Lou Gehrig Late in Life Letters

[RichardSimon]

Go to this link and read some letters from Lou Gehrig, written as he struggled with his disease. He also apologizes for having his wife sign some photographs for him.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/flash/gehrigletters

[thekingofclout]

Great post Richard. Lou has been an inspiration to all, and for all time.

I picked up this telegram that Lou sent to the Stevens Brothers (Harry Stevens Family) from Jan. 1941 a few yaears ago and his words still inspire me today. I had a friend pass from ALS just over a year ago and although he was an immigrant from Europe and never heard of Lou Gehrig until he fell ill with the disease that bears his name, he showed every bit the courage and strength the Lou did. I often thought that Lou would have been proud of him. I know I was...

2567

[danc]

I saw the First Report on ESPN this morning and was actually both fascinated and saddened by the way he ended his life as those around him refused to allow him to know the truth about his illness and gave him hope throughout. Those letters were incredible, and the fact that he was so ashamed of his handwriting that his wife or a stamp had to be used from then on is an interesting look at the collecting side of the baseball great as well as to we can pinpoint to when he began to utilize (out of shame) a secondary method of ending correspondences. I wonder if those letters will ever see the light of day for collectors to own.

DanC

[David Atkatz]

A collector does own them. They were sold (in a Mastro auction IIRC) a number of years ago.
The collector, James Ancel, has graciously allowed their posting.

(Kinda reminds one of the Bruces, don't it?)

[GrayGhost]

I would have loved to have met this man. Simply amazing, a great athlete and a tremendous inspiration.

[yanks12025]

I would give anything to travel abck then and meet him.

Did anyone see the letter in the current hunts auction, wrote a day before his famous speech.

http://www.huntauctions.com/LIVE/imageviewer.cfm?auction_num=12&lot_num=435&lot_qual=


P.S
I did not want to start a new thread for these two small questiond, but i was wondering if any Wee Willie Keeler autographs exist, also does the bat Joe DiMaggio used to break the hit streak exist. I know there's the one that ended it, but i thought i seen the one that broke the record?

[MVSNYC]

jimmy- that telegram is amazing...as you mentioned, the content is great!

MS

[asoriano]

Richard,

Excellent post, thanks for the link.