Lou Gehrig the Hero

A hero is not just the title of an action-packed character who saves the day but can be anyone who lives and creates history, such as legendary baseball player Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was a fabulous baseball hero, who still to this day has unbreakable records. Gehrig, Henry Louis ("Lou") (June 19, 1903 - June 2, 1941), baseball player, better known as Lou Gehrig, was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan in New York City. Gehrig was the only child of Heinrich and Christina (Pack) Gehrig that survived adult hood. Naturally shy, he was still a strapping, broad-shouldered boy, he spent long hours playing baseball and football on the sandlots and in the schoolyards of New York City. He attended the High School of Commerce, where he excelled at both sports. His power on the gridiron brought him to the attention of Buck O'Neill, the football coach at Columbia College finally recruited him. After being highly successful in both Baseball and Football during college, Paul Krichell head scout for the New York Yankees spotted Gehrig at a game and immediately signed him in 1923, after the close of the Columbia baseball season; Gehrig left college to join the Yankees. ("Henry Louis Gehrig the Hero”1).

Gehrig often said he wasn’t the spotlight kind of guy. He followed one of his teammates and personal friend Babe Ruth in batting order, but unlike the high-living Babe Ruth, Gehrig led a relatively retiring and frugal existence. His fame owed much too many Americans. At a time when the public increasingly found its heroes in the sports and entertainment worlds rather than in the arena of politics, "Columbia Lou" as he was often called represented the rags-to-riches saga in the Horatio Alger tradition. Although overshadowed by Ruth both as a pla...

... middle of paper ...

...e 1925. The fans still stood by his side. He then took a stand for his teams sake and asked to be benched. Gehrig didn’t only think of himself, or take the spotlight to show off. Then on July 4 "Appreciation Day" when ceremonies were held in his honor at the Yankee Stadium, attended by members of the great Yankee teams on which he had played and by more than 60,000 fans.” Was proof he had made the sport something new in others eyes. That’s what makes Lou Gehrig a hero.

Works Cited

(The Grolier Library of North American Biographies. Athletes ed. Vol. 2. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational, 1994. Pg 86-88. Print. North American Biographies.)

("Henry Louis Gehrig." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. Biography in Context. Web. 12 May 2014.)

(Lou Gherig Legend." (1903-1941) 16.1 (2010): 15. Gale Power Search. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.)