Gehrig autograph prices/demand

[GKreindler]

Not for nothing, but that Combs letter is incredible.

If ya think about, he was really there from the beginning. His first year was in '24, but started as a regular the year after. He retired as a player in '35, I think, only to become a Yankee coach for the rest of Gehrig's tenure. So, seeing him grow into one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, and then slip away into that terrible disease must have been really something.

The letter's dated not too long after he benched himself at Briggs, too. I think at the time, the Yankees thought that he just needed some time off so he could recuperate from whatever he was going through. And, if it's dated May 17, it was after their first game in New York since Gehrig took himself out of the lineup and only about two weeks before he went to the Mayo Clinic for the first time.

It seems like even at that point, the observant Combs really knew how serious his ailment was.

Very sad, indeed.

Graig