HoraceClarke66: Lest we forget: May 2, 1939

 

The day Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup. 

We've been to the wars together;
We took our foes as they came;
And always you were the leader,
And ever you played the game.

Idol of cheering millions,
Records are yours by sheaves;
Iron of frame they hailed you
Decked you with laurel leaves.

But higher than that we hold you,
We who have known you best;
Knowing the way you came through
Every human test.

Let this be a silent token
Of lasting Friendship's gleam,
And all that we've left unspoken;
Your Pals of the Yankees Team. 

Those were the words longtime sportswriter John Kieran wrote for the trophy the Yankees gave to Lou on his “day” at Yankee Stadium, on July 4^th, 1939. 

 

Kieran later recounted that he was asked to write the inscription by Bill Dickey, and that he felt it was “but a feeble interpretation of what the Yankee players felt about Lou Gehrig.” But when he turned it over to Dickey, the catcher read it and said quietly, “That’s okay. Thanks.”

 

Kieran was a neighbor of Gehrig’s up in Riverdale, and he would visit him at his home there.  After Lou’s death, he wrote that Gehrig told him:

 

“You know, some time when I get—well, sometimes I have that handed to me—and I read it—and I believe it—and I feel pretty good.”

 

Kieran concluded, “That’s the best pay this observer ever received for anything he ever wrote.”