Lou Gehrig

Essay by ChrisCraigHigh School, 11th grade April 2002

download word file, 4 pages 4.4

Baseball has many heroes, both old and new. Cal Ripken Jr., Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb are all considered outstanding players. However, one of the greatest was Lou Gehrig. Baseball was Gehrig's life. Lou Gehrig, an outstanding baseball player and well-liked person was never in the spotlight until his life was cut short at the early age of thirty seven.

Gehrig was a poor German immigrant. He was born on June 19, 1903, in New York City. His parents names were Christina and Heinrich. Christina worked as a maid for another family, and Heirich was a janitor. As a young child Gehrig was very close to his parents. He was the only of four children to survive birth in his family (Will 1). Gehrig was teased at school because he was shy. He was a famous local athlete. Lou went to the High School of Commerce and had perfect attendance.

Lou excelled in sports. He played baseball, basketball, soccer, and football (Hollander 52). At 6' 1" he was without a doubt built for sports. Gehrig always excelled in school work. He graduated in the top five in his class in 1921.

After Gehrig graduated he signed a contract with Hartford. While at Hartford he played under the name Lewis. Gehrig was payed for playing baseball at Hartford. In 1922 he went to Columbia University and played baseball there(Appel and Goldblatt 162). The school found out about Gehrig's getting paid for playing at Hartford. Gehrig caused the school a considerable amount of embarrassment and wasn't allowed to play anymore college baseball because he received payment from Hartford.

In 1923 Gehrig was offered a contract with the Yankees. His father disagreed, but he signed the contract anyway(Appel and Goldblatt 169). The Yankees sent Gehrig to the minor leagues because they thought that...