How does someone go from 16 homers to 47?”

Gehrig clearly took steroids.

I refuse to click through on this tripe.

I invite everyone else to NOT RTFA.

I'm going to disagree with Srul on this one. It's not a bad article at all. Worth checking out.

There are Primates who actually do RTFA? Seriously?

I can't remember the last time I RTFA. I'm here for the debate. The stuff I RTFA is stuff I've already read usually, like THT or Posnanski's blog.

Some of us do occasionally RTFA, and in this case it was pretty good. For the terminally lazy I'll copy his concluding paragraphs:

Gehrig played an integral role, in my opinion, in what was the last night of pure sports worship (and by “pure” I’m not implying that all the players in the game were clean, just that the fans and media both bought in 100 percent). Cal Ripken breaking the consecutive games streak was a celebration; really the final night of innocence before The Steroid Era invaded and the Internet was a part of our everyday life. To the public Ripken was a worthy successor to Gehrig -- stoic, workmanlike, humble, friendly to the fans, only played for one team in his career, a family man, all the good stuff that dads can tell their sons. Whether anyone believed all that to be true about Ripken was immaterial. They believed the idea of it was possible.

And this somehow leads us back to Gehrig. In the 68 years since his death, we’ve learned a great deal about the players of his generation, as time away from the game allowed the players and media from that era to open up. We’ve learned that some players from that time were fall down drunks, cheaters, gamblers (the Black Sox were not alone), racists (KKK members) and that’s just from the non-Ty Cobb division. So what eye-opening revelations were made involving Gehrig?

Well, none, actually. I guess that’s not true, it seems that he may have been too close to his parents (the reason for the Ruth/Gehrig decade-long feud was that Lou took his mom’s side in an argument with Babe’s wife over how Claire Ruth dressed her daughter. I’m serious.) That’s it. Gehrig simply played the game every day as just about as well as it could be played. He loved his wife and his parents and seemed to treat all his teammates with respect, as an equal. And when a horrible (and still, at the time, virtually unknown) disease took away his body, he bravely fought it for as long as he could, giving a name and a face to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

I’m not sure even TMZ could find a way to bring that down.

I'll be really mad if somebody breaks the news that Gehrig took James' Fever Powder once when he was in pain.

I'll be really mad if somebody breaks the news that Gehrig took James' Fever Powder once when he was in pain.

and a sportwriter once saw this vial in his locker

College Dropout
Lost his college eligibility to play baseball as he played in a professional summer league.
Didn't take himself out of the lineup when he was hurting the team till very late


Yeah, some hero.

On this topic, Jonathan Eig's recent bio of Gehrig is excellent.

Agreed, Dayn. I read that this spring, finally.

I don't read Posnanski that much, but I do read THT and a few other sites that I have on my reader, plus the occasional wire service or Yahoo Sports article. I'd rather read the comments here.

It actually is an interesting concept.

Given our culture's propensity today to (a) take the other side of any position, article, or stance (so if Gehrig was a good guy, there would be tons out there trying to rip him up and pull him back to the level of ordinary); and (b) love the "Oprah model guest" (someone who commits a bad act but then redeems himself by confessing his failings and his love for all that is politically correct), my guess is "no", Lou Gehrig would be just another guy the popular press ripped to shreds with innuendo, selective reporting and sourcing jealous rivals.

(the reason for the Ruth/Gehrig decade-long feud was that Lou took his mom’s side in an argument with Babe’s wife over how Claire Ruth dressed her daughter. I’m serious.)

Didn't Eig speculate that it was because Ruth banged Gehrig's wife? Or tried to?

Lou Gehrig would be just another guy the popular press ripped to shreds with innuendo, selective reporting and sourcing jealous rivals.

I don't see why this is a necessity. Jeter is pretty universally admired and he's a tax evading womanizer. Peyton Manning. LeBron James. Who is tearing these guys down? Ken Griffey at the height of his popularity wasn't torn down. I think people worry too much.

He's a Yankee.

Of course not.

When Gehrig retired, the Yankees were only suspected of being the root of all evil in the world. With the benefit of 70 years additional history, we now have proof that they are the root of all evil in the world.

I think it was tried to, Lar. I was more interested in other parts of the book.

Didn't Eig speculate that it was because Ruth banged Gehrig's wife? Or tried to?

IIRC, he mentions it as a possibility but stops short of endorsing it as the truth.

Lou Gehrig would be just another guy the popular press ripped to shreds with innuendo, selective reporting and sourcing jealous rivals.

I don't see why this is a necessity. Jeter is pretty universally admired and he's a tax evading womanizer. Peyton Manning. LeBron James. Who is tearing these guys down? Ken Griffey at the height of his popularity wasn't torn down. I think people worry too much.

And of course the obvious comparison to Gehrig would be Ripken, who gets sniped at by about .00001% of the baseball world for "selfishly" playing through slumps and for assorted other bits of trivia, but who otherwise has been treated like----well, like Lou Gehrig.

The Ruth/Gehrig misunderstanding involved, IIRC, close quarters on an ocean passage and the Babe's tendency to invite himself into other people's staterooms, including Mrs. Gehrig's. Eig talks about it, and (also IIRC) Leigh Montville does in his recent Ruth book. It's all speculation.

I agree with Shooty. It's perfectly possible even today to keep yourself out of the tabloids, and Gehrig, though he was a big celebrity, was pretty shy of personal invasions. (And it's not like the press in the 20s and 30s were a bunch of shrinking violets, even if there were some things no family newspaper would print.) In addition to Jeter and Griffey, think of Albert Pujols, who is pretty comparable to Gehrig as a player. Aside from pointless innuendo over whether he's the age that his baseball cards say he is, who has a bad word to say about Albert?

Edit: And it seems I agree with Andy too. Small cans of Coke all round :)

who has a bad word to say about Albert?

Cubs fans.

who has a bad word to say about Albert?

Cubs fans.

Brewers fans.

who has a bad word to say about Albert?

Cubs fans.

Typically of the four-letter variety.

Lou Gehrig: Today.. I consider myself.. the luckiest man.. on the face.. of the earth. [crowd cheers] I was being sarcastic! I'm unlucky! I may be the unluckiest man.. on the face.. of the earth! I have a disease.. so rare.. they named it after me. Yeah, lucky me! [crowd cheers harder] You people are hopeless! [storms off the field]

Gotta say, ALS is the last way I'd want to go. Awful, awful disease.

Well, if it happened today, it wouldn't happen today. Modern medicine would keep an ALS patient alive far beyond age 37 and his baseball prime. Stephen Hawking is what, 70 now?

Interesting idea presented in this piece, but I have to go along with those who say that even in the modern era, Gehrig would be as close to unsullied as a jock/celebrity can be. There was no dirt to be dug up on him.

And I'll throw in another recommendation for Eig's biography: superb!

Where the article missed is that the question is more fitting to Ruth than Gehrig. Mocking teammates with paychecks and not learning their names? Experimental injections of sheep testosterone? Corked bat? Dangling manager off back of moving train? Constant league disciplinary action? Chasing fan with baseball bat?

Today, Babe Ruth would be Barry Bonds to the power of John Rocker.

Well, if it happened today, it wouldn't happen today. Modern medicine would keep an ALS patient alive far beyond age 37 and his baseball prime. Stephen Hawking is what, 70 now?

Hawking's kind of an outlier - the life expectancy is still damn short.

Hawking's kind of an outlier - the life expectancy is still damn short.
Next thing we'll find out is that Hawking's wheelchair is configured to slow down his personal time/space and Hawking is really only 28 years old.

Today, Babe Ruth would be Barry Bonds to the power of John Rocker.

Not if Babe out-performed the rest of MLB to the same extent he did during his career. It'd be "Babe being Babe", and allowances would be made. Babe would also have greater financial incentives (what would Babe get today, $40M/year?) to be somewhat discreet.

Not if Babe out-performed the rest of MLB to the same extent he did during his career.

Bonds sure didn't get the Barry being Barry treatment. (Barry didn't have the charm of Babe, though. Babe was pure Id and people love that.)

Where the article missed is that the question is more fitting to Ruth than Gehrig. Mocking teammates with paychecks and not learning their names? Experimental injections of sheep testosterone? Corked bat? Dangling manager off back of moving train? Constant league disciplinary action? Chasing fan with baseball bat?

Today, Babe Ruth would be Barry Bonds to the power of John Rocker.

Bingo. The press at the time downplayed/overlooked most of Ruth's indiscretions, and instead went full-bore for the characterization of him as the blithe, boisterous man-child, promising little Jimmy in the hospital bed that he'd knock a homer and then doing it, yadda yadda. Nowdays the emphasis would be completely in the other direction; he'd be scandal-sheet gold.

Where the article missed is that the question is more fitting to Ruth than Gehrig. Mocking teammates with paychecks and not learning their names? Experimental injections of sheep testosterone? Corked bat? Dangling manager off back of moving train? Constant league disciplinary action? Chasing fan with baseball bat?

Today, Babe Ruth would be Barry Bonds to the power of John Rocker.

It's true that the question far more suits Ruth, but unless he started picking fights with the media, I'm not sure how much that the stuff you mention would stick.

Well, OK, maybe using Miller Huggins as a signal flag to attract the attention of a comely hoboess standing by the railroad tracks might have brought about a bit of chastisement. But he only did that once. (smile)

But I still think that Ruth would be seen much more (at worst) as a variant on Ozzie Guillen than as anything remotely like Barry Bonds. He always was good for a quote, his basic nature seemed relatively guileless, and even when it wasn't, the guile was so transparent that it had a certain amount of Homer Simpsonish charm to it. Unlike Bonds, he didn't always seem to be at war with the world at large, and unlike most of today's players, his personality wasn't pre-packaged and kept stuffed in a bottle. I'm pretty sure that the average fan today could still pretty easily relate to him in spite of all the scandals. Whether or not he'd escape the wrath of the generic BTF snarkmonger and "hypocrisy" seeker is another story.

generic BTF snarkmonger

Good idea for a handle, actually.

Mocking teammates with paychecks and not learning their names? Experimental injections of sheep testosterone? Corked bat? Dangling manager off back of moving train? Constant league disciplinary action? Chasing fan with baseball bat?


I'm with Dan. How much fun would it be to have Babe Ruth storming around the league these days? It'd be like Pacman Jones times Barry Bonds plus Latrell Sprewell all shaken up and fired out of a cannon called Espn_e! created just to cover him 25 x 8.

(As I started writing this I thought the notion might be fun, but the more I think about it the more I fear it would drive me from baseball.)

Bonds sure didn't get the Barry being Barry treatment. (Barry didn't have the charm of Babe, though. Babe was pure Id and people love that.)

Right now that's the frontrunner for the understatement of the 21st century.

generic BTF snarkmonger

Good idea for a handle, actually.

Go for it, Bob. It's out there and available.

Right now that's the frontrunner for the understatement of the 21st century.

I'll take it!

Nowdays the emphasis would be completely in the other direction; he'd be scandal-sheet gold.

Or Deadspin gold; at the very least.

I'm with Dan. How much fun would it be to have Babe Ruth storming around the league these days? It'd be like Pacman Jones times Barry Bonds plus Latrell Sprewell all shaken up and fired out of a cannon called Espn_e! created just to cover him 25 x 8.


I think there's a crucial difference. There was nothing malicious or mean about Babe.

He was remarkably good natured, did tons of charity stuff with kids, and had a killer personality.
I don't see why his womanizing would get any more negative press than Jeter's does.

He'd certainly be a tabloid favorite, but he wouldn't be villified.

I think there's a crucial difference. There was nothing malicious or mean about Babe.

He was remarkably good natured, did tons of charity stuff with kids, and had a killer personality.
I don't see why his womanizing would get any more negative press than Jeter's does.

He'd certainly be a tabloid favorite, but he wouldn't be villified.

Sounds like he'd be Shaquille O'Neal times Brett Favre minus John Daly.

Hawking's kind of an outlier - the life expectancy is still damn short.

As I understand it, Hawking is *the* outlier--there's no other documented case of anyone surviving as long with ALS as he has.

As I understand it, Hawking is *the* outlier--there's no other documented case of anyone surviving as long with ALS as he has.

I had a friend who had the disease. It was terrible. At the end, you have to make a choice, go on a ventilator and "live", while becoming an incredible burden to all that love you, or dying. And dying not so well, basically suffocating. He went on the vent mostly for his kids, but 3 years later, during the evening, he accidentally became disconnnected from the breathing tube and died.

Unfortunately, I have a work colleague that this is now happening to, but he is not going to do the vent.

Charlie Wedemeyer is another such outlier. Noted hs football coach has lived for over 30 years with ALS and has been the subject of documentaries and a made-for-TV movie.