Media underreported Gehrig’s passing
Lou Gehrig Day throughout baseball today
Good morning, all and happy Tuesday!
Lou Gehrig died on this date, June 2, 1941. Throughout all of organized professional baseball today, it is Lou Gehrig Day. The Yankee legend died from ALS 17 days shy of his 38th birthday.
His passing reminds us of how we live in different times. Throughout all of baseball today there will be ceremonies remembering Gehrig. Because the Hartford Yard Goats are on the road, they held a pregame ceremony on Sunday.
Remarkably, Gehrig’s death went under reported. It is even more amazing when you consider his at-the-time, record 2,136 game consecutive playing streak was front page news, when manager Joe McCarthy took him out of the lineup in Detroit in May of 1939. A search of the New York Daily News archives finds no mention of his death until back page photos of his funeral on June 5. A brief article of the funeral appeared on the sports pages.
Had Gehrig died today his passing would be front page news, lead all the newscasts on radio and TV, be highlighted on social media, etc. A career retrospective would be blasted everywhere. In 1941 the papers were filled with stories about the war in Europe, a war the USA would enter six months later.
The fact Gehrig’s death received little attention is a reminder that back then, unlike today’s sports-crazed world, sports news really was the toy department of the media.
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DAN