Lou Gehrig’s challenging 1938 season has been highlighted as a remarkable achievement in light of his subsequent diagnosis with ALS, according to a June 3 article by Sweeny Murti. Despite experiencing what was considered the worst season of his career, Gehrig finished with 29 home runs and 114 runs batted in, ranking among the American League’s top ten in both categories.
Gehrig struggled throughout the year, starting slowly and experimenting with lighter bats as he noticed a decline in his power. Manager Joe McCarthy adjusted Gehrig’s position in the batting order for the first time, reflecting concerns about his performance. Nevertheless, during August—a month marked by an intense schedule including ten doubleheaders and thirty-six games—Gehrig played every inning except for one partial game. He posted a .329 batting average with 32 runs scored and 38 RBIs over that stretch.
Author Jonathan Eig said, “I make the argument that in 1938, Lou Gehrig had the best season in baseball history.” Eig added, “I can tell you for a fact that he had ALS almost that entire season, maybe even going back to Spring Training. He played every game, he led his team to the World Series, he put up incredibly strong numbers and every day of that season he was getting weaker from this disease. To me, that’s the greatest individual accomplishment in the history of American sports.”
The Yankees went on to win twenty-eight games in August and expanded their lead from one-and-a-half games at month’s start to fourteen by September. Although observers thought Gehrig had recovered his form just before another World Series run, his power waned again as ALS progressed.
Gehrig managed only four hits during New York’s four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs for their third consecutive championship. The following spring revealed further physical decline; after eight games into the next season without extra-base hits or improvement at bat or fielding drills, Gehrig removed himself from play permanently on May 2.
While previous seasons yielded more impressive statistics for Gehrig—including years alongside Babe Ruth or winning baseball’s Triple Crown—the perseverance displayed during August 1938 is now viewed as an extraordinary feat given what is known about his illness.
