Leni
You look at Lou’s stats for 1938, and while the numbers were a little bit off of his best years, they were still very good numbers and comparable to a lot of previous seasons. But for this tragic illness that took his life, Gehrig probably had another three productive seasons left in him. 3,000 hits and 500 home runs were not unrealistic milestones upon his retirement.
I’m not a Yankees fan. In fact, they are in my “bottom 5” of baseball teams (joining both Sox, Dodgers and Mets). But seeing the statue and plaque of Gehrig at Cooperstown did bring tears to my eyes. Gehrig and the great Roberto Clemente were both inducted to the HOF posthumously, and with a waiver of the five year retirement rule.