Ask a Doctor: Could Lou Gehrig Have Not Had His Own Disease?

Yesterday the New York Times' Alan Schwarz (who has seemed to champion the brain damage and sports cause for the Times) wrote an article with the title that basically read "Did Lou Gehrig Have Lou Gehrig's Disease" (I'm paraphrasing the title since it has since been changed to "Study Says Brain Trauma Can Mimic A.L.S." after some initial controversy). Some followed up on the research and some blasted the way it was presented.

The man who bears the name of ALS (NPR)

I felt it was best to go to our resident blog expert and neurologist, Cynthia Brown, MD. Cynthia was formerly a practicing Neurologist for over 20 years at Fallon Clinic as well as President of the Medical Staff at St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center. She now works for an EBSCO subsidiary, DynaMed. Here's what she had to say on the very interesting and controversial topic:
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Today's article in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology summarizes previously published literature linking amytrophic lateral sclerosis to traumatic brain injury and discusses the autopsy findings of 3 athletes who appear to have had a history of repeated head trauma and developed findings similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, motor neuron disease). The news story that Lou Gehrig may not have had Lou Gehrig's disease has sparked much interest.

Motor neuron disease most probably will eventually turn out to be several different diseases. There are circumstances where ALS has a genetic basis, and there are other cases, such as that of Stephen Hawking, that have a very slow progression which is different from the more rapid typical course.

The new article refers to the previously reported unusually high rate of ALS among Italian professional soccer players, and the association of increased incidence of ALS in Canadian and National Football league players. Other reported associations with ALS are mentioned and include pesticides, cigarette smoking, and other toxic exposures.

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The Yankee Clipper: 1926

If you're wondering why I put 1926 in the title, it's because 1926 was the last time the Yankees won their first four series before this year. That Yankees team led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would go on to win another series (their 5th in a row to begin the season) on their way to winning the American League pennant. The following year was the most famous as the 1927 Yankees went 110-44, but the 1926 Yankees may have had a hotter start. Let's get to the top 5:

1. The Yankees now head out West and Javier Vazquez looks for his first win tonight. 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA and a ton of boos was not the way that Javy wanted to start his second go-around with the Yankees. The good part for Vazquez is that he now gets two starts on the road before he needs to pitch again in front of the Yankee Stadium crowd. The bad part for Vazquez is that he needs to pitch well in these starts before he pitches again the White Sox next week or it won't be pretty.
2. Vazquez is the only Yankee starter not to win a game--the rest of the Yankees staff looks great. It's only three starts in (for the top 3), but let's just say that none of their top 3 looked this good last season and the Yankees won 103 games. CC Sabathia is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA, 0.737 WHIP, and has struck out 18 (to only 4 walks), A.J. Burnett is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA and has struck out 13, and Andy Pettitte looks great with a 2-0 record, 1.35 ERA, 14 Ks and a team-high 20 IP. With Phil Hughes pitching well in his first start as well, this is a great start for a rotation that came in with some question marks. In ESPN's Cy Young Predictor (not really looking at the award, but more for the factors that go into this), the top 3 are all in the top-7 of AL starters and only Matt Garza tops Pettitte.
3. The lineup as a whole, has been on a roll, too. If you figure that a good hitter will have a wOBA above .350, then the Yankees are chock full of good hitters early on according to FanGraphs. Jorge Posada leads all regulars with a .505 wOBA (Marcus Thames and Francisco Cervelli are a bit higher in more limited playing time) and Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, and Brett Gardner are all over .400. The Yankees middle of their defense--Posada (.378/.465/.730, 3 HR), Cano (.340 average, 4 HR, 10 RBI), Jeter (.380/.404/.600 3 HR), and Granderson (.311/.380/.578, 2 HR, 4 SB)--are off to great starts. Even Brett Gardner is looking like Ichiro with infield hits and 7 stolen bases and guys like Cervelli, Thames and Pena are coming off the bench and getting big hits for the Yankees.
4. Even their struggling players have silver linings. Nick Johnson is struggling to get hits with a .158 average but leads the AL in walks with 14 and has a .407 OBP. Nick Swisher has struggled a bit early on but has seen 4.16 P/PA which is 7th in the AL. A-Rod's power hasn't taken off yet, but he's batting .295/.415/.523 and has a .406 wOBA. Mark Teixeira is having another atrocious April at the bat but he's flashing the leather yet again. And when they all start hitting, this lineup is going to be treacherous to navigate.
   

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Narrowing Down The Candidates

Last night the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ended but we're still finishing up with our New York Baseball Bracket Challenge. We're going to pit the best against each other so you can declare the best in New York. We'll list all the candidates this round, have you pick three and then we'll list arguments for those three players and have you vote for the top baseball player in New York (Mets or Yankees) history.

I decided to cheat a little and forgo the outfield vote. The Yankees own the three best outfielders in Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Just missed includes: Charlie Keller, Roger Maris, Dave Winfield, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Murcer, Earle Combs, and Darryl Strawberry. But we're just going to go ahead and put the Yankees top three into the finals.

So here's the list (click on the link to find their original argument):

• Catcher: Yogi Berra
• First Base: Lou Gehrig
• Middle Infielder: Derek Jeter
• Third Base (results below): Alex Rodriguez
• Outfield: Babe Ruth (picture from Babe Ruth.com)
• Outfield: Joe DiMaggio
• Outfield: Mickey Mantle
• Righthanded Starter: Tom Seaver
• Lefthanded Starter: Whitey Ford
• Closer: Mariano Rivera

Remember, on the right side, pick your top 3 New York baseball players and we'll pit the top 3 all together head-to-head, to see who is the best baseball player in New York history. And let us know why you chose the way you did in the comments below!

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: First Base

We're moving right along here on the New York Baseball Bracket Challenge at NYaT. Mariano Rivera was picked as the best closer, Tom Seaver as the best righthanded starter and Whitey Ford as the best lefthanded starter (results below). The catchers are still being voted upon on the righthand side, but Yogi Berra looks like he's going to take that one (though still time left to vote and look at how impressive Bill Dickey's resume was as well). Now it's time to look at the first basemen (stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs).

Yankees

Lou Gehrig: I'm not sure there's this great a player who really seems to be so underrated. Playing with Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio can do that to you, though. Amazingly, only 7 guys have played in 800 games for the Yankees with at least 60% of those games at 1st base (according to Baseball-Reference) and no one even seems to come close to "The Iron Horse". Gehrig won the 1927 and 1936 MVP, but amazingly came in 5th in the 1934 voting despite leading the Majors in HR (49), RBI (165), BA (.363), OBP (.465), SLG (.706), and OPS+ (208). Yes, the man won both The Triple Crown and the slashes Triple Crown and was behind 4 people in the MVP voting. That's incredible. Gehrig had a career wOBA of .474 in the regular season which is third all time right behind Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. On the all-time career list, Gehrig is 17th in average (.340),  5th in OBP (.447), 3rd in SLG (.632), 3rd in OPS (1.080), 10th in runs scored (1,888), 26th in HR (493), 5th in RBI (1,995), 4th in OPS+ (179), 8th in runs created (2,223), 5th in adjusted batting runs (984), 7th in adjusted batting wins (90.3), and 7th in extra base hits (1,190). And this was all before the disease named after him cut his life short. Oh, and he had a nice consecutive games played streak without the aid of a DH or modern medicine. The guy also mashed in the playoffs hitting a ridiculous .361/.477/.731 (yes, that's a 1.208 OPS) with a .512 wOBA, 10 HR and 35 RBI in winning 6 out of 7 World Series--his best performance may have been in the 1928 World Series when he hit .545/.706/1.727 (2.433 OPS!) with 4 HR against the Cardinals. Simply an amazing player. (picture from Art.com)

Don Mattingly: Well, someone else had to be nominated with Gehrig. Tough spot for Donny Baseball. But he's definitely deserving of it. His career slashes of .307/.358/.471, wOBA of .361, and OPS+ of 127 made him one of the more feared hitters in the Majors. His end-of-career downfall due to back troubles seems to have clouded some memories of Mattingly, but he could really handle the bat. He won a batting title in 1984, won an MVP in 1985 and his 1986 season--where he came in 2nd to Roger Clemens in the MVP voting--may have been his best (his 1987 was nothing to sneeze at either).  He won 9 Gold Gloves at 1st and even though defense isn't excluding any candidates, it's certainly worth mentioning. He also won 3 Silver Sluggers and made 6 All Star games. the problem for Mattingly is that his power was basically gone from his resume after the 1989 season. He would only hit double digit home runs twice and never showed the offense he did in his peak. He finally made the postseason in his last season in Pinstripes and did not disappoint with a .417/.440/.708 performance including one memorable home run that shook the Old House to its core (I was there so I can testify that when Gary Thorne yelled "hold on to the roof", he was correct). As Sweeny Murti wrote in 2008: Of the top 25 players on the Yankees career games played list, only one never got to play a World Series game at Yankee Stadium. But it's safe to say that none of the other 24 ever received the ovations that Don Mattingly did in the 1995 Division Series." True that, Sweeny (though Mattingly may have been cursed). And it was well deserved for perhaps my favorite baseball player of my youth. (picture from About.com)

Just missed: Tino Martinez (if the Yankees had signed Tino instead of Jason Giambi, he may have replaced Mattingly on this list...and a lot of Yankee headaches may have been avoided)

Mets

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Simply Jeterian

Since he tied Lou Gehrig for most hits in Yankees history, Derek Jeter has received praise from many circles.

• From Peter Abraham: “I’m very happy for him,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “He carries himself in a manner that’s worthy of passing Gehrig.”
• From Buster Olney:

Derek Jeter has made it hard to hate the Yankees, writes Dan Bickley. From the story, Arizona general manager Josh Byrnes: "To me, he's the best player of his generation. He's the best example of his generation that we can present to our younger players."

Jim Leyland says, as mentioned within this Tom Gage piece, that he thinks the attention to Jeter's achievement is well-deserved: "It means health, longevity and extraordinary talent. It will get a lot of play and should. If you had to pick one representative for baseball over the last 15 years, it would be Jeter -- not only as a player, but as a person. … If you picked an athlete from each sport to go visit the Pope, he's the one I'd pick for baseball."

• Tyler Kepner on Jeter breaking the record
• MLB.com has some more reaction from around the league
  
• The New York Post says that Jeter lit up the house he built
• The New York Times looks at how Lou Gehrig was described in the New Yorker 80 years ago
• So, naturally, The New Yorker has a profile now on Derek Jeter and why he's so like--and dreading the end (H/T Baseball Musings)
• Rob Neyer "plays the Jeter game" and tries to rank him among the Yankees greats
• In other Derek Jeter news, he took out Minka Kelly in public The Big Lead reports

Let's see who Jeter has done the most damage against:

Jeter's most hits vs a pitcher:

1. Tim Wakefield - 31
2. Sidney Ponson - 29
3. Rodrigo Lopez - 26
4. Pedro Martinez -22
5. Jamie Moyer - 22

Jeter's most HR vs an opponent:

1. Boston - 23
2. Baltimore - 22
3. Texas - 21
4. Tampa Bay - 19
5. Seattle/Toronto - 17

Jeter's most HR vs a pitcher:

1. Sidney Ponson - 5
2. Rodrigo Lopez - 4
3. David Wells - 4
4. Many tied at 3

A few other facts from Derek's 223 career regular home runs from Baseball-Reference:

• He has 22 lead-off home runs
• He only has one walk-off home run
• He also only has one inside-the-park home run which came in his first season
• The other thing he only has one of? Grandslam. I was there to see it on Father's Day in 2005 against the Cubs

But here's a great stat: 57% of Derek Jeter's home runs have either tied the game of given his team the lead and only 16.5% have been hit when the difference was four runs or greater.