September 8, 2009

Via BBTF, I want to disagree with my old friend Keith Olbermann (emphasis added):

But I wish there would be a little more emphasis of the caveat in all of the discussion of Jeter’s having reached within four hits of breaking Lou Gehrig’s Yankees franchise record of 2,721, that Gehrig stopped accumulating them when he was 35 years old, because he contracted a fatal disease that would claim his life.

I made this point years ago, as Cal Ripken approached Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak. It needs to be said again that Gehrig didn’t stop because of loss of talent, or retirement, or failure. And most remarkably of all, it should be emphasized that at least the last 174 of Gehrig’s hits (just as was the case for at least the last 165 of his games played), certainly came after Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis had already begun to kill him.

Yes, it did end due to loss to talent. There are many ways players lose talent, Gehrig’s happened to be a fatal disease. If he had torn a shoulder muscle, which in 1939 was much tougher to fix, I don’t think Keith would be making this argument, but the effect would be the same.

Interestingly, in some ways this is an argument I heard back in the early 1970s about Ruth and Aaron. Because Ruth hit his home runs in fewer games (about 800) and at bats (about 4000), Aaron wasn’t really the home run king. Some people just didn’t want to let go of Ruth as the greatest home run hitter of all time. What is true is that Ruth was a better slugger than Aaron, and Gehrig was a better hitter than Jeter. People understand the difference between totals and rate.

Keith is worried that Lou Gehrig will be forgotten. Fortunately for Lou, due to his tragedy, due to his unforgettable speech in the face of death, and due to the enormous hold of the Yankees on the world of baseball, that isn’t going to happen.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:09 pm | All-Time Greats | Permalink | 1 Comment