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Lou Gehrig, as "Harry Lewis", plays baseball in 1921...
Lou Gehrig, as "Harry Lewis", plays baseball in 1921...
Item # 699512
June 11, 1921
SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN, Massachusetts, June 11, 1921
* Lou Gehrig plays professional baseball as a 17-year-old...
* Four years before his New York Yankee debut
* Played under the name "Lou Lewis" for Hartford Senators
The sports page (page 12) has a very intriguing report on the early career of famed baseball player Lou Gehrig. See the paragraph below from Wikipedia on how he used an assumed name to (illegally) play early baseball:
"...He then studied engineering at Columbia University for two years, finding the schoolwork difficult before leaving to pursue a career in professional baseball. He had been recruited to play football at the school, earning a scholarship there, later joining the baseball squad. Before his first semester began, New York Giants manager John McGraw advised him to play summer professional baseball under an assumed name, Henry Lewis, despite the fact that it could jeopardize his collegiate sports eligibility. After he played a dozen games for the Hartford Senators in the Eastern League, he was discovered and banned from collegiate sports his freshman year. In 1922 Gehrig returned to collegiate sports as a fullback for the Columbia Lions football program...".
Note the report headed: "Unlucky 13th" with a brief report on the Hartford vs. Bridgeport game. Note also the box score which lists "Lewis" as the first baseman. "Lewis" is also mentioned in the brief article.
This report is likely only to be found in a New England newspaper.
Sixteen pages, slightly irregular at the spine margin from disbinding, good condition.
background: In the summer of 1921, before his rise to stardom with the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig briefly played for the Hartford Senators of the Eastern League while still a teenager and a Columbia University student. Using the alias “Henry Lewis” in an attempt to conceal his identity and preserve his collegiate eligibility, he appeared in only a handful of games but impressed with his raw power at the plate. His stint was quickly cut short when his identity was discovered, resulting in his disqualification from college athletics. Though short-lived, this episode with Hartford marked one of the earliest steps in Gehrig’s professional baseball career and foreshadowed the talent that would make him one of the game’s greatest legends.
Category: The 20th Century
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