![]() ![]() Gehrig had won two Most Valuable Player awards, a Triple Crown, and was a seven-time All Star (the first All Star Game for Major League Baseball was in 1933). He played in 2,130 consecutive games, a feat unthinkable and a record that seemed unbreakable. He demonstrated that fact by crushing 493 home runs. He was blessed with superhuman ability, power, and endurance. In so many ways, Gehrig had become that mythicized figure. Lou Gehrig in his first appearance with the New York Yankees during a game on June 11, 1923. Now, they were captivated by the tragedy that his strength had vanished. It was where his strength captivated audiences. ![]() For the previous 16 years, Gehrig had made home plate his home. His eyes focused on the ground, only poking his head up every so often to glance at the speaker or receive a gift. His feet close together at the corner of the chalked box, his doffed cap tucked under his right arm. Gehrig was not simply retiring he was dying. The Fourth of July is meant for celebrating national heroes, but this year it was a day of mourning. The New York Yankees announced that July 4 would be “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day.” Gehrig had become a national icon, a hero. In late June 1939, America was dumbfounded at the news that Lou Gehrig― baseball’s Iron Horse―was retiring. Zeigler, a founder of the North American Society of Sport Management, once wrote that “from antiquity we know that ‘hero’ was the name given to a man of ‘superhuman strength, courage, or ability, favoured by the gods regarded later as demigod and immortal.’” He further defined a cultural hero as “a mythicized historical figure who embodies the aspirations or ideals of a society.” In his essay “Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig: A United States Dilemma,” Zeigler concluded that if America did have a cultural hero, it was not Babe Ruth, but rather Lou Gehrig.
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