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Audio CD Description 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

Customer Reviews Phenomenal book on a Great Person This is truly a phenomenal book about a great individual. Lou Gehrig is someone that we all can aspire to and emulate. The book relates it all: his reserved character, his great baseball records and clutch hitting, and his experience with ALS. It is all here. Although I've read and seen and heard many examples of the "luckiest man" speech, this book does the best job that I've seen of sharing it - the background leading up to the day, Lou's humility during the speech and the results. (He received more letters from fans reacting to that speech than ever before.) Being a New York Yankee fan from way back in my youngster years, I was interested in reading about this great baseball hero. And heroic he was - the number of times that he won World Series games and his clutch hitting resulted in World Series wins which are related in some detail, even on a batter by batter basis. The fact that he was one of the best clutch hitters of all time (just look at his number of RBIs and grand slam home runs). This book is worth the read. It is great to read about such a great man so that we can all try to emulate him. After reading this book, I can truly that Lou Gehrig was the greatest New York Yankee of all time. Informative Biography of Lou Gehrig Strengths: Good description of the era during which Gehrig grew up and baseball became popular, how his family helped shape his personality, his courtship and marriage, and his association (and great behavioral differences) with Babe Ruth. Highly informative, including facts I didn't know even though I have read several biographies of Gehrig. For example: Gehrig's proudest moment on the field was a World Series home run that he hit off Carl Hubbell, Hubbell was trying to waste that pitch but made the mistake of pitching it high rather than low, and this was the only time all year that Hubbell gave up a home run with a man on base. Or many details involving Gehrig's illness. And the complete text of his famous farewell speech (pieced together from various sources, since copies apparently don't exist), which he really didn't want to give because he was too shy/uncomfortable. Weaknesses: Eig constantly tells instead of showing, like a historian whose primary concern is to get the facts straight and debunk false myths. Lacks the lyrical prose of a book like Frank Graham's "Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero." Graham's book was written for young readers and therefore omits much controversial material. But Graham relates incidents--such as Gehrig's high school home run that exited a major league park, or scout Paul Krichell's discovery of Gehrig--by using awe-struck conversations that remain etched in one's memory years later, whereas Eig simply tells you what happened. Graham often devises catchy phrases to illustrate important points, such as Gehrig's "invisibility" (e.g., "Headlines were hard for Lou"); Eig usually does not. Eig also likes to document Gehrig's progress or decline on the field by telling how many hits, home runs, RBIs, etc. Gehrig had in one game after another. The facts are there; verbal creativity usually is not. Bottom Line: Well worth reading if you want to know more about Gehrig. You'll come away feeling you know him much better, and you'll be hard pressed not to shed a tear at his precipitous decline. But don't expect many scintillating phrases or scenes to stand out in your mind a week after you finish the book. If that's what you want, read Graham's book. (Or read both.) One of the best sports biographies ever written When I was a child I read over and over again a biography of Lou Gehrig written for children. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the author . It was truly inspiring and in a way the hardworking , slow - running Lou, who every day ran to school in order to pick up his running speed was even more of a hero for me than the Babe or Joe D. other major Yankee heroes. Now Jonathan Eig has written what the New York Times calls one of the ' best sports' biographies' of all time. It is a book not simply about a baseball player, but about a brave, modest heroic human being, a dedicated, hard- working ball - player whose love of the game led him to set the astounding, once thought unbreakable record of playing in 2130 consecutive games. Gehrig was an athlete of another time, who for years was paid less than he was worth because he feared he might antagonize management and lose his job. His whole story including that of putting himself through Columbia and while there helping his mother wash dishes to support their family exemplifies this kind of modesty and dedication. Eig tells the story of his sudden illness with crippling multiple sclerosis ( Lou Gehrig's disease) and how he struggled with such great fortitude to maintain the most he could of his skills for as long as he could. He also tells of Gehrig's family relationships, his closeness to his mother, his marrying relatively late to a wife more capable of handling his business interests than he was himself. He tells of the odd friendship and great contrast between Gehrig and the Babe. He gives a spellbinding account of the famous ' Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth' speech. This is a work that every single reviewer on Amazon has highly praised. It cannot be more highly recommended.