Lou Gehri
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.
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.
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.
VOICE ONE:
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 ONE:
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.
Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He
died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years
old.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games
without missing any that his team played.
(THEME)
VOICE TWO:
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.
Now, the V-O-A Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
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.
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."
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.
"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."
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:
By Jerilyn Watson2004-3-27
VOICE ONE:
Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig
whose record lasted for fifty-six years.
(THEME)
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.
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.
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.
(CUT ONE: LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM: 16 SECS)
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.
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.
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.
VOICE ONE:
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.
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.
VOICE TWO:
VOICE ONE:
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.
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