1998 Volume 121 No 1–4 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

egular fellow or in other words you have to
play the game hard, and you have to play it to
win, and you have to play it cleanly. Because if
you don't fulfill these qualifications in the major
leagues, why the boys just force you to become
a lone wolf. They pay no attention to
you. That's why you very seldom see a
ballplayer who is actually conceited. He might
be accused of being conceited because he
might feel ill that day or he might have a member
of his family, his baby or his wife or somebody,
might be ill. And he might be rushing to
get home and when he leaves the park there
might be five hundred or a thousand youngsters
out there requesting his autograph, and
often he may rush right on through them in
^^
order to get to his car and get home to see his
family or whatever might be wrong. And yet a ballplayer
under those conditions will be accused of being conceited. I
don't thmk it's quite fair, under those conditions. But in my
experience, I
-,-,, . I , 1 11 • don't think I've
Well, mght baseball is ever come in
Strictly a show and is
contact witii any
strictly advantageous to the otiieroftiieboys
•' . I l l that we could reowners
pocketbook ... ally call con-
Real baseball should be ceited.
played in the daytime, in the Anc: in addition
sunshine.
^o ^^^^g « regular
fellow they have
to keep regular habits.
Lou: Oh, exactly. I've been in the business seventeen years
and I don't think there were a half-dozen nights in the seventeen
years that I didn't average my nine or ten hours sleep
every night.
Anc: Do baseball teams, professional baseball teams, have
hard and fast rules you must keep That is, in the way of
regular hours for sleep Regular hours for meals
Lou: They like for their ballplayers to be in the hotel between
11:00 and 12:00 at night. But they don't enforce rigid
rules except to those few who absolutely have to have it, who
can't govern themselves. But the philosophy in baseball is
that a man is making his living at the game, and he must be
in shape every day when he gets out on that ballfield, and if
he's not in shape, why he's transferred down the river. So it's
entirely up to himself.
Anc: Who are some of the young players you've seen in action,
Lou, that you feel are coming stars
Lou: Well, I see young (Ted) Williams come out of Minne-
Gehrig at a glance
• 2130 consecutive games
• Son of immigrant parents
• Career slugging percentage
(.632) still leads AL
• Led the league in games,
runs, RBI, batting average and
hits during his career
apolis, he's around this part of the country. And we've got
young Joe Gordon with the Yankees. And we've got a young
fellow by the name of Charlie Keller, and a young man by the
name of (Atiey) Donald and there's a couple of young fellas
down in St. Louis. A pitcher by the name of (Bob) Harris
and a pitcher by the name of (Jack) Kramer who looks
mighty well, and you've got a young pitcher who was sent
back for more experience, had a sore arm, with Boston; a
fella by thename of (Woody) Rich. We've got a lot of promising
ballplayers coming up this year.
Anc: By the way, what has happened to Donald after he won
all those first games then he lost two or three now in a row,
hasn't he
Lou: Well, if we knew that question, we'd have rectified it
long before now. (Laughter)
Anc: Would you say that baseball is keeping its hold on the
fans
Lou: The attendance figures this year far surpass, I think,
those of last year, and I know that last year we drew more
people, the Yankees as a whole, than any year that I've been
with the team since nineteen-hundred and twenty-three.
Anc: It's good news, isn't' it
Lou: (Laughter)
Anc: Well, for the last quarter hour, ladies and gentlemen,
we've brought you a personal interview with Lou Gehrig, for
many years a star first baseman for the New York Yankees.
Thank you, Lou, for giving us some of your time for this interesting
interview. I'm sure all of our listeners join me in wishing
you all the luck in the future.
"Tune in" to www.phidelt-ghq.com to hear this interview.
http://www.phidelt-ghq. com THE SCROLL SPRING 1998 19