Lou Gehrig expressed optimism that he would beat ALS – and vowed that he was laying off beer – in a moving letter he sent to his doctor just months after ALS forced the Yankees’ Iron Horse to retire early in the 1939 season.
In the three-page letter written on Gehrig’s personal stationary, the Yankees’ Hall of Fame first baseman tells Dr. Paul O’Leary of the Mayo Clinic that even mundane tasks such as combing his hair and brushing his teeth would leave him exhausted.