September 9, 1976: The Death of Mao Zedong

September 9, 1976: Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, and that nation's dictator since the successful completion of his revolution in 1949, dies in the national capital of Beijing.

Mao had fought Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek for control of China, and was losing the civil war, when the Japanese invaded, beginning the Pacific phase of World War II. He redirected his troops to help beat the Japanese. Then he switched back to fighting Chiang, and he won. Then he split with the Soviet Union, and challenged them for the leadership of the Communist world.

But no one beats Father Time. In his memoir In the Arena, former President Richard Nixon wrote of what Mao was like during their momentous visit in 1972, and 4 years later, after Nixon had been forced to resign the Presidency, and Mao was dying (using the earlier English version of his name):

When I saw Mao Tse-tung in 1972, he had already suffered a stroke, but he was still mentally alert and obviously the man in charge. When I saw him again in four years, he had suffered another, more serious stroke, and the onset of Parkinson's disease had stiffened his movements. His shambling stride had become an eighty-two-year-old man's slow shuffle.

His mind was still quick and incisive, but his speech was just grunts and groans. His expressions show that he understood what I said, but when he tried to answer, the words would just not come out. If he thought the translator had not understood him, he would impatiently grab a notepad and write out his comments.

It was clear that he was no longer capable of leading the most populous nation in the world. But no one had the power or the courage to tell him to retire until the grim reaper called him to meet Marx a few months later.

On May 27, 1976, Mao met with Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, father of later Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The photographs taken showed just how ill he looked. Mao decided to end his public audiences.

It is now widely believed that it wasn't Parkinson's disease that was affecting Mao's movements, as was thought by the West at the time, but amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease. He suffered 2 heart attacks in 1976, before suffering an even more severe one on September 2, and yet another on September 5. He fell into a coma on September 7, and his life support machines were turned off at midnight local time, September 9. His death was announced at 4:00 PM local time that day.

Aside from the Soviet Union, who downplayed the event, the other Communist nations were effusive in their praise, especially North Korea and the newly-united Vietnam. Yugoslavia, then Communist but opposed to the Soviets, issued a statement from President Josip Broz Tito: "Without him, modern China would be unimaginable."

As for the world's democracies, some were more respectful than others. Speaking for America, President Gerald Ford said, "When I visited Beijing in December 1975, I had the privilege of meeting Chairman Mao. Our conversation has promoted the development of U.S.-China relations along the lines envisioned by our two countries. Please let me declare now as I did then, that the United States is determined to complete the normalization of our relationship on the basis of the Shanghai Communiqué. This will be an appropriate channel to praise his vision and will benefit the people of both countries."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister James Callaghan issued a joint statement: "His influence far exceeds China's borders, and he will undoubtedly be remembered as a world-famous great politician." French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said, "France will not forget that it was Chairman Mao Zedong and General de Gaulle who deeply admired him that led to the mutual development of our two countries."

Pretty much the only openly hostile reaction was, understandably, from the Republic of China, a.k.a. Taiwan, who had faced the death of Chiang Kai-shek only the year before. They cited "the anti-humanity and anti-human rights falsification regime," which had included the disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1950s and the dastardly Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.

It took 2 years for the post-Mao power struggle to be settled, and Deng Xiaoping won out. He did what Mao was not really able to do: Modernize the country. To do so, he had to abandon most of the principles of Communism, and embrace free-market reforms: Within 10 years, China was still authoritarian, but was Communist in name only.

It remains so today, as the huge portrait of Mao still looks out from the wall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, over Tiananmen Square to the east. Mao's Mausoleum and the Monument to the People's Heroes, patterned after Vladimir Lenin's in Moscow, is to the south of the Square, and the National Museum of China is east of the Square.

*

September 9, 1976 was a Thursday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Thurman Munson and Chris Chambliss hit home runs, in support of Ken Holtzman, who went the distance for the win. Hank Aaron, in his last full month as a major league player, had an RBI double for the Brewers. It was his 3,769th career hit (he would get 2 more), his 623rd double (he would get 1 more), and his record 2,296th RBI (he would get 1 more). He had not hit a home run since July 20, and would not hit another, finishing with a record 755.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rick Wise pitched a 2-hit shutout. Jim Rice hit a home run, and Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-2, but did draw 2 walks. Jim Lonborg went the distance for the win.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Frank Robinson, the former Orioles star, now managing the Indians and in his last full month as an active player, did not put himself into the game. Buddy Bell and George Hendrick homered. Brooks Robinson, in his last full season, did not play. Reggie Jackson, in his only season as an Oriole, went 1-for-4. Ken Singleton homered.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 6-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a stolen base.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 6-5 at Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium in Kansas City. George Brett singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 6-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rod Carew appeared as a pinch-hitter in the 7th inning, and, characteristically for him, got a hit. Uncharacteristically for him, it was a grand slam home run. Dave Goltz pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Bob Bailey singled home the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Pete Rose went 3-for-6, and Johnn Bench went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield did not play in this game.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.

July 14, 1942: "The Pride of the Yankees" Premieres

July 14, 1942: The Pride of the Yankees premieres at the Astor Theatre, at 1537 Broadway in Manhattan. It was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, and directed by Sam Wood, previously known for directing the Marx Brothers films A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.

It stars Gary Cooper as New York Yankees star Lou Gehrig, who had died a year earlier, and Teresa Wright as his wife Eleanor, who lived on until 1984.

At this point, Cooper was best known for Sergeant York, about Alvin C. York, the Tennessee farmer and pacifist, turned World War I Congressional Medal of Honor winner. "Coop" was considered an All-American hero himself.

But the worst-kept secret in Hollywood was that he slept with all his female leads -- not including Wright. But they did include Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal and Grace Kelly. (Granted, some of these women also got around, especially Bow, Dietrich and Kelly.) In contrast, if the real Gehrig ever slept with any woman other than Eleanor, I would be surprised.

But there was a problem other than Cooper's extramarital activities: He had never played baseball before. And he just couldn't swing a bat lefthanded, as Gehrig did. So they made a reverse Yankee uniform, had him run to 3rd base, and flipped the film.

File footage of the original Yankee Stadium was used, and the film has some of the best footage available of the 8 American League ballparks then in use. But, due to proximity to the Hollywood studios, the actual baseball scenes were filmed at Wrigley Field, home of the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels, then a Chicago Cubs farm team, and thus built to look like Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Walter Brennan had also been in Sergeant York. Through his role in Western films, the 1960s Western TV series The Real McCoys, and the spoken-word records he made like "Old Rivers," he is remembered as a grizzled old ranch hand. In this film, much younger, and dressed in what were then present-day clothes, he was almost unrecognizable as he played fictional sportswriter Sam Blake.

Four Yankee greats play themselves: Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey (still active at the time, and the closest thing the Yankees had to a Captain after Gehrig's retirement). The scene where Dickey punches out a teammate who questions the dedication of an impaired Gehrig was a dramatization, but he would have done it: Gehrig was his best friend on the team.

Gehrig's farewell address on July 4, 1939 is depicted, although the key line, about being "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," is spoken at the end, instead of the beginning as it actually happened. The film ends with Cooper walking down the tunnel to the locker room -- the baseball equivalent of a Western hero walking off into the sunset.

It is regarded as the best baseball-themed movie yet made, and would remain so into the 1980s. But it really isn't a "baseball movie." It's an old-fashioned romance, the story of Lou and Eleanor, and Lou just happens to be a baseball player.

In 1977, Eleanor's memoir was turned into an ABC TV-movie A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story. Blythe Danner (Gwyneth Paltrow's mother) played Eleanor, Edward Herrmann played Lou, and, in a weird twist, Gehrig's domineering German immigrant mother was played by one of Cooper's exes, Patricia Neal. Unlike The Pride of the Yankees, this film showed the final effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the disease that claimed Lou's life and has since borne his name.

The Astor Theatre was on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets, facing Times Square. It was torn down in 1982, and the Marriott Marquis Hotel was built on the site. I stood across from it as I watched the Yankees' 2009 World Series win on the big board in Times Square.

*

July 14, 1942 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. Hank Borowy pitched a 2-hit shutout. Tommy Henrich, soon to be drafted, hits a home run. Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-3 with a walk, and would also be in World War II before the next Opening Day.

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Vern Olssen allowed 11 hits, but kept the shutout, and helped his own cause with a sacrifice fly. Mel Ott went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Whitlow Wyatt went the distance for the win, and Pete Reiser got 3 hits.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 0-for-4, but still went on to win the Triple Crown that season -- and go into The War the next.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 7-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. A rookie named Stan Musial won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Chicago White Sox were supposed to play the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, but got rained out. On August 31, an off day for both teams, 2 games that had been rained out were played. The ChiSox swept, 3-1 and 5-0. Edgar Smith allowed 9 hits in the nightcap, but still pitched a shutout.

* And, in a notation for which Baseball-Reference.com (without which I could not possibly write this feature to my satisfaction) provides no explanation, a game scheduled for this day, between the Washington Senators and the Cleveland Indians for Griffith Stadium in Washington, was moved back to the preceding Sunday, July 12, as part of a doubleheader. The Indians swept, 9-7 and 5-0. Jeff Heath won the 1st game with a triple in the top of the 10th inning. Jim Bagby Jr. allowed 8 hits in the 2nd game, but kept the shutout.

July 4, 1939: Lou Gehrig Day

July 4, 1939: The New York Yankees host Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day (usually just shortened in the retelling to "Lou Gehrig Day") at the original Yankee Stadium. Gehrig didn't want a special day for himself, so the Yankees decided to hold it between games of a holiday doubleheader, when a big crowd would be expected anyway.

For 14 years, from June 1, 1925 to April 30, 1939, Gehrig, the greatest 1st baseman the game of baseball has ever known, played every day, and superbly. But he had slown down a bit in 1938, and at the start of the 1939 season, not yet 36 years old, it was clear that he could no longer play. He retired with a .340 lifetime batting average, 493 home runs (then, 2nd all-time behind Babe Ruth), and 1,995 RBIs.

He had helped the Yankees win 7 American League Pennants and 6 World Series, won the AL's Most Valuable Player award in 1927 (despite Ruth hitting 60 home runs) and 1936, and became the 1st Yankee to win the Triple Crown in 1934 (leading the League in batting average, home runs and RBIs in the same season, something only 1 Yankee has done since, Mickey Mantle in 1956).

No one could tell him what was wrong with him, so he went to the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which breaks down the connections between nerves and muscles, until the patient becomes paralyzed. When it paralyzes the lungs, the patient dies. The name is usually shorted to "ALS," but it became widely known as "Lou Gehrig's disease."

So the Yankees wanted to honor him while they still could. It wasn't the first "day" the Yankees gave a player, nor even the first they gave to Lou (he'd previously gotten one in 1937). He didn't even want this one: He didn't want the Yankees to use his name and illness to artificially boost the crowd. So the ceremony was held between games of a 4th of July doubleheader, against the Washington Senators.

On one sideline, the current Yankees lined up. On the other, all the members (all then still alive) of his 1st World Series-winning team, the 1927 Yankees. (He was a member of 6 World Championship teams -- although he played in 1923 and 1939, he wasn't on the Series roster either time, so "only" 1927, '28, '32, '36, '37 and '38 are counted.) Although there would not be another gathering of former Yankees like this until 1947, the Yankees organization would come to recognize Lou Gehrig Day as their 1st Old-Timers Day.

Lou and the Babe had been feuding for a few years, and for the tail end of their status as teammates, they hadn't spoken off the field. Knowing that this could well be it, the Babe embraced Lou, and whatever the cause (I've heard conflicting stories), all was forgiven.

The '27 World Championship flag was raised (temporarily taking the place of the '38). George Pipgras, one of his teammates and now an AL umpire, was assigned to the games. (In the interest of fairness, today, such an ump would have been permitted to attend the game, but not call it.) Walter Johnson, then a Senator coach and perhaps the greatest pitcher who ever lived, was also on hand.

Lou was given all kinds of gifts, including one from the New York Giants, whom the Yankees had knocked off the perch of "greatest franchise in baseball" in the early 1920s, and (with Lou) had beaten in the 1936 and '37 Series.

The Mayor at the time, Fiorello LaGuardia (a Yankee Fan who once represented a part of The Bronx in Congress), spoke, and presented a proclamation from the City. His Number 4 was retired, the 1st uniform number retired in baseball, making him the only Yankee to ever wear it. (The team had begun wearing numbers in 1929.)

At first, Lou, very self-conscious of how he'd been slowed and weakened by the disease, didn't want to come forward and speak. But the fans in the crowd of 61,808 (about 5,000 short of a sellout, although there may have been complimentary tickets not counted) chanted, "We want Lou! We want Lou! We want Lou!" So he stepped to the microphone.

The newsreel cameras did not capture the entire speech. Stops and restarts can clearly be seen. Based on what's seen on film, and what was reported in newspapers that night (this was the era of evening as well as morning newspapers) and the next day, this, totally made up on the spot, is probably what he said, known due to both its eloquence and its brevity as "Baseball's Gettysburg Address":

For the past two weeks, you've been reading about a bad break.

Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.

I have been in ballparks for 17 years, and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

When you look around, wouldn't you consider it a privilege to associate yourself with such fine-looking men as are standing in uniform in this ballpark today? Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent 6 years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next 9 years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Who wouldn't feel honored to room with such a grand guy as Bill Dickey?

Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that's something.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law, who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter, that's something. When you have a father and a mother, who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body, it's a blessing. When you have a wife, who has been a tower of strength, and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that's the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I may have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.

It's been disputed as to how well it was known that the disease he had was fatal. Some people had no idea. But when Lou finished, the people in the stands were roaring through their tears.

A little over 2 years later, on June 2, 1941, he was dead, not quite 38 years old. The Yankees dedicated a monument to him, to be placed in center field next to the flagpole and the monument to Huggins. It, too, was set to be dedicated on the 4th of July, between games of a doubleheader. But it rained, so the dedication was done 2 days later, between games of a Sunday doubleheader, yet the plaque on the monument reads "JULY THE FOURTH 1941."

The last living player from either game in the doubleheader on Lou Gehrig Day was Buddy Lewis, who played 3rd base for the Senators in the 2nd game, and went 1-for-4. He lived until 2011. The last surviving Yankee was Tommy Henrich, who lived until 2009.

*

And, yes, there were games that day, a Tuesday. In fact, there were 15 games played in Major League Baseball that day. Today, with 30 teams, that would be expected. Then, with just 16 teams, well, the 4th of July was a day off for most people, making them available to attend baseball games, so teams usually scheduled doubleheaders for that day -- and also for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and as many Sundays as they could. Indeed, of the 8 pairings of games that day, only 1 wasn't a doubleheader.

* In the opener at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees lost to the Senators, 3-2. That score can be seen on the scoreboard in the newsreel footage of Lou Gehrig Day. Despite a home run by George Selkirk, Monte Pearson was outpitched by Dutch Leonard.

But in the 2nd game, the Yankees broke out, putting on a performance worthy of Gehrig and Ruth, beating the Senators 11-1. Selkirk homered in this game, too. (I can't find a definitive list of Yankees who homered in both halves of a twinbill.) Selkirk and Joe DiMaggio each had 3 hits, and Babe Dahlgren, Gehrig's replacement at 1st base, had 2. Joe Gordon had 4 RBIs. Steve Sundra went the distance for the win.

* The New York Giants got swept by the Boston Bees at Braves Field in Boston. The hosts won the 1st game 3-1, and the 2nd game 10-2. (The Braves had a horrible season in 1935, and new ownership changed the team's name to the Bees for 1936. They did not change the ballpark's name, although it was nicknamed "The Bee Hive." The Bees name didn't catch on, and it was changed back to Braves in 1941.)

* In terms of results, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the most successful team in New York on this holiday. At Ebbets Field, they swept the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3 and 8-6.

* The Boston Red Sox pounded the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Boston won the opener 17-7, and the nightcap 18-12. Think about that: The A's scored 19 runs on the day, and didn't come close to coming away with a single win. Rookie left fielder Ted Williams hit a double and a home run in the 1st game, and a single in the 2nd game, totaling 3-for-8 with 4 RBIs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Reds won the 1st game 7-4, and the Bucs won the 2nd game 4-3.

* In the day's only single game, the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-0 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Bobo Newsom pitched a 3-hit shutout. So the Tigers scored 4 runs on the day and came away with a win, while the A's scored 19 and didn't. As Joe Garagiola would later say, "Baseball is a funny game."

* Arch-rivals split a doubleheader at Wrigley Field in Chicago. In the opener, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4. In the nightcap, the Cubs won 3-2, on Gus Mancuso's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning. It was the only one of the day's 15 games to go to extra innings.

* And the Chicago White Sox swept the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Pale Hose won the 1st game 7-3, and the 2nd game 7-4. 

May 2, 1939: Lou Gehrig's Streak Ends

Lou Gehrig at Briggs Stadium, May 2, 1939

May 2, 1939: The New York Yankees do something they haven't done since May 31, 1925: They played a regular-season game without Lou Gehrig in it.

In between, he had batted .346, collected 2,750 hits, hit 492 home runs, had 1,983 RBIs, appeared in baseball's 1st 6 All-Star Games, won 7 American League Pennants and 6 World Series.

But he had slown down a bit in 1938. Early in the 1939 season, he looked terrible. And so, on this day, as the Yankees were about to start a series against the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium in Detroit (renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961), he told manager Joe McCarthy he should be taken out of the lineup.

He performed his duty as team Captain, and presented the lineup card to the umpires. When the Tigers' public-address announcer listed the Yankees' lineup, he concluded by announcing that Gehrig would not be playing, ending his streak at 2,130 consecutive games.

When Gehrig's consecutive-games-played streak began on June 1, 1925, hardly anybody noticed. When it ended, everybody noticed. But the way he handled the end was pure class: He took himself out, in his own words, "for the good of the team," and there was no self-aggrandizement.

Playing 1st base for the Yankees that day would be Ellsworth Tenney "Babe" Dahlgren. He had a Ruthian nickname, and put up a Gehrigesque performance, going 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. All 3 outfielders also hit home runs: Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich and George Selkirk. Oddly, another superstar, Joe DiMaggio, also didn't play that day, due to an ankle injury.

Red Ruffing went the distance for the Yankees. Tiger starter Vern Kennedy did not get out of the 1st inning. Hank Greenberg, the Tigers' biggest star, went 0-for-3. The Yankees won, 22-2, and it remains the biggest margin of victory in franchise history.

By a weird twist of fate, Wally Pipp, the man that Gehrig replaced as the regular Yankee 1st baseman in 1925, was in Detroit, in his new business. He went to the game. (He was 44, and, with Hank Greenberg at 1st base, there was no reason for the Tigers to offer him a contract.)

Pipp was a decent player: He led the American League in home runs in 1916 and 1917, and helped the Yankees win their 1st 3 Pennants: 1921, 1922 and 1923, including the 1923 World Series. But he lost his batting stroke in 1925, and that, and Gehrig's rise, made him expendable. He lived until 1965.

Gehrig finished his career with a .340 batting average, 493 home runs, and 1,995 RBIs. Had he not been stricken, he could have had over 600 home runs. The record for most RBIs in a career is 2,297, by Hank Aaron. Gehrig could have surpassed that.

And given the manpower shortage of World War II, and his being too old to be drafted, he could still have been playing through the 1945 season. He would have been 42, and his streak would have reached 3,200. Cal Ripken Jr. never would have caught him.

And before you say that that's outrageous, okay, maybe he wouldn't have kept the streak going that long. But Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson were all still playing at 42, and all were still All-Star caliber when they were 40. It's hardly outrageous to imagine a 40-year-old Gehrig leading the Yankees to victory in the 1943 World Series, instead of the man who unofficially replaced him as captain, his best friend on the team, Bill Dickey, doing that. (Dickey then did go into the U.S. Navy.)

Soon, Gehrig would go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to find out what was wrong with him. He was told: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It became known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease."

On July 4, the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. It was already known that Gehrig had been forced to retire. It was not yet widely known that he was dying. That day, he told the crowd, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," and, "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for." Two years later, he was dead.

*

May 2, 1939 was a Tuesday. Football, basketball and hockey were all out of season. These other games were played in baseball that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-7 at the Polo Grounds. The Reds led 7-5 going to the bottom of the 9th, but Mel Ott hit what we would now call a walkoff home run.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Ebbets Field.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Bees, 2-1 at National League Park in Boston. This was the 4th of 5 seasons in which the Boston Braves and Braves Field were operating under new names, before going back to the old names in 1941.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians were supposed to play each other at Fenway Park in Boston, but the game was postponed due to cold weather. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on August 27. The Indians swept that doubleheader, 1-0 and 5-3. Bob Feller won the opener. Rookie Ted Williams went 1-for-8 in the 2 games.