Interesting topics Billy.
About Gehrig - He was undoubtedly a superstar. If there was no Ruth, I don't think he would have felt any more pressure or that his play would have been affected. Why? Because in Ruth's absence the media would have focused on somebody other than Gehrig who could fill that "celebrity" role, playing the part by providing interesting quotes and giving the reporters juicy stories to tell. For example, after Ruth left the Yankees, the media focused on DiMaggio, a rookie from San Francisco, not on Gehrig. Day after day, the papers tended to highlight DiMaggio's performance over Gehrig's.
About the era before TV - Agree with you that there was more of a frenzied fan atmosphere. I think back then, the lack of TV and the relative lack of comparable audiovisual entertainment options magnified the thrill experienced by the average fan at a baseball game. Did this translate into more pressure for the players? Hard to say, but I'm inclined to say no.
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