Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

I am not a sports fan, but even I was drawn to and enjoyed this biography. I didn't even know how his career with the Yankees fit into the end of Babe Ruth's career and the rise of Joe DiMaggio. I am also surprised at the detail they have on some games, especially the earliest ones before his fame and presence in the Big League.

I was impressed and even moved to see that in the final years of his life he passed up opportunities to basically match his pro salary to take a civil servant job for a sixth of that with the NYX Parole Board. It seemed this son of immigrants wanted to give back.

I happened to read this at the time I was reading Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm and it was show more interesting to contrast the musician in full denial of this life-limiting disease while maximizing his productivity as much as he could while Gehrig wilted during final, disappointing seasons and became an active participant in his treatment, before apparently losing hope seeing the inevitable. show less

I’ve long been a fan of Gehrig—my mother introduced me to his story, and even bought me his wife’s memoirs as a gift. I’ll always be appreciative of her showing me the ‘human’ side of sports.

It was with great joy that I received Jonathan Eig’s definitive biography of The Iron Horse. By page 2 of the Introduction I was almost in tears.

Eig covers Gehrig’s childhood poverty, development as an athlete, unusual attachment to his mother, his shyness around women with great detail, including contemporary witnesses, newspaper accounts and excerpts from letters.

As you read through Gehrig’s successes on the field, you know that you are heading to a point in the story that we know too well, and by the time you’ve come to show more appreciate this physically powerful yet emotionally sensitive man, it is simply heartbreaking.

For me, the best parts of this book were the storybook years as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig carried the Yankees to pennant races and World Series championships. This is the stuff of baseball legend, and Eig includes the details so clearly that you can practically hear the crowds and the snap of the ball in the gloves.

This is a must-read for any fan of sports history—an extraordinary biography of one of the greatest ball players to ever lace up a pair of cleats. show less

I'm not what one would call a fan of baseball, so I learned a lot about Lou Gehrig and the world of baseball in the 20s in particular. Easy to read, interesting, my main complaint was the way the author went off on flights of fancy that involved lots of statements like "he must have" or other things that the author had no way of knowing.

One of my childhood heroes, even though he had died long before I was born. Such was his legacy that baseball talked about him constantly when I was growing up, and further cemented me as a lifelong Yankees fan. Good story, well told.

This is a bio of Lou Gehrig so, naturally, there's a lot about the Yankees in this book. But whether you love the Yankees or hate them, this is worth reading. Always in the shadow of the Babe and later DiMaggio, Gehrig was one of the greatest Yankee hitters and best ballplayers of all time, until being tragically stricken with ALS at the age of 36.

A very good documentary of the life of Lou Gehrig. It begins when his parents meet and goes to his death. The story shows his love of baseball and his mother. It is unclear as to whether he ever knew how serious his disease was or if he was ever told because his medical records were sealed at the time and unavailable to this author. It could have been possible that he knew but chose not to address that fact and who could blame him.

He was an unsung baseball hero till towards the end of his career and a hero in how he handled his disease.

I thought this was very good and very emotional story of Lou Gehrig. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the book and the story of this amazing man.

Terrific bio of the Iron Horse. Not just for Yankee fans; worthwhile reading for any devotee of America's Pastime.