Gehrig & DiMaggio in spring training, 1939

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Gehrig & DiMaggio in spring training, 1939: #NBHF

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[dem4decades]

1. By April 30th he had played his last game. Makes the photo even more incredible.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I had to read the year closely myself. I thought, "that must have been his last year."

I hadn't known that he couldn't play past the end of April.

https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC has such remarkable photographs.

[Brother Buzz]

3. Lou Gehrig's last home run was on April 14 - He gave the bat to Bing Russell, Kurt Russell's father

Bing Russell – Kurt Russell’s dad was a successful actor and a successful minor league baseball team owner. As a boy, Bing was dubbed an unofficial mascot of the New York Yankees, becoming good friends with such players as Lefty Gomez and Joe DiMaggio. Also, Lou Gehrig, who was already weakened by illness, gave him the last bat he used to hit a home run before his retirement. As an actor, Bing appeared on television’s Bonanza from 1961 to 1972, was in 1960’s The Magnificent Seven and appeared with Kurt in the 1979 television movie Elvis.



Bing grew up in St. Petersburg and would hang out during spring training at the Yankees facility there. One day in 1935 at age 9 he outraced other kids for a foul ball only to have to fight them off to keep it. Lefty Gomez, the ace of the Yankees' pitching staff, noticed the kids scuffling, picked up Bing by the collar and said, "Kid, you'll never have to fight for a ball the rest of your life."

Bing spent the next eight years with the team and was in the dugout for six World Series. Gomez became a father figure to him, saying, "Bing was the only person who took it harder than I did when I lost." Although Gehrig would shoot him a grin and a nod, Bing kept a respectful distance because he was in awe of the quiet superstar first baseman.

When spring training rolled around in 1939, it was clear something was wrong with Gehrig. Bing would give Gomez a quizzical look whenever Gehrig stumbled or fumbled a ground ball. Gomez would return a stare as if to say, "You didn't see that." Nobody knew anything about the incurable, fatal neuromuscular disease ALS, and to see the powerful Gehrig losing his strength and coordination so rapidly was horrifying.

The Yankees were on their way from Florida to New York for the start of the regular season, making stops up the Eastern seaboard for exhibitions. They played a doubleheader against the Dodgers on April 14 and somehow Gehrig summoned the strength to belt two home runs. He handed Bing the bat after the second blast.