Lou Gehrig's career is bigger
than his stats.
His spirit is more significant than the disease which destroyed
him.
His story is more than a baseball story,
Yet it brings to life an extraordinary time in baseball history.
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 INITIALLY,
LOU GEHRIG'S STORY APPEALED TO ME as the story of an immigrant's
son for whom the American dream came true. I didn't live in a
house full of talk about baseball. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and though my father was loyal to the Pittsburgh Pirates, his
heart belonged to boxing. In 1997, the cover on a biography of
Lou Gehrig caught my eye. After reading the extraordinary story,
I took it right home to read it again to my husband. When we finished,
Richie said: "Wow. Oh, honey! The world needs more stories like
that. But… if you're going to tell that story, you're going
to have to learn a lot more about baseball, because there are
people who eat and sleep baseball." He was right – I did
need to learn a great deal. I am still learning. Sadly after I
began telling the story, I also learned how pervasively ALS has
touched families across America.
Just as books enriched this story, so did the responses of people
– my family, friends, colleagues at the Chappaqua Library
and Southern Connecticut State University, and a vast array of
listeners at storytelling events. Some people taught me more about
baseball; others offered savory details about the Gehrigs. A particularly
discerning and articulate circle of women gathered at my friend
Melissa Heckler's one evening to critique the story: Martha Alcott,
Deborah Batterman, Miriam Budin, Teresa Bueti, Lisa Cooper, Karen
Frederick, Shiela Hale, Marcia Hupp, Jane Marino, and Carol Nordgren.
Women who were passionate about baseball told me: "Carol, you
don't need to explain what an RBI is. Everyone in America knows
what an RBI is!" Those who were not aficionados of the game, countered:
"Well, I don't know what an RBI is and I don't care. Can't you
just take all those numbers out?" Early on I learned the story
needed to speak to both kinds of listeners. I hope I have succeeded.
When Ted Williams rated the twenty best hitters of all time,
he listed Gehrig second only to Babe Ruth - as Gehrig often was
during the decade they played together. Gehrig is first in this
story, as he was, and is, in the hearts of many. Here is my version
of this great man's story. Lou Gehrig's story changed the direction
of my career. This recording is dedicated to Richie, the man who
changed the direction of my life. Wow.
-Carol Birch
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Bibliography
I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to the following authors
for permission to include those telling details, references or quotes
from their books which season and enhance this story:
Bombers: An Oral History Of
The New York Yankees.
Richard Lally.
New York: Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, 2002.
Lou Gehrig: An American Classic.
Richard Bak.
Lanham, MD: Taylor, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Group, 1995.
Lou Gehrig: Courageous Star.
Robert Rubin.
New York: Putnam, 1979.
Lou Gehrig: Pride Of The Yankees,
New Edition.
Paul Gallico.
Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1998 (Grosset & Dunlap, 1942).
My Luke And I.
Eleanor Gehrig and Joseph Durso.
New York: Crowell, 1976.
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To read more about Lou Gehrig, check out these
informative books and others at your local library:
- ALL-STAR BASEBALL. Robert Obojski.
- THE BABE RUTH STORY. Babe Ruth & Bob Considine.
- BASEBALL AS AMERICA: SEEING OURSELVES THROUGH OUR NATIONAL
PASTIME. National Baseball Hall of Fame.
- THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. Terry J. Dunnahoo & Herman Silverstein.
- BASEBALL’S BEST: THE HALL OF FAME GALLERY. Martin Appel &
Burt Goldblatt.
- THE BILL JAMES GUIDE TO BASEBALL: MANAGERS FROM 1870 TO TODAY.
Bill James.
- THE COMPLETE NEW YORK YANKEES. Derek Gentile.
- COOPERSTOWN: BASEBALL’S HALL OF FAME. Lowell Reidenburgh,
ed. by Joe Hoppel.
- FEW AND CHOSEN: DEFINING YANKEE GREATNESS ACROSS THE ERAS.
Whitey Ford with Phil Pepe.
- THE GREATEST OF ALL: THE 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES. John Mosedale.
- THE GREATEST YANKEES OF THEM ALL. Ray Robinson.
- THE HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES. Richard Rambeck.
- THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD SERIES SINCE 1903. Glenn Dickey.
- THE IMAGE OF THEIR GREATNESS: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF BASEBALL
FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT. Lawrence Ritter with Donald Honig.
- IRON HORSE: LOU GEHRIG IN HIS TIME. Ray Robinson.
- LOU GEHRIG. Richard Rambeck.
- LOU GEHRIG: IRON MAN OF BASEBALL. Willard & Celia Luce.
- LOU GEHRIG: THE LUCKIEST MAN. David Adler.
- LOU GEHRIG: PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. Keith Brandt.
- MURDERERS’ ROW. G. H Fleming.
- NEW YORK YANKEES. James Rothaus.
- THE NEW YORK YANKEES: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY. Donald Honig.
- THE 100 GREATEST BASEBALL PLAYERS OF ALL TIME, REVISED ED.
Lawrence Ritter.
- SLUGGERS. George Sullivan.
- TRIPLE-CROWN WINNERS. Howard Liss.
- WHO IS BASEBALL’S GREATEST HITTER? Jeff Kisseloff.
- THE YANKEES: AN AUTHORIZED HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES.
Phil Pepe.
- THE YANKEE ENCYCLOPEDIA, 5TH ED. Mark Gallagher.
- THE YANKEES: THE FOUR FABULOUS ERAS OF BASEBALL’S MOST FAMOUS
TEAM. David Anderson & others
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