Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth are the most storied baseball teammates in baseball history. Ruth came to the Yankees first followed by Gehrig who had attended Columbia University. I can't tell from this book whether Gehrig actually graduated from Columbia.
Whereas Ruth was larger than life, Gehrig was the quiet one who played ball but did not attract attention off the field. In the language of the time, the Babe was colorful. Lou was boring.
They were Yankee teammates from 1923 to 1934.
The Babe made fun of the Gary Cooper film Pride of the Yankees. They had to film Cooper hitting right-handed and by trick photography make him appear to be batting left-handed. The Babe didn't understand movie making. Gehrig's own Tarzen movie appearance was an embarassment.
The Babe's hero was Shoeless Joe Jackson. He imitated Jackson's pigeon-toed batting stance. Even though he was acquitted at trail, Jackson's. lifetime ban from baseball was never lifted by Judge Landis. The Babe helped save baseball after the Black Sox Scandal.
The lazy Babe called everyone "keed."
The author apparently believes that the Babe did call his shot in that famous '32 Series game.
The author can come to no firm conllusiions on th 5-yr feud. When the Babe famously greeted Lou on Lou Gehrig Day at the Stadium in July of 1939 it was the first time they had seen each other in five years. Elinor and the Babe knew each other before she and Lou wed. There was the question of what happened on the Japanese trip. Then there was Eleanor who ran Lou's life and Lou's excessive devotion to his mother. Who knows for sure.
Gehrig was known for his power at the plate. He had a habit, not mentioned in this book, of dropping his right front kneee to the ground in his swing. I do not understand how a power hitter could do that and still hit the ball hard.
Late in his career Gehrig was consumed with maintaining his consecutive game streak though he did not get as much recognition for it as he would have liked. Ruth even criticized him for it saying he would be better off physically to take a day off now and then. By the rules Gehrig could play just one inning and get credit for a streak continuation. He was criticized, rightly or wrongly, for taking advantage of this rule. This might have been a part of their 5 yr. estrangement.
Gehrig never earned near the kind of money that the Babe made. I think the Yankees did not treat him right financially. He had financial difficulties at the end of his life. He knew he was dying but had to hide it from the Yankees hoping they would give him a front-office job, but they never did. The Gehrigs lost their house before he died.
The Babe desperately wanted to manage the Yankees but the Yankees were never interested. He was shunted to the lowly Boston Braves after the Yankees ran him off. A sad end to his baseball career.
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