As part of his Pulitzer-worthy work exposing how head injuries impact athletes, Alan Schwarz in today’s New York Times takes on a controversial question: Did Lou Gehrig actually suffer from Lou Gehrig’s disease? Although his is a prime example where time will not, in fact, tell, peer-reviewed researched released today indicates that the long-term degenerative effects of multiple concussions on the brain mimics the effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Gehrig, says Schwarz, was known to have suffered numerous concussions both as a college football player and as a baseball player in an era where helmets were not a part of the game. Awareness organizations need Gehrig for the name he gives the disease, but researchers are finding that, when it comes to brain trauma, the first diagnosis isn’t always the correct on. “Here he is, the face of his disease, and he may have had a different disease as a result of his athletic experience,” Dr. Ann McKee, the head researcher of the study, said to Schwarz.
Babe Ruth’s final moments in pinstripes at Yankee Stadium are nearly as iconic as Lou Gehrig’s. Just days away from death and with cancer ravaging his body, Ruth, supported by a bat, took to the microphone at Yankee Stadium to thank the crowd for years of love. Life Magazine’s Ralph Morse went to the stadium and snapped some amazing color photos that had, for sixty years, sat unused. Now, in a slideshow entitled “Babe Ruth: The Last Goodbye, June 13, 1948,” Life has published these photos in an online slideshow. The photos bring to life a Yankee legend few alive today ever saw play.
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