Luckiest Man

            I learned a lot about Lou Gehrig, in the biography Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig.  Even Lou Gehrig, Hall of Fame baseball player for the New York Yankees didn’t always have an easy life.  Gehrig didn’t have siblings because they all died very young and his dad wasn’t around very much.  Growing up and throughout college he was bigger than everyone else but growing up he got made fun of because of it.  He also wasn’t born with baseball talent and it didn’t help that no one else, he played baseball with was a lefty.  His dad then got him a mitt for the right hand and it was a catcher’s mitt.  Gehrig’s family was also poor so when Gehrig was in high school he tried to get jobs to help out the family. 

            Lou Gehrig started to play baseball seriously in high school.  He played for Commerce High School in New York City.  He started to work out and become a better player.  In his senior year the Giants’ manager wanted him to play for them.  His parents wanted him to continue his education and go to college.  The manager told him to come to the tryouts anyway.  Gehrig did this and hit bombs when they told him to hit.  When it came down to the fielding though, he let a ball go right through his legs and the coach didn’t want him anymore.  The coach would rather have people who could field, then hit a lot of home runs.

            Without going pro that year he went to college.  He went to Columbia University and didn’t play the first year because of an incident.  He then played in his sophomore year and by the end of it he was offered a contract by the New York Yankees.  The decision was pretty easy because both of his parents were sick and couldn’t work.  Even though the decision was easy he went to a teacher and the teacher looked at his grades.  He told him that he should stick to playing ball.  I look forward to reading the rest of this book and learning about his road to stardom.