Steve Frey
When I started playing Little League baseball, I chose the number “4” for my uniform. I was only eight, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
Why four? Well, my mom told me always to try to get that number because it was a “lucky” number. So I did.
For every team I was on from then through high school, I would try to get number four for my uniform. If I couldn’t get that number, I would try to get a number with a four in it like 14.
It was much later in life that I found out why my mother liked the number four: It was Lou Gehrig’s number.
Now, a lot of younger folks may not know who Lou Gehrig was, or they may only associate him with a paralyzing disease, but Lou Gehrig was one of the New York Yankees of “Murderers’ Row,” a group of players that famously won one baseball championship after another in the 1920’s and 30’s.
On this day, June 2, in 1925, Lou Gehrig started his consecutive hit streak for the Yankees. Coincidentally, on this same day in 1935, Babe Ruth retired as a player at the age of 40. Those 10 years were extraordinary times for baseball in America.
Gehrig was the All-American success story. His parents were immigrants from Germany who struggled financially.
Gehrig grew up in the tough streets of East Harlem playing stickball as much as possible with his friends. His mother wanted him to be an engineer, so he went to Columbia University on a football scholarship to become one.
However, his athletic prowess, especially in baseball, soon had him in a Yankee’s uniform.
After he started playing for the Yankees, he didn’t stop until he had played in 2,130 consecutive games, only taking himself out of the lineup when ALS prevented him from contributing to the team.
Babe Ruth is probably the best-known baseball player ever, even though he finished playing over 80 years ago. He held the record for the most home runs in a season and most in a career for decades.
Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth were both great baseball players on the same team, and they deserve recognition for their incredible skills.
However, there was a big difference between the two: Lou Gehrig was a quiet, modest, hardworking person, while Babe Ruth was a show-off who liked to talk about himself and brag incessantly. Who do you think became a hero to millions of Americans?
Yes, it was Gehrig.
Gehrig never made as much money as Ruth. In fact, Ruth had a high salary of $80,000 per year, and Gehrig never made half of that.
Gehrig always played in Ruth’s flamboyant shadow. That was okay with Gehrig; he didn’t need the spotlight. While Ruth spent his time bragging, drinking, womanizing and partying, Gehrig settled down with the love of his life, his wife, Eleanor. Gehrig spent his time being a role model for young people, living by “copy-book maxims” and solid virtues. He was a good man.
He not only lived a life true to his values, but he faced death the same way. He never gave up, and he lifted many others with his courage, too. He remained positive and upbeat until the end.
Gehrig taught us many lessons. He illustrated the importance of family; his wife, mother and father meant everything to him. He was a role model who lived his entire life as a positive influence exhibiting honesty, hard work, modesty and, of course, perseverance.
He was called the “Iron Horse” for his consecutive game record, playing after being hit in the head by a pitch, with numerous broken fingers and other maladies over many years that would have benched a mere mortal.
In a time when many people, and even leaders in high office, are self-centered, egotistical and demeaning to others, the world needs more people like Lou Gehrig.
Moreover, children and young adults need those kinds of positive examples to guide them.
Yes, Lou Gehrig started his consecutive game streak on this very day in 1925, and Babe Ruth finished his career in 1935. Both left the game after their skills were greatly diminished.
Gehrig was sincerely mourned, but Ruth was seen as someone who had squandered his gifts, and it was not the same.
In a few weeks, another group of Yankees, the Pulaski Yankees, will start their season. These young men are embarking on their professional careers, just as Gehrig did in the minor leagues in Hartford, Connecticut.
Some of them might be getting the minimum salary possible, while others may have received a massive signing bonus, but they all start out on an equal footing in Pulaski. It will be fun to watch the drama of the games, as there are always ups and downs with every season.
It will also be interesting to see how the players learn to handle themselves. Hopefully, they have been taught the same virtues Lou Gehrig learned at home, in his neighborhood, in school and elsewhere. Hopefully, they will one day be “the pride of the Yankees.”
On July 4, 1939, on Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium, many men and women in attendance were in tears. They loved Lou Gehrig because of his courage, honesty, modesty and character.
Gehrig was in tears, too, and he almost didn’t speak because of it, but there were over 60,000 fans in the stands cheering and wanting to hear from him, so he turned around and faced the microphone.
Gehrig, in his usual way, concentrated on thanking others. Then, weakened by his disease, said these unforgettable words: “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
No, there wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium. The love for the man was palpable.
Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, walked away from that podium and into the hearts of millions. Even though he was dying, he honestly saw himself as truly lucky because so many people cared so much about him, and he, them. He had had a wonderful life.
Yes, four is a lucky number. It represents a man who stood for the best in all men. It should always be worn as an honor and with dignity.
After all, it was Lou Gehrig’s number.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
