Despite a headache, a doctor’s recommendation that he sit out and a bump on his head so large that he had to wear one of Babe Ruth’s larger caps, Gehrig played the next day against the Washington Senators to continue his streak at 1,415 games. “A little thing like that can’t stop us Dutchmen,” Gehrig told a reporter, according to Jonathan Eig’s definitive biography of Gehrig, “Luckiest Man.”

In 1924, during a postgame brawl with the Detroit Tigers, Gehrig swung at Ty Cobb and fell, hit his head on concrete, and was briefly knocked out. While playing first base against the Tigers in September 1930, Gehrig was hit in the face and knocked unconscious by a ground ball. He was knocked out again by an oncoming runner in 1935.

Those are the four incidents in which Gehrig’s being knocked unconscious was notable enough to be reported in newspapers. He most likely sustained other concussions that were never noticed or considered meaningful — for example, when he was hit in the head with a pitch during a 1933 game against Washington but continued playing — either in baseball or while serving as a halfback for Commerce High School in New York and later Columbia University.

– Alan Schwarz, New York Times.

Amazing, absolute must-read article from Schwarz investigating the long-term effects of head injuries in sports and how repeated brain trauma can mimic ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which Gehrig himself actually might not have even had.

The article freaks the crap out of me for a number of reasons, but the main thing that matters is how we tend to romanticize players like Gehrig — guys who played every day until they were no longer physically capable — and discount the possibility that they would have enjoyed longer, more productive careers if doctors knew then what we all know now.

Athletes tend to be tough guys. They want to play. And yet when they actually yield to the advice of their doctors and trainers — or better yet, their own bodies — and wait out injuries, people label them ‘soft’ and question their desire. That’s awful.

The physical toll that professional sports put on an athlete’s body is remarkable. It’s not like going to the gym or playing rec-league flag football like we do. I wrote about this at length last year: We need to stop pretending we understand other people’s pain.

Also — on a completely unrelated note — it turns out Gehrig is buried about 500 yards from Babe Ruth, in an adjacent cemetery. That strikes me as amazingly poetic, though I guess it stands to reason that a lot of Yankees would retire to the same general area. Both sites are walking distance from my house. I checked out Ruth’s resting spot not too long ago; I should probably visit Gehrig’s too.