Tag Archives: Lou Gehrig

A Rose By Any Other Name

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The Aaron’s, Clemente’s and Mays’ Of A Lesser Ilk

Roberto, Willie and Hank

In major league baseball history there was only one Ruth, Gehrig, Koufax, Medwick, Seaver and Carew. You know who is being referred to when you hear the name Mantle.

Yet there have been several Robinson’s, Johnson’s, Ryan’s and Smith’s of varying playing ability. Some were great, some were good, and others were let’s just say, not so great. If you say, “Robinson was a fantastic player,” you usually have to clarify which- Jackie, Frank or Brooks.

What if you were a professional ballplayer and your last name happens to be Jeter, but your first name is not Derek?

Sharing a baseball great’s last name can sometimes be a drag because comparisons may be drawn to your famous counterpart. You can be sure that with the exception of your family and close friends, most references by the baseball loving public to your last name, go to the superstar.

So as a professional ballplayer if you share that famous last name but you never achieved super-stardom, at least you can always say you had your name on a baseball card.

So which baseball card would you rather have?

Hank Aaron or….

Tommie Aaron?

Derek Jeter or…

Johnny Jeter? Continue reading →

Honoring Lou Gehrig, His Monument Unveiled – 1941

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The Day The Yankees Paid Their Final Tribute To The “Iron Horse”

This monument ceremony seen below was supposed to take place July 4 1941, on the two year anniversary of Lou Gehrig Day in 1939.

Many baseball fans know that the New York Yankees began the tradition of Old-Timers Day with a ceremony on July 4, 1939 to honor Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse.” On that day, the Yankees brought together Lou’s old teammates to show their deep admiration for a man who exemplified everything the Yankees were about. At the last minute Gehrig was asked to say something to the packed house at Yankee Stadium.

The words he said, now known as, “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech, live on in immortality because it was completely spontaneous and from the heart.

What you may not know, is that you really have never heard or seen that speech.

You have only seen or heard small portions of Gehrig’s speech, because believe it or not, there is not one extant movie or audio recording of Gehrig’s complete speech. Only snippets.

As incredible as it sounds with all those newsreel cameras present to record the activities at Yankee Stadium, no complete version of the speech has surfaced in all these years. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #10 – Gary Cooper & Babe Ruth

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Babe Ruth Shows Gary Cooper The Finer Points of Gripping A Baseball Bat

In the 1942 film The Pride of The Yankees which tells the life story of Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth took his role of playing himself very seriously.  He also wanted to make sure Gary Cooper got it right as well.

Babe shows Cooper where the trademark should be when holding a bat so it won’t shatter should he make contact.

Interestingly, Cooper is holding the bat left-handed as Gehrig was a lefty.  Even though Gary Cooper was good on a horse, he was not much of a baseball player.

For the filming of the movie, it was determined there was no way the right handed Cooper could convincingly swing a bat left handed. All the films sequences with Cooper hitting were shot with Cooper batting righty and the Yankee uniforms were reversed with the “NY”  emblem placed on the other side of his chest. Cooper would run to third after hitting the ball. The filmmakers then reversed the negative in these sequences so everything was in its right place in the final movie print and it would appear Cooper was running to first.  Hollywood magic at its simplest.

UPDATE 2/10/13 – Or was Cooper really playing left-handed? See the article here.

Lou Gehrig Beats The Throw Home

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Solving A Photographic Mystery

People have asked where we get the photos for this web site.  Mostly the online resources at various libraries and eBay have been used.  Sometimes they are part of the contributors photo collections.

This phenomenal photo of Lou Gehrig sliding into home plate is one of millions of photographs available at the Library of Congress web site.  In the old days the photographers were allowed to be on the field during baseball games. There were no Continue reading →

An Unseen Archive Of Lou Gehrig Memorabilia Goes To Auction

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Some of Lou Gehrig’s Baseball Belongings and How They Remained Hidden For 70+ Years

 

1927 Yankee Infield Autographed Photo from L-R Gehrig, Lazzeri, Koenig, Dugan – @ Heritage Auctions 8 4 11

Lou Gehrig’s story as told in The Pride of The Yankees, the 1942 Hollywood version of his life, made it seem like there were no other women in Lou’s life except for his mother Christina and wife Eleanor.

 

In the August 2, 2011  New York Times is a story of how Lou seems to have dated at least one other woman.  That relationship apparently lead to the woman, Ruth Martin, having a friendship with Lou’s mother Christina for many years, beyond her relationship with Lou.  After Christina passed away in 1954, Ruth Martin inherited some of Lou’s  possessions. It is an interesting story.

Jeffrey Quick, Ruth Martin’s son, is selling these one-of-a-kind artifacts at Heritage Auctions on August 4, 2011.

Babe Ruth – Lou Gehrig Film Footage – Identified

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An Iowa Family Recognizes Their Family In Recently Discovered Film Footage Of Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig In 1927.

As this story continues unfolding, the film footage of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig that was recently found was recognized by a family member as being their family with the two Yankee greats.  The New York Times reports the family of one of the men seen in the film has identified the little boy shown in the film. He is Phil Donohue and he was 9-years-old when the film was shot. Donohue is now 92, but he remembers that day very clearly. He is also the only person in the film that is still alive.

The Donohue family also had what they thought was the original copy of the film. But R.C. Raycraft who had purchased the film containing Ruth and Gehrig’s meeting with the Donohue family is sure he has the original.

One thing is certain parts of the film footage have been seen before in two HBO documentaries in the 1990’s.  This means one thing- this new old footage, is not so new.

Babe Ruth (Again) And Lou Gehrig – Recently Discovered Film Footage

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Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig On Film

The New York Times reports more film footage of the mighty Babe Ruth has been unearthed, this time from 1927 showing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig up close and personal in a barnstorming tour.  The article goes on to say that in the Major League Baseball archives there is less than an hour’s worth of film footage of Ruth!  The majority of film footage that probably still exists resides in attics across the country waiting to be discovered. This film was found in a cellar in Illinois and shows Ruth and Gehrig in or around Sioux City, Iowa on October 18, 1927.

Gehrig and Ruth were good friends, had a presumed falling out (over mysterious circumstances) and eventually made up when Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which ended up taking his life at the age of 37.

The public perception via film of Ruth and Gehrig together is not really when they are together at all.

Hollywood accomplished that trick with The Pride of the Yankees, the 1942 movie depicting the life of Lou Gehrig ,who is played by Gary Cooper. Babe Ruth plays himself in the picture.  No mean feat as Babe was already 46 years old and was significantly heavier than in his playing days.  Ruth would not be embarrassed.  Before the movie started shooting, Babe went on a diet and dropped a significant amount of pounds so he could play the part himself.

While the picture is embellished for the silver screen, it still covers a fair portion of Gehrig’s baseball accomplishments while telling more Lou’s devotion to his family and the love story between Eleanor Twitchell (the future Mrs. Gehrig) and Lou.  The movie almost never got made.  Producer Samuel Goldwyn knew nothing about baseball and knew from experience that baseball movies were never “big box office.” But Goldwyn had been shown a newsreel of Gehrig’s farewell speech at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day by Niven Busch, a Goldwyn screenwriter. Busch was confident a movie about Gehrig would be a success. By the end of the newsreel Goldwyn was crying and had made up his mind to acquire the rights to Gehrig’s story. The end result was a success, with the picture being nominated for 11 academy awards, including best picture.

Here are some photos of The Babe and Lou together. (click to enlarge)

Gehrig and Ruth in a posed publicity photo

Ruth and Gehrig 1927

Babe Ruth Scores ahead of a Lou Gehrig Home Run

Four Greats- Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth 1928

Babe Ruth pays his respects at Lou Gehrig’s funeral June 4, 1941