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Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: March 28, 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Lou Gehrig started his professional baseball career at a time when players began to be seen as national celebrities. Though this suited charismatic men such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, Gehrig avoided the spotlight and preferred to speak with his bat. Best known for playing in 2,130 consecutive games as well as his courage in battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a disease that now bears his name), the Iron Horse that emerges from this book is surprisingly naïve and insecure. He would cry in the clubhouse after disappointing performances, was painfully shy around women (much to the amusement of some of his teammates), and particularly devoted to his German-immigrant mother all his life. Even after earning the league MVP award he still feared the Yankees would let him go. Against the advice of Ruth and others, he refused to negotiate aggressively and so earned less than he deserved for many seasons. Honest, humble, and notoriously frugal, his only vices were chewing gum and the occasional cigarette. And despite becoming one of the finest first basemen of all time, Jonathan Eig shows how Gehrig never seemed to conquer his self-doubt, only to manage it better.
Jonathan Eig's Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig offers a fascinating and well-rounded portrait of Gehrig, from his dugout rituals and historic games to his relationships with his mother, wife, coaches, and teammates. His complex friendship with Ruth, who was the polar opposite to Gehrig in nearly every respect, is given particularly vivid attention. Take this revealing description of how the two men began a barnstorming tour together following their 1927 World Series victory: "Ruth tipped the call girls and sent them on their way. Gehrig kissed his mother goodbye." Eig also shares some previously unknown details regarding his consecutive games streak and how he dealt with ALS during the final years of his life. Rich in anecdotes and based on hundreds of interviews and 200 pages of recently discovered letters, the book effectively shows why the Iron Horse remains an American icon to this day. --Shawn Carkonen
Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse, baseball's strongest and most determined superstar -- struck down in his prime by a disease that now bears his name. But who was Lou Gehrig, really? What fueled his ferocious competitive drive? How did he cope with the illness that abruptly ended his career and drained him of his legendary power? Drawing on dozens of new interviews and hundreds of pages of Gehrig's personal and previously unpublished letters, this definitive biography gives us a deeper, more intimate understanding of the life of an American hero.
Lou Gehrig is regarded as the greatest first baseman in baseball history. A muscular but clumsy athlete, he grew up in New York City, the sole survivor among four siblings. He idolized his hardworking mother and remained devoted to her all his life. Shy and socially awkward, especially around women, Gehrig was a misfit on a Yankee team that included drinkers and hell-raisers, most notably Babe Ruth. Gehrig's wife, Eleanor, was an ambitious young woman who pursued him and persuaded him to embrace his growing stardom. For years, rumors have persisted that she and Ruth had an affair, and that this was the event that ended the friendship between the two ballplayers.
Gehrig and Ruth formed the greatest slugging tandem in baseball history. They were the heart of the first great Yankee dynasty. After Ruth's retirement, Gehrig and a young Joe DiMaggio would begin a new era of Yankee dominance. But Luckiest Man reveals that Gehrig was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) much sooner than anyone believed, as early as the spring of 1938. Despite the illness, he didn't miss a game that year, keeping intact his astonishing consecutive-games streak, which stood for more than half a century.
After he was diagnosed, Gehrig's doctors allowed him to believe he had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving what they knew to be a fatal illness. The same doctor who wrote him encouraging letters secretly wrote Eleanor Gehrig to tell her the terrible truth. But even as his body deteriorated and Gehrig realized he was dying, he never despaired. In his final months Gehrig proved himself truly to be the Iron Horse. The man who spoke spontaneously from the heart when he gave his great speech at his farewell in Yankee Stadium continued to sound the same themes: that he'd led a good life and had much to be thankful for.
In Luckiest Man Jonathan Eig brings to life a figure whose shyness and insecurity obscured his greatness during his lifetime. Gehrig emerges on these pages as more human and heroic than ever.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Awesome
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i have this book. price exceptional.
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Rating: - even a sox fan recommends
I read this book while in middle school and it inspired me. Yes even a Red Sox fan enjoyed this book. This is not a book about a Yankee or baseball but a story about an amazing person.
Rating: - An outstanding biography
Author Jonathan Eig has written a fantastic character study of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig, a shy, Momma's boy who always followed the rules and didn't want to let anyone down. A proud man, Gehrig always handled himself with class. He had few equals on or off the field.
Eig paints a sensitive portrait of Gehrig while discussing his relationships with his mother, his wife, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and his other teammates as well as Yankees management.
Never considered ... Read More
Rating: - Outstanding, detailed account
Lou Gehrig has always been an interesting subject for me. I'm a so-so baseball fan, but I am a fan of individual's who appear to have the same values and morals that I hold.
Jonathan Eig does a very nice job in this book of focusing on Gehrig's baseball qualities and his qualities as a man. I really enjoyed the book that gave a tremendous insight into how Gehrig acted behind closed doors.
A few things that really interested me:
I didn't know he was nearly that good ... Read More
Rating: - The best biography I've ever read!
I'm a Yankee hater, but I loved this book. I always found the story of Lou Gehrig to be an inspirational one. Jonathan Eig did a great job of not only telling Gehrig's story, but also making you want to root for Gehrig to survive. At times I found myself forgetting that he dies in the end, only wanting to read more about his amazing feats on the ball field. A great book that everyone should read.
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