![]() Gehrig often downplayed the streak, saying that he didn’t think about it. ![]() Gehrig’s plan was to return in time to play in the game, but as it turned out the game was postponed by just a splash of rain - many would believe the game was postponed to keep Gehrig’s streak alive - and Gehrig was able to return to court (the lawsuit was withdrawn). On May 9, 1932, it seemed Gehrig might miss a game - his mother was being sued by someone who had gotten hurt while riding in Gehrig’s automobile. He was not even halfway to the record he would set. In 1931, when he completed his sixth consecutive season of playing every single game, some reporters began to call him “The Iron Horse.” At the end of that season, he had played in 1,041 consecutive games. Two days later, he was in the starting lineup again. When Gehrig’s streak reached 750, in May 1930, he was limping so badly that he had to come out of the game in the sixth inning. And, no, I did not frame the certificates.īut when we took a hard look at baseball history - and what baseball represents - Jon and I found ourselves feeling a special bond with Gehrig and Ripken, with those two legendary players who refused to take a day off even when it would have been the easiest thing to do. I received that award at least a couple of times in elementary school. *I say this like I am an innocent bystander here - I am not. Even then, I used to think to myself: What are you supposed to DO with that award? I mean, do you frame it and put it up on your wall?* ![]() I have the most vivid memory - and based on a quick Twitter poll most of you do, too - of sitting at school awards ceremonies when the principal gave out certificates for perfect attendance. On the surface, a consecutive-game streak seems pretty much the blandest and most boring of all the baseball records. The movie begins right there, with Gehrig giving the most heart-wrenching and beautiful speech in baseball history - the speech that I think captures the wonder of baseball better than anything else - and with the man who broke Gehrig’s most cherished record, Cal Ripken Jr., echoing the words. and Lou Gehrig say “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” together.Ī million things changed as we actually made “Generations of the Game”, but that part never did. That was a good question: Where do you begin an impossible mission like that? And yet, somehow, in our first discussion about how to make the movie, Jon and I came up with an answer we liked very much: “That’s all, huh?” Cubs president Theo Epstein said to me. The task was no less than trying to tell the entire story of baseball (and greatness) in a tight 12 to 15 minutes. This project will not contain more words than “Moby Dick,” but we hope you enjoy it.Ĭal Ripken breaks Gehrig’s consecutive-game recordįour or so years ago, my friend, the brilliant director Jonathan Hock, asked me to help him make the movie that would play in the Baseball Hall of Fame every day. While we wait for baseball to return, Joe Posnanski will count down his top 60 moments in baseball history - think of it as a companion piece to The Baseball 100 - with a series of essays on the most memorable, remarkable and joyous scenes of the game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |