Lou Gehrig

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ANNCR:

Now, the V-O-A Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

A North American Major League baseball record was established in
Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. The man who set it played in
two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing one. In
Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the
Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set
the first record will be forgotten.

Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig
whose record lasted for fifty-six years.

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VOICE ONE:

Lou Gehrig was born on June Nineteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. He was
a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents,
Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany.
They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money.

Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City,
where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams
when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player
only for informal games with friends.

Then one of Lou's high-school teachers heard that he could hit
the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the
school games.

VOICE TWO:

Years later, Lou said, "When I saw so many people and heard all
the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher
threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game.

So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the
high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared
noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player.

VOICE ONE:

A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants,
came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of
the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more
experience before becoming a major league player. It was suggested
that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of
Hartford, Connecticut.

Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school.
He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and
without a job.

VOICE TWO:

The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University
in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if
he would play baseball on the Columbia team.

But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing
professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in
Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the
professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from
playing for Columbia during his first year at the college.

Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He
often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near
the baseball field were in danger of being hit.

VOICE ONE:

Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she
became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments
for their home.

The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to
the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three-thousand-five-hundred
dollars to finish the Nineteen-Twenty-Three baseball season.

That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily
accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving
Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems.

VOICE TWO:

The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted
him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player,
Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So
they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While
playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits
in fifty-nine games.

VOICE ONE:

The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the
Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And
again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in
twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended.

Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in
early June of Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He played well that day and for
the two weeks that followed.

Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He
should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he
left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly.

VOICE TWO:

Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By
Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad
dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that
year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most
Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the
World Series.

Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an
operation. He felt he should be with her. Missus Gehrig and the
Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother
recovered.

More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played
took place in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. His back, legs and hands were
injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to
reach home plate. Another Yankee player said, "Every time he played,
it hurt him."

VOICE ONE:

Gehrig felt good in Nineteen-Thirty. He said his secret was
getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of
water.

Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in
baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of
Nineteen-Thirty-Two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The
manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig, "I
did not think a player could be that good."

VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell.
Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous
players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when
he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly.

As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared
not to have thought about his record number of continuous games
played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it.

An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke
the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the
head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a
bigger hat so people could not see his injury.

VOICE ONE:

Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May Thirty-First,
Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. That was almost two times as many continuous
games as anyone ever had played before.

Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost
three-hundred. He scored one-hundred-fifteen runs. He batted in
almost as many runs.

But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier
years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy
catches and throws. Yet his manager commented, "Everybody is asking
what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club
doing as poorly as he is doing."

VOICE TWO:

Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several
times the next winter while ice-skating with Eleanor. He had trouble
holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next
season opened. In May, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, he finally told his
manager he could not play.

Lou Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games
without missing any that his team played.

Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June Nineteenth.
That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks
the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

VOICE ONE:

Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act
frightened or sad.

On July Fourth, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, more than sixty-thousand
people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest
baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky.
His words echoed throughout the stadium.

(CUT ONE: LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM: 16 SECS)

"I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I
might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live
for. Thank you."

VOICE TWO:

Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He
died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years
old.

America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew
him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of
a gentle man.

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ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson
and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith
and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for
another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.