Lou Gehrig's 1939 Radio Interview While at the Mayo Clinic on 1340 KROC AM
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- Опубликовано: 9 ноя 2014
- In 1939, baseball legend Lou Gehrig came to the KROC-AM studio for an interview while he was in Rochester undergoing tests at the Mayo Clinic that soon led to his diagnosis of having ALS. The interview is all about baseball.
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Something tells me that Gehrig was a ballplayer's ballplayer, too.
If there’s a poster child for baseball, he’s it. Hardworking, intelligent, courteous, humble, tough, honest, and courageous.
Exuding German work ethics too.......
And tragic.
A poster child for life.
He was played by Nelson Rockefeller. He never died.
He is only 34 years old here. It’s amazing how mature, wise and thoughtful he is for such a young age.
36
@@JackCallSports thank you for the correction
What a privilege to be able to hear his voice! Thank you to whoever is responsible for putting this on the internet!
I agree
I have always viewed Honus Wagner as a class act. Hearing Gehrig calling him a ballplayer's ballplayer may be the best endorsement ever. Two of the all-time Starting Nine.
Honus Wagner is the most valuable baseball card. I think only seven copies exist, in decent (not mint) condition. In his day, baseball cards were packaged not with bubble gum, but with cigarettes. Wagner was a fitness fanatic, and demanded that tobacco manufacturers stop using his picture, which they did.
“Ruth, Cobb and Wagner” Always interesting to hear a baseball legend give his perspective on the greatest ball players. His choices stood up pretty well given the test of time.
He also mentioned their names without hesitation.
He left out a name.... Lou Gehrig.
He named the three position players from the first five. Smart man.
Lou Gehrig was a handsome, smart amazing humble sweet person. There won't ever be anyone like him❤️
Wow. What a gift to actually hear his voice and hear his intellect shine through it all.
First time I ever heard his voice other than the famous speech. Amazing. Lou is on my Mt. Rushmore.
Unfortunately, no amount of luck could save the "Iron Horse" from a premature death just two years later from ALS. Great interview with the awesome Lou Gehrig.
Gehrig was one of a kind.
It is Amazing to sit here in 2022 and listen to Lou Gehrig speaking on the radio from along time ago.
Ah, radio. A gem of an interview. Columbia educated, Gehrig was an intelligent man, seldom heard on the radio. Typical New "Yawk" accent of the 1920-30s. One of the game's greatest.
What a great player and what a great man. All players past and present should emulate the great Lou Gehrig.
Sounds great! Unlike today New Yorkers...they sound like a bunch of Valley girls...
My favorite baseball player.
Many of us still carry that accent, as it's what we were born and raised with. I've lived on the West Coast for 27 years, and I've worked on minimizing my accent. However, if I've been talking with somebody from back there, or I'm tired, or I'm ticked off, the accent will come back.
Probobly the greatest NYC native Yankee of all time...to hear that accent...if there was a born and bred New Yawka with his talent playing for the Yankees now he would be Zeus
I'm just glad to have listened to him speak. Absolutely amazing - the joy of the modern age.
What is so amazing about this interview is not only is complete knowledge of the game but how he was so comfortable about talking about everything that did not necessarily be about him. And when the questions would be concerning his greatness he would defer this to others as well. This interview shows how complete an individual can be when they love what they are doing and realize that it is more than who they are.
Nice to hear this interview.Gehrig was a major class act.Great player too.
Gehrig's 1938 season was truly remarkable. ALS likely was beginning to affect him as soon as spring training, and he certainly noticed the changes in his body, but he still hit .295 with 29 HRs and 114 RBIs. People often talk about what would Ted Williams career stats would have been if not for his military service. I think Gehrig would have played thru at least 1942...4 more years, that would have put his career HRs over 600 and his career RBI likely over 2300!! Amazing!
Lou still holds the A.L. single season rbi record with 183. He averaged 150 rbi's
for his career falling just short of 2000. This is a remarkable accomplishment as
he hit behind Babe Ruth who is #2 in career runs batted in.
@ Angry Grizzly-Hmm. According to Baseball Reference which is kind of like the leading authority in all things MLB we are both wrong. In 1931 Gehrig had 185 ribbies along with 163 runs scored, 46 home runs while hitting .341
In 1937 the Tigers star had 184 ribbies with 137 runs scored 40 home runs and hit .337
I guess it all depends on what source you use. Which ever one you choose it is still a remarkable stat in whatever era or generation.
That was in 1930. Wilson who was the Cubs center fielder also hit .356 with 56 home runs which was the N.L
single season record until 1998 when Mark McGuire broke it. Did you know that despite his gargantuan stats
in 1930 Wilson did not win the N.L. MVP. The New York Giants first base man Bill Terry won it. Terry hit .401
becoming the last National League player to hit .400. He had 23 home runs and 129 rbi's but also led the
league in hits with 254.
pup41261 has he not been sick and had lived I think he would of made a great manager.
He was terrifically intelligent.
This interview is pure gold.
One of the best ever!
The great Lou Gehrig.
This is awesome, as a Yankee fan and a history buff this is an unbelievable upload. Thank you
What a pleasure and a joy to hear an athlete being interviewed ( whether by radio or TV) and
not hear " you know" interjected several times in one answer let alone the entire interview.
Drives me nuts, Uhhh and ya know.
An amazing ballplayer and gentleman!
What an absolute treasure. Compare this man with what passes for a professional athlete today. Thank you so much for uploading this.
It’s like turning back the hands of time. Wow. Thanks for this post. It made my day.
Lou was a very well spoken man & a phenomenal 1st baseman.
Well spoken guy. Educated. Went to Columbia(on a football scholarship!).Class act- not like the players you have today. Let's go back in time - and stay there!
Bucky Brown Agree.🤗
Don't generalize.
One educated man around a bunch of illiterate drunks yes let's go back to the good old days.
Deny blacks from being in the MLB cause of racism. Yes, let’s back to that! Fuck that, stop living in the past and thinking baseball was about honor back then
@@StanStacks Yawwwn 😴😴😴
Fascinating. Glad I clicked on this.
What a difference between the older players and the players of today.
He would have been a great announcer! Include Gehrig as one of the greatest!
Wonderful observation--so articulate.
A treasure this radio interview with ¨iron horse¨ Gehrig
Among the many many other tragic effects of Gehrig's death, IMO he would have been a natural as a TV or radio commentator in the 50s-60s-and beyond. He was obviously well informed about the game and able to speak very easily in an interview situation. Too bad we never got to hear him try it.
Not to mention his voice; he has a beautiful, soothing voice.
Tony Conigliaro wanted to be one. His brutal eye injury shortened his career, but he wanted to get back into baseball. The Red Sox invited him to an audition as their TV announcer. But, as his brother Billy drove him to Fenway Park, Tony had a massive heart attack and a stroke. He survived, but was an invalid. Conigliaro died in a nursing home when he was 45.
What a great man. So genuine. This is wonderful. Thank You
Amazing to hear Lou’s voice.
clearly an intelligent, humble man, that loved the game....my favorite ball player ever.....
This is great to listen to but its kind of bitter sweet to hear this. Shows me what a class act Lou Gehrig really was wish I could have seen him play in his prime.
I love this guy he was such a humble person who deserved more. I enjoyed hearing his voice and what his personal thoughts were in this video.
The interview demonstrates Lou was a very thoughtful and intelligent man. He is well spoken and his insights into the game are of course spot on. Nice footage.
The nerve of night baseball!
You know up until elementry school Lou spoke primerly German with his parents!
Such A Well Spoken Articulate Man,Very Knowledgeable About The Game Of Baseball.
Unlike the greedy bastards who play today.
Bucky Brown So True.
Would have loved to been around to watch the greats of baseball play. Lou was a good looking man with a cute genuine smile
Started reading "Luckiest Man" grateful to not only read about his life, but hear his voice and his honest opinions. But can't help to notice he sounds much older than what he was at the time of this interview.
I’m reading that now. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you can’t help but love Lou Gehrig ❤️😪
ALS weakens the voice until it's gone.
Starting First Baseman on my all time Team.
Big Bad Wolf mine too.
Big Bad Wolf SAME HERE,BRO.
Big Bad Wolf Me Too,Friend.
Its not even close. Best first baseman of all time.
The first thing that comes to mind when speaking of Lou was his hitting but he was a great defensive player too. The Gold Glove Award didn't become a stat until 1955 or Gehrig would have won his share.
Fantastic. Thanks for this.
Great interview and to hear him talk about a Players Union God can you imagine how much money a guy like Gehrig would make in today's game?
"....and Lou Gehrig's Yankees take the field...."
Although he was wrong about there probably will never being a players union, and it probably wouldn’t work. The late great Lou Gehrig would be surprised today, how well the union has worked for the ball players, and how much money they’re making, and the benefits they receive.
I say 25 million a season
Great post! Such a humble man. The highlight of my trip to the HOF was standing in front of Lous locker. What a ballplayer and what a Man.
That was really great!
Great words from a great man.
I loved his foresight about a union being a bad thing for Major League Baseball. I think, actually I KNOW that Mr. Gehrig would be extremely humbled to see that almost 75 years after his untimely and most unfair death, that he is still remembered and beloved, even by those of us who weren't born until many years after he passed away. #4 forever...and for all the time he spent in Ruth's shadow, it was most fitting, tragically too, that Gehrig's uniform number was the first to be retired.
Unions allow workers to be remunerated in a body for their labor properly instead of underpaid, used and abused, and exploited for their talents. I guess you missed the ramifications of the Curt Flood issues that changed baseball in 1970. I didn't.
I'd rather see the players get the money than the owners. I don't go to the ballpark to watch the owners. The union forced the owners to share the profits, as it should be.
I think Lou was addressing unions as more or less a situation where substandard employees (players) would some how be entitled to stay and play. That’s not how a baseball union would work then or work now. The union today merely functions as getting the best players the best money….among other things. Has nothing to do with keeping substandard players in the majors.
VERY INTERESTING.
Rogers Hornsby Indeed,Sir.
Rogers Hornsby Yes.
What an amazing person and so humble who had such a sad ending to his life❤️🙏🏻
Wonderful!
When Gehrig's numbers declined in 1938, he was 35 yrs old. Typical to decline. Still all star numbers . Should 'be had 5 more yrs , reached 600 home runs .And lived to 1973 - 87.
Gehrig was in good shape.If not for the disease,he could have played 7 more years.That would put him at 42.Cobb,and Grove both played to 42.His average of hrs per at bat was better than mays or aaron.He would have had more.
Had Gehrig lived a full, healthy life, he would have approached 650-700 HRs and 2,700-2,800 RBIs.
Amazing, that NY accent. This guy was a New Yorker through and through.
THANKS LOU!!
Hey thanks for sharing this!
"Do you think there will ever be such a thing as a ballplayer's union?" at 5:14. WOW. Interesting reason why Lou thought not.
But he was absolutely right! Look at that bum Pablo Sandoval!
Hence, the MLBPA is nothing like a traditional labor union.
Class and talent and intelligence all rolled up into one.
What a mans man! I lost a friend the first summer of Covid from ALS. I’ve been a lifelong musician and baseball, hockey and basketball fanatic. But in H.S., I was asked to go out for wrestling again after wrestling all through grammar school. We had “wrestle offs” during gym class. When you were picked, you wrestled until you lost. I was about the 5th person chosen in gym class and first picked all the guys that I knew wrestled in grammar school. Then the first year wrestlers. I didn’t lose a match the rest of gym class and was called the next day at home by the coach asking why I didn’t go put for wrestling. I would have liked to but he had already told me they needed someone to wrestle in a sectionals tournament but in the 98 pound class. I didn’t wrestle because I was tired of being asked to cut weight. But my ego got the best of me and I had a few days to drop I believe it was a 2 pound allowance back then. I had finally got to 104 pounds and my girlfriend of freshman year at 15 wah o is still my wife after all these years was 2” taller than me and weighed about what I did. I remember being upset if she wore heels to school because she would be taller than me. But again, I told the coach I would do this one tournament and I did everything you’re not supposed do to lose weight. Ex-Lax, sleeping in plastic sweats, running for hours every day until the Saturday came. I weighed in and barely made it. Then I made my mistake and gorged on food. When I saw the brackets, I saw the first person was someone I had never lost to. It was a relief. But I didn’t have the stamina from not working out with the team and the wrestlers I picked were never in it as long as I was pre H.S. and the first year guys didn’t know any holds so it wasn’t I was that good although I was, it takes working out and stamina to win a wresting match. So when it was my time to wrestle, I approached it like he still never had a chance. But I was sick from eating after a starvation diet, and not working out with the team. I was beaten in the first period by someone who had never not been stuck by me. But I knew I was in trouble in the first period. I was gassed from not keeping up with practices because I had to lose weight.
It breaks my heart to know I was told I could wrestle in college, play professional hockey by a man whose son was on the Maine National Championship Team and then the Montreal Canadiens farm team. I also played baseball wit the kids from our Midwestern town who had never go to the Little League World Series. Teams from California and Florida usually went because they could practice all year round. That’s the case now in the Midwest but when I was a kid there were no indoor facilities. So when a team from Burbank Illinois took second on the world to Taiwan, (who were all a foot taller and maybe 40 pounds heavier which, Asians NEVER WERE BIGGER OVER ALL AMERICANS, they forged birth certificates and we still kept it close and took second in the World Series. I wish I had stayed playing baseball because I was a natural but I also had been a musician since I was 7. I’m 58 now and have had records deals that were laughable and offered by major labels. So as a result, I do love music but I do regret not staying with baseball.
Especially when I hear men like Lou Gehrig speak. My drummer I hadn’t played with since 1983. But he had asked me several times to play in a group with him. I can say I regret it now because he’s gone. But music is an entertainment business just as baseball has become. But at least when I was playing ball, it wasn’t like the craziness going around the music scene or if it was, it was hidden much better.
These are next to the Creator God and His Son, Yeshua, the real heroes in life. It was terrible to see an old friend deteriorate like we did. And due to Covid, a real funeral couldn’t even be held. Sad for two great men at their crafts.
But I pray they’re both in heaven now. What a great memory of two great people.
Thank you so much for posting this
Larupin Lou!
Thank you for posting this. Fascinating interview.
Young Williams!
I never heard his voice before it's deeper and Handsomer than I thought it would be.
It was actually weaker than his "healthy" voice.
I never heard his healthy voice.
Gehrig was the first player to have his number retired. He was the first to hit 4 home runs in a game.
Under the new rules,he was.Cap Anson did it first in the 1800's.
NY accent, hard to believe he was dead in less than two years.
Tragic!
Absolutely
@@spike16965 my father died of same disease on feb 26 1992. No cure. Limited research. It is the nastiest disease I have ever seen.
@@scottdavidson9963 sorry to hear that. Yes its a violent disease and silent killer for sure. Only hope a cure is invented soon
He sounds like a 1940's actor I've heard/seen ,Ray Milland. You can even see Milland on an old Columbo episode
Ray Milland, great actor. Won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend, about an alcoholic. Another great role in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. At the end of his career, starred in sci-fi horror movie The Man With The X-ray Eyes!
So Long Ago.
Great interview
Lou Starts For Me At First.
Same.
lou Gehrig was agreat ballplayer and class act and l would guess could have played equally well into this days game no question about it.
He would have made a great baseball color man in the modern sense. Jack Graney in Cleveland was the first ballplayer to become a broadcaster in 1932 so it could have happened.
Class act...best 1st basemen of all time...
THE GREATEST !!!
ATG RIGHT HERE
When he uses the word " Baseball " Its almost like it means something else as apposed to today .
This was a privilege. Gehrig didn’t add himself to this list but had he not suffered what he did he may have had 600+. He could have been a pitcher but came up a hitter. His analysis of the three greatest equals what everyone says, in terms of the top three. Gehrig was a sweet guy by everyone’s account, although shy, didn’t like the attention like Ruth, but gave it all plus on the field. What a tragedy.
The recording you just heard was made on a direct lathe to disk. Magnetic recording to tape or wire had not yet been developed. The only other method of sound recording was done in the film industry by using the photographic optical sound track on film.
Great post!! 5:14...wow.
My wife and I had a friend who died of ALS, but she lived about 6 or 7 years before her death. The medicine is better now days giving those folks more time to live even with ALS than they did in Lou's time.
There are no medicines that provide any significant longevity for ALS patients what so ever now or in Lou’s time. Please don’t put out this uninformed opinion.
"Medicine" does absolutely nothing. Some die faster or slower than others. Stephen Hawking lived with ALS for 51 years. Haley Stevens was 16 when she got it, and died less than two years later. Why? Nobody knows.
Notice ... the video is seven minutes and fourteen seconds in length ... 7:14 ... a significant set of digits for ... Babe Ruth.
It is absolutely NECESSARY that I post THIS comment, as true baseball fans will see the irony and importance of it. Lou Gehrig played in the shadow of Babe Ruth for much of his career. Indeed, the event that finally thrust Mr. Gehrig into the forefront was the eponymous disease that took his life. Therefore, it is impossible to NOT notice that, even on RUclips, Gehrig is still haunted by the Babe. Look at the DURATION of the video clip ... it is 7:14 ... and all baseball fans know the significance of "714" with regard to Babe Ruth.
+DrexelGal Wow, imagine that! Awesome job there DrexelGal!
Coincidence. Here's another one: Ted Williams' career batting average was .334; thus his failure rate was .666...THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.
Wow. Lou Gehrig, the original “Iron Horse” calling Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner & Ty Cobb the 3 best players ever. Talk about praise. I’d never question the Iron Horse but I think he forgot Cy Young.
Angree Grizlee might be so. Well never know. But it’s amazing to hear things like that from people like him.
Walter Johnson too.
I think he was thinking position players only.
@@JStarStar00 Correct
Wow the legend comes alive "
Very professional interview, especially given the circumstances. All journalists should study and respect this approach. No doubt the public and sports news outlets were curious for information on Gehrig’s status, but this interview was accomplished with restrictions. Yet, not a bit of resentment or attempts to circumvent Gehrig’s wishes.
Had the interviewer decided to renege on the agreement of not mentioning Lou's condition, I'm sure it would have blown up in the interviewer's face. Back then, you didn't play "gotcha" to a universally-loved guy.
Jimmy Powers wrote a somewhat disparaging column about Lou around this time, and both Lou (probably his wife, Eleanor), Lou's former teammates, and the Yankees went after him in the courts, plus thousands of angry fans jammed up the Daily News' telephone switchboard. At the end of the day, he wrote an apology.
0:33 yes, the young ballplayer of 1939 doesn't know how easy he has compared to old-timie ballplayers!
❤❤❤❤❤
Who were those "young ball players" he mentioned? The only one I could figure out was "Williams from Minneapolis."
Ruth. Cobb. Wagner.
That Williams kid Lou mentioned... I think he turned out okay!
Awesome piece of history! He sounds like exactly Tommy Heinsohn lol.
Had Gehrig not gotten ill, he would have been a top three in best ball player ever.
@Angry Grizzly couldn’t agree more, plus think of all the RBIs he missed out on because Babe had cleared the bases 714 times before Lou’s at-bat.
Sadly his voice got rougher with ALS. He sounds different from the clip of him talking about Ruth's called home run.
2:02 Lou called Wagner hahn-us as in Johannes. That is the correct pronunciation .
It’s like if we were able to listen to George Washington or Ben Franklin. Now I can listen to him as a real human being.
Who gave this a thumbs down?
@Nimfa Mcdonald it's your opinion my opinion is you need to seek help I'm not tough its people like you who wake the Tasmanian devil in people. Do make it a wonderful day if it already isn't!
About 10 days later,Germany invaded poland..