Beschreibung:

Highly Important Lou Gehrig Document Archive From Dr. Paul O'Leary Of The Mayo Clinic With Relation to "ALS: Lou Gehrig Disease" c.1939-41 Although the New York Yankees again secured the World Championship title in 1938, there were anomalies to Lou Gehrig's performance during the season. His numbers, by mortal standards, were very fine, but in comparison to his typical career statistics, there was a marked drop. In late 1938, Lou Gehrig explained, "I tired mid season. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again." Even during the 1938 World Series, Lou managed only four singles, which was further indication of his notable drop in power hitting. With the coming of spring in 1939, the Yankees readied themselves to defend their two previous consecutive World Championships. At the very beginning of Spring Training, it was evident that something was not right with Lou Gehrig. Sportswriter James Kahn remarked at the time, "I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don't know what it is, but I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers 'go' overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It's something deeper than that in this case, though. I have watched him very closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely, and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn't there... He is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere." Others took notice as well. Manager Joe McCarthy, who had always been one of Gehrig's closest mentors on the Yankees, tried to support Gehrig's meager play, hoping that he would eventually snap back to the form once considered as a given for the Yankee slugger. During the first month of the 1939 season, Gehrig's statistics were abysmal with a .143 batting average and only a single RBI. On April 30, 1939, the Yankees were at home playing a game against the Washington Senators. As the 1939 World's Fair opened across town to enormous crowds, the Yankees played the April 30th game before a modest gate number of 23,712. Little did those fans realize they were witnesses to history. Gehrig went 0 for 4 that fateful day, adding fuel to the swirling speculation that he should be removed from the Yankees lineup. The next day was a day off, before the team would open a series in Detroit against the Tigers. On May 2, 1939, Lou Gehrig sought out Yankees manager Joe McCarthy in the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. Arthur E. Patterson recounted the meeting in the New York Herald Tribune: "Joe, I'd like to talk to you," Gehrig said. "Sure thing, Lou. C'mon around the corner here and sit down," McCarthy said. "Joe, I'm not helping this team any," Gehrig said. "I know I look terrible out there. This string of mine doesn't mean a thing to me. It isn't fair to the boys for me to stay in there. Joe, I want you to take me out of the lineup today." While it was difficult for Gehrig's longtime friend and manager to hear, McCarthy understood Gehrig's intentions and granted his request. At the insistence of Gehrig himself, in what has become one of the more legendary and poignant moments of the era, Gehrig mandated that he be permitted to deliver the lineup card to home plate on May 2, 1939 without his name written in the starting nine. With tears in the eyes of the once great and powerful Yankee slugger, Gehrig stoically presented the Yankees lineup card to the umpires with the name "Babe Dahlgren" written in as first baseman, so ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. John Kieran of The New York Times wrote, "So they unhitched the Iron Horse from the old wagon, but Marse Joe McCarthy didn't order him to be taken behind the barn and destroyed." More tragically, it would mark the beginning of the final chapter in Gehrig's life, as he was diagnosed shortly