Lou Gehrig professed himself to be the “luckiest man on the face of the earth” as he stood before 61,000 fans at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. And for decades, that famous speech served as the extent of what we knew about how Gehrig processed the so-called “bad break” that would take his life less than two years later.
But in more private moments, away from the adoring crowd that witnessed his valiant valedictory, how did Gehrig brave his bleak diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis? Was the resoluteness of the “Luckiest Man” speech a fleeting front? How did the man once known as the “Iron Horse” really respond to his rapid demise at the hands of an awful illness that, to this day, remains incurable?
Thanks to the tireless research of Jonathan Eig, author of the 2005 biography “Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig,” we have answers to those questions. Eig is the one who uncovered the letters between Gehrig and his doctor that give us a deeper appreciation of the man Major League Baseball is celebrating with the first annual Lou Gehrig Day on June 2.
