dickey? Those were the batting fulcrums around which the teams revolved. Columbia Lou was the home tie between the two.
… The series deeds have been awe-inspiring. His lifetime average in World Series games was .361-his full regular average .340-and twice he had over the fantastic mark of .500, with .545 in 1928 and .529 in 1932. Babe Ruth, however, holds the series record of .625 in 1928..
… That is an oddity in itself, Gehrig with two terrific averages but still behind the Babe. Yet for the better part of his career the Iron Horse was to be in the shadow of Ruth. Lou entered baseball when the Babe was riding high, straddling the sport such as no man has straddled it before or since.
… Gehrig never left that shadow. His all-time home run production was 494, a figure topped by only two men, Ruth and Jimmy Foxx, who at the end of 1940 had reached a 500 total. For many years Lou gave the Babe his closest pursuit in the home run Derby, but he never caught him until the Babe's last year as a Yankee. Only when the King was on the decline did the Crown Prince win the home run championship of the league, 49 in 1934.
… For one thing, Gehrig did not have the flamboyant Ruth personality. They were team-mates but far apart, one quiet, reserved and efficient and the other boisterous, friendly and efficient. Let it not be deduced that the Iron Horse was not the friendly type. He was pleasant at all times, but unlike Ruth he never considered the world at large as his particular friend. Whereas the Babe would greet all and sundry with a booming "Hiya, kid?" Lou's was a more personalized welcome.
… They were sharp contrasts, those two. Both hulking men but as far apart as the two poles. Ruth was Gehrig's boyhood idol, and with the passing years Lou never lost that respect for the Home Run King. And in spite of his own tremendous record, Gehrig was always subordinated to Ruth.
… What a pair they made at the plate, coming up to bat in order! Each was likely to drive the ball out of the park. Frequently either or both did just that. In fact one of the many records that Lou set was that of hitting the most home runs with the bases filled, a startling 23. Another was of four homers in one game.
… The Ruthian Association affected Gehrig's salary in two respects. In one way the heavy blow that Ruth struck at the payroll kept Lou from getting a compensation as close to the Babe's as their relative batting averages would indicate. Yet, on the other hand, the Bambino lifted the scale so high that Gehrig probably received more than he would have had there been no Ruth to blaze the trail.

MADE FORTUNE IN GAME

Like most payrolls, the Yankee one is not open to the public gaze, but is more public property than an ordinary business. So the amount of money that Gehrig received each season is part guess and part accurate knowledge, especially in the more recent years when the Federal Income tax rolls ceased being secret.
… The general estimate is that the Iron Horse received a total of $361,500 in salary from the Yankees. Since he participated in seven World Series where the share always was heavy his total income from baseball is estimated at $400,000.

… Gehrig received $3750 in his first season, $6500 in his second year. This advanced $1000 in 1927 and then the Iron Horse moved into the big-money class. He never dropped out of the five figures for the rest of his career.
… For the next five years he received $25,000 and then he dropped to $23,000 in 1933 and 1934, after which he received $31,000 in 1935 and 1936, $36,750 in 1937, $39,000 in 1938 and $35,000 for 1939, a campaign in which he played only eight games.
… Baseball contracts are peculiar things, strictly one-way. The club has the upper hand at all times and can sever any contract at will. Had they so desired the Yanks could have dropped Gehrig the day the report from the Mayo Clinic arrived. But he was on full salary for the remainder of the year.
… So firm was his place in the Yankee scheme of things that manager Joe McCarthy refused to break the Gehrig string even when there was clamor to the effect that the Iron Horse himself would benefit from it. Marse Joe shook his head to that. "Gehrig plays as long as he wants to play," he said. Not many ballplayers would be granted such a privilege.
… But in this respect McCarthy he knew his man and new him well. He realized that once Lou discovered his form had departed and that he was hindering the progress of the team he would call it quits. And that is what happened.
… Had it not been for the attack of paralysis Gehrig might have continued as a part-time performer. Ballplayers do not go as fast as he went. The disintegration always is gradual enough for managers and club owners to make preparations. But the Yankees were caught without an adequate substitute for him, only the light hitting but sure fielding Babe Dahlgren.
… Previously, being Gehrig's replacement had been the height of frustration. There was just no hope that he ever would give way to anyone else. In their thorough fashions the Yankees had had several first baseman on their farm teams. All of them pleaded to be sold or traded elsewhere so that they would be able to play regularly.
… One was Buddy Hassett, now at first base for the Boston Braves. Another was George McQuinn, hard-hitting initial sacker for the St. Louis Browns. Many others have paraded into the Yankee orbit and out again, balked of their desire by the stalwart figure of Lou Gehrig.
… The day before he entered the Mayo Clinic for the examination baseball celebrated its centennial at Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame was dedicated. Ruth already had been elected to it and within a short time another bronze plaque joined the Babe's as Henry Louis Gehrig took his proper place among the all-time greats that this sport had produced.
… For though Baseball's Hall of Fame committee decided to hold no elections for new candidates in 1939, they chose, upon recommendation of the Baseball Writers Association of America, to make an exception and name Gehrig as the loan Hall of Fame award for the year.