THE INQUIRER on March 18, 1939, was full of news. Bannered across the top of the page was a headline that announced, "Lower Merion Defeats Hazleton, Gains Eastern Court Final." Elsewhere, there were two spring-training pieces out of Phillies camp, including one where team president Gary Nugent said he would not "upset the apple cart unless we can get better apples"; Connie Mack was looking for someone to play third base for the Athletics; and in his "Strictly Sports" column out of Florida, Cy Peterman asked the question: "Is the Iron Horse Crumbling?"
That would have been Lou Gehrig, who had by then played in 2,122 consecutive games and of whom Peterman observed: "The famed piano legs now lumber when they leap." No one knew then that Gehrig was suffering from a disease that would later carry his name - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In fact, an unidentified "loyal attache" was quoted by Peterman as saying: "This is the payoff of the great Gehrig record. What will it mean in a few years?" Given that the record of 2,130 consecutive games stood until Cal Ripken Jr. eclipsed it 56 years later, it is fair to say that the lens of history is not always immediately in focus.