Baseball Legend Lou Gehrig’s Final Job: New York City Parole Officer
The New York Yankees’ great was a public servant in the final years of his life
Lou Gehrig was one of the finest baseball players to ever grace a diamond. His Hall-of-Fame career with the New York Yankees was cut short after he developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS- later renamed after him) that killed him in 1941 when he was just 37. The illness forced him to end his playing career, but he forged forward in the last years of his life working one final job as a parole officer for New York City.
The Iron Horse accomplished the impossible. Although the first baseman was teammates with the legendary Babe Ruth for much of his career, he was talented enough to not be overshadowed, hitting .340 with 493 home runs and 1,995 RBIs in 17 seasons. He also won two MVP awards and finished in the top five in voting on six other occasions.
Gehrig was also an educated and refined man. He attended college at Columbia and remained informed and eloquent as a ballplayer. When he was no longer able to physically withstand the rigors of the game, he refused to simply recede to a hospital room, writing, “Don’t think I am depressed or pessimistic about my condition at present… I intend to hold on as long as possible and then if the inevitable…
