Johnathon Richardson
Ms. Cesarz/Ms. Cervelli
English 11
23 February 2017
Baseball and Lou Gehrig
Baseball was the most popular sport in the 1920’s. A lot of big name players such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb all played in the ‘20s. There are also a lot of movies based on baseball from 1920 such as “The Pride of the Yankees”, “Eight Men Out”, and “Field of Dreams”. (Richardson)
Lou Gehrig: Early Life
Lou Gehrig was born on June 19, 1903, in New York City. Gehrig grew up very poor, but he and his mother always helped out other families by washing their dirty clothes and returning them when they were clean. He played baseball in college for Columbia University and was very excited when the New York Yankees offered him a job. He wanted to pay his parents bills with the money that he earned. He always made sure that his parents were well taken care of (Boothroyd). “For one thing, he was always low on cash. While the other boys in his class were able to buy soda or ice cream after class, Lou could never join in.”(Viola)
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Lou Gehrig started at first base for the Yankees in 1925. In 8,001 career at-bats with the Yankees, Gehrig had 2,721 hits, 1,888 runs scored, 493 home runs, 1,995 RBIs, stole 102 bases, and held a .340 lifetime batting average. Gehrig won 6 world series in his tenure with the Yankees. Lou played every single game for 14 seasons (2,130 games) until April 30, 1939, when he realized that he was having trouble running the bases and felt off. He told his coach to play somebody else. Lou went to the doctors and was diagnosed with ALS. He would never play in another major league baseball game again.