Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
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Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig description
Lou Gehrig started his professional baseball career at a time when players began to be seen as national celebrities. Though this suited charismatic men such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, Gehrig avoided the spotlight and preferred to speak with his bat. Best known for playing in 2,130 consecutive games as well as his courage in battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a disease that now bears his name), the Iron Horse that emerges from this book is surprisingly naïve and insecure. He would cry in the clubhouse after disappointing performances, was painfully shy around women (much to the amusement of some of his teammates), and particularly devoted to his German-immigrant mother all his life. Even after earning the league MVP award he still feared the Yankees would let him go. Against the advice of Ruth and others, he refused to negotiate aggressively and so earned less than he deserved for many seasons. Honest, humble, and notoriously frugal, his only vices were chewing gum and the occasional cigarette. And despite becoming one of the finest first basemen of all time, Jonathan Eig shows how Gehrig never seemed to conquer his self-doubt, only to manage it better. Jonathan Eig's Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig offers a fascinating and well-rounded portrait of Gehrig, from his dugout rituals and historic games to his relationships with his mother, wife, coaches, and teammates. His complex friendship with Ruth, who was the polar opposite to Gehrig in nearly every respect, is given particularly vivid attention. Take this revealing description of how the two men began a barnstorming tour together following their 1927 World Series victory: "Ruth tipped the call girls and sent them on their way. Gehrig kissed his mother goodbye." Eig also shares some previously unknown details regarding his consecutive games streak and how he dealt with ALS during the final years of his life. Rich in anecdotes and based on hundreds of interviews and 200 pages of recently discovered letters, the book effectively shows why the Iron Horse remains an American icon to this day. --Shawn Carkonen |
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Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Outstanding, detailed account
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Lou Gehrig has always been an interesting subject for me. I'm a so-so baseball fan, but I am a fan of individual's who appear to have the same values and morals that I hold.
Jonathan Eig does a very nice job in this book of focusing on Gehrig's baseball qualities and his qualities as a man. I really enjoyed the book that gave a tremendous insight into how Gehrig acted behind closed doors.
A few things that really interested me:
I didn't know he was nearly that good of a baseball player. If ALS wouldn't have ended his career he might have gone down as the greatest first baseman ever. Eig did a very nice job in citing statistics and comparing those to other players in Gehrig's era and in the modern era.
I also didn't know that a number of times Gehrig would play an inning or two and get credit for a game. I appreciate the fact that the writer didn't get caught up in the legend of Gehrig and pointed out the streak and how it lived basically because of the manipulation of Gehrig and Yankee manager Joe McCarthy. That definitely diminshes the accomplishment of consecutive games played in my mind... not by much because Gehrig did play with a lot of injuries and issues.... but it does diminish it. It also puts that much more of a wow factor into the consecutive games streak of Cal Ripken because I believe he had to play 5 innings to get credit for a game.
That said, Eig did a really nice job in pointing out that Gehrig really was much more than just "An Iron Horse" at first base. The stats, the clutch hitting, etc. were well documented by Eig.
I also liked the detail that Eig provided on ALS and Gehrig's final years. As I was reading the book, I was thinking we are sure flying through his playing career and there is a whole lot of book left here. That was because Eig wanted to take some time to describe in detail Gehrig's final years and he did a very nice job.
I would suggest this book to anyone wanting to know more about Gehrig, Yankees history, or if you just want to read a great account of a man who should be well-admired for his work ethic and moral values.
A great book and great subject matter. |
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