Last Ride of the Iron Horse: How Lou Gehrig Fought ALS to Play One Final Championship Season
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Last Ride of the Iron Horse tells the tale of Lou Gehrig’s final year in the Yankee lineup, as he dealt with early effects of the deadly disease ALS. For much of the 1938 season, Gehrig – dubbed the Iron Horse for his strength and reliability – struggled with slumps and a mystifying loss of power. Fans booed, and sportswriters called for him to be benched. Then, as the Yankees battled for the pennant in August, Lou began pounding home runs like his old self – a turnaround that in retrospect looks truly miraculous. It may have been a rare case of temporary ALS reversal.
Using rare film footage, radio broadcasts, newspapers and interviews, author Dan Joseph chronicles Gehrig’s roller coaster of a year. The story begins in Hollywood, where the handsome “Larrupin’ Lou” films a Western that would be his only movie. As the year unfolds, he holds out for baseball’s highest salary, battles injuries that would sideline a lesser man, wins his sixth World Series ring, and enters the political arena for the first time, denouncing the rising threat of Nazism.
Joseph also answers questions that have long intrigued Gehrig’s admirers: When did he sense something was wrong with his body? What were the first signs? How did he adjust? And did he still help the Yankees win the championship, even as his skills declined?
The year 1938 would be Gehrig’s last hurrah. With his strength fading, he ended his renowned consecutive games streak the following May. A few weeks later, doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with ALS. On July 4, the Yankees retired his number in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. All along, Gehrig showed remarkable courage and grace, never more so than when he told the stadium crowd, “I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”
8 reviews for Last Ride of the Iron Horse: How Lou Gehrig Fought ALS to Play One Final Championship Season
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Tom from LA –
I Cried!
This is quite a book that focuses mainly on Lou Gerhig’s final seasons as a Yankee, though it traces his entire life and career. In his final full season, 1938, Gerhig had 29 home runs, 114 RBIs and hit .295, pretty good results for any major league player, yet, something was wrong. He could see it, and so could his teammates, opponents, fans and sportswriters. This wasn’t some guy facing nagging injuries, something was definitely wrong that couldn’t be explained. And until he took himself out of the lineup early in the 1939 season, the world could be pretty vicious. Fans would boo when he’d fail to perform up to expectations, sportswriters would throw shade at his abilities, and opponents would resent his being undeservedly named to yet another all-star team to their exclusion. Gerhig himself would sit in a corner of the locker room, dragging on a cigarette, staring, wondering what was wrong. For some, it’s human nature to remain optimistic about one’s abilities, and have confidence that they can set things right. In Gerhig’s case, he even took ownership of his diminishing performance, even claiming during spring training 1939 that he hadn’t trained properly before the prior season. Ultimately, it was his wife who suggested he go to The Mayo Clinic for his diagnosis.What comes through in the book is the courageous Gerhig that has been portrayed in other books and in cinema. A man who ultimately accepted his fate with grace and dignity, despite his wife and doctor’s efforts to spare him the truth about his disease. I highly recommend this book, not just to any sports fan, but to any member of the human race.
Thomas Wolf –
A Triumph
Dan Joseph’s LAST RIDE OF THE IRON HORSE is an excellent book with a fitting and appropriate title. Gehrig’s last full season is carefully and sympathetically documented in this account of the Yankee legend’s success as a player as he was battling–unbeknownst to him–the deadly disease ALS that now carries his name. Joseph presents a strong case that Gehrig’s 1938 season was a “most extraordinary” season, taking into account how the disease was slowly robbing Gehrig of his physical skills–ironic and sad since a healthy Gehrig was a figure of great strength. The book does two things particularly well: first, it details Gehrig’s on-field accomplishments during the season; second, the book provides an accessible and well-researched understanding of how ALS works to incapacitate those afflicted. Highly recommended.
jim –
Sadly true
Although the book primarily focuses on baseball stats and happenings, the “speech” and the entire Lou Gehrig Day account make the book worthwhile. The event was written about with enough emotion to make it seem as if you were there and feel the sadness of the day
M.T. Fisher –
Outstanding look at a forgotten season in Gehrig’s life.
As a Gehrig fanatic, I find this a fascinating look at The Iron Horse. What we’ve always read is that he just didn’t have as good a year in 1938, and people would crack, “Hey Lou, you’re getting old.” Well, the author gets more into the meat of things, and we feel as if we’re in the Yankee dugout, sitting by Gehrig, dealing with the issues with him, knowing what he doesn’t. And when he hears the catcalls and the boos from people who don’t know any better, you want to tell the crowd to just shut up.A truly outstanding book any baseball fan, no matter who their team is, needs to read.
Derek Grimmell –
The account that Gehrig deserves
I don’t know how the author settled on telling the story of Gehrig’s last full season, and can only imagine the amount of research it took to put together all of the details. I do know that he tells this remarkable story with both respect for the man, and honesty about what was happening to his body. The tale is told as if we were there during that season. You will not regret reading it.
Orioles fan –
Excellent book!
Great read – very well researched and written, and a must for any baseball fan.
Christopher J. Cosmos –
New Details
Fantastic! I thought I knew everything about sweet Lou until this book. Wonderfully written, and full of terrific antidotes I had not heard before. Thank you Dan.
David G. Myrick –
The Greatest
Good read if you love baseball history especially of the Yankees. Lou Gehrig will always be one of the greatest and his story never gets old. Interesting but extremely sad to read details of the end.