I agree Evan3457, Gehrig was the real deal. You can’t find much bad to say about the guy- just pure class and he is what all Yankees should aspire to be like off the field (his on field standard is impossible to live up to).

Mattingly seems to be another good one, ugly divorce aside- even through that ordeal he seemed to handle himself with class. I know I’ll never forget the day I received a signed photo back from him in response to my fan letter.

Oftentimes, athletes who are great at their game are regarded as heroes. Very few of them truly are. Most are just average human beings, with their strengths and faults blow up larger-than-lifesize by the expectations we hold for the them, the pressure we put on them, and the liberties we grant them for being “our heroes”, our Olympians, in the old sense of the word.

Apart from being STILL the greatest 1st baseman in the history of the major leagues, and a Yankee icon, Lou Gehrig was a genuine hero, in every important sense of both words, and not merely for the way he faced his fatal illness.

I have read about Gehrig often, and I have never seen a bad word about the man. There’s not many great athletes you can say that about. A few, but not many.

Teixeira, is just following in the tradition of recent Yankee first basemen. Tino got off very to a very poor start his first season as did Giambi. Teixeira is a top shelf player who will get going make no mistake about it.

It would be nice if the Yankees made some mention of this…before their game…
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…to Mark Teixeira.