Related Items
Gary Cooper, "The Pride of the Yankees"
Gary Cooper plays the baseball hero with a heart of gold in “The Pride of the Yankees,” and in the process gives life to one of the most famous scenes in sports film history. Long before Lou Gehrig (Cooper) discovers that he has a lethal neurological disease, he is the “Iron Man” first baseman of the unstoppable New York Yankees in the 1920s and ‘30s, leading the team to the World Series before he’s stricken with an illness that brings his career to a screeching halt. "Some people say I've had a bad break,” Gehrig says during a very public farewell at Yankee Stadium, “But I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” So many baseball films are about the scoreboard and the fame, but Cooper gave us a baseball hero whose heart matched his skill level—whose dignity off the field transcended his victories on the field.
