Pride of the Yankees Page #7

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I don't believe it. I can't believe it.

You got to go back.

You can't walk in on him like this.

Yes, I can.

You can't make a scandal.

Think of the fans and how they'll feel.

I can't, I'm too selfish.

It almost kills my faith in human nature.

Lou Gehrig.

A guy with a wife like you.

Pal or no pal...

...l'm going to take a baseball bat

and bust his skull wide open.

I'm gonna make him wish

he was never born.

I'm gonna hound that guy

for the rest of his life.

Strike three. You're out.

Well, of all the dirty, low-down tricks...

You almost made me

have a nervous breakdown.

- What's the score, Lou?

- 23 to 22, end of the ninth.

Three men on bases.

He'll be right along now.

Don't talk to me, you Borgia.

Dad was right.

He knew a ballplayer when he saw one.

When you said that, the Chicago Rathskeller

jumped right up in my lap.

- That wasn't yesterday, was it, Tanglefoot?

- No.

I sure didn't know

what I was walking into that day.

"Mr. Gehrig, meet Miss Twitchell."

And I left my little world behind me.

Your world? What do you mean?

Baseball life is so different.

Sort of a little world all by itself.

You play it in the spring, summer, and fall,

and talk about it in the winter.

- You really eat, drink, and sleep it.

- Yes, you have had a dish of it.

- Here it is, spring again.

- Some spring.

Spring for a ballplayer.

Florida next week again.

Look, how's this?

These spring training trips

must be kind of dull for a girl.

How about you passing up

Florida this spring?

Take a little vacation for yourself.

All right.

It's been a long time

since you've palled around with the team.

Give you a little vacation, too.

- We have seen a lot of each other.

- Yes, it's an idea.

Yes, it is.

- You don't want to stay here, do you?

- You don't want to go without me, do you?

The winner.

You just handed me my next story

on a silver platter.

- How I Beat My Wife by Lou Gehrig.

- Nix.

- It's a piparoo.

- Over my dead body.

- It'll kill 'em.

- Lay off our private life.

- Then, what'll I write about?

- About half a column.

If I was in the Sahara Desert,

dying of thirst, you'd bring me vinegar.

I'll see you at the ballpark.

Hey.

That's dirty pool.

Why didn't you want Sam

to write about your private life?

Because that's something

that belongs to just the two of us.

It's been a pretty good,

little old private life at that, hasn't it?

Even though we never had a honeymoon?

We've never had anything else.

Hey. What's the idea?

You want a bust in the nose?

Just trying to clean up

some of that poison pen stuff of yours.

Look at that,

"Gehrig's accidental home run yesterday."

- I'm writing what Babe thinks.

- You don't need paper for that.

You can write all the Babe ever thought

on a piece of confetti.

That was pretty brainy, I suppose, having

Gehrig call Ruth "the Ex-King of Swat."

That's facts. Gehrig's writing facts.

Ruth will show you some facts

in his column tomorrow.

Any facts Ruth dreams up

will be topped by Lou Gehrig...

...without borrowing your opium pipe.

Come in.

- These just came, Mrs. Gehrig.

- Thank you.

Just like the kind Mom used to try to make.

It's Mom's recipe, as if you didn't know it.

Anybody home?

- Hello, Ellie. Hello, Lou.

- Hello, Pop.

- Hello, Lou.

- Mom.

- Eating breakfast?

- Lou's been raving about your recipe, Mom.

Don't let him eat too many, he'll get fat.

What if I do? Then I can quit baseball.

- What?

- Quit baseball? Louie, are you crazy?

I've always had a hankering

to go in for engineering, you know that.

Engineering.

The best ballplayer in the world

would waste his time like that.

- Lou always told me his Uncle Otto...

- Uncle Otto, Schmotto.

Digging ditches, that's all he ever did.

The world is full of Ottos.

But how many Lou Gehrigs are there?

Look at him, eating flapjacks

on the most important day of his life.

Important?

Don't tell me you have

forgotten what day this is?

My birthday? No.

- Ellie, I haven't forgotten?

- No. It's not my birthday, either.

Or Mom's or Pop's.

- It's not our wedding anniversary.

- I'm surprised at you, Ellie.

Today is the day Lou Gehrig is playing

his 2,000th consecutive baseball game.

- So what?

- What?

Look at him. Pretending he don't care.

I've got an idea.

What do you say you miss today's game?

You've gone crazy maybe.

No, don't you see?

It's no news when Lou's in the lineup,

the real news is if he misses a game.

- Man bites dog.

- That's right.

Stop joking and come on, get a wiggle on you.

The ballpark will be crowded,

and the fans will give you an automobile.

Why an automobile?

Maybe they will give him a yacht.

An automobile or a yacht,

or the Statue of Liberty. I'd better go.

All right, if that's the

way you feel about it.

But I warn you,

all you'll get is a horseshoe of roses.

Don't be so cynical.

- "Good luck, Lou Gehrig," on a ribbon.

- You don't appreciate Lou's importance.

- They'll give him an automobile at least.

- I say a yacht.

You don't appreciate my importance.

I'm going to get an automobile or a yacht.

If you insist, but you'll come home

with a horseshoe of roses!

Safe!

Why don't he bunt?

What's the matter with him?

- Three runs behind, and you want to bunt.

- The unexpected, Mom.

- Get onto yourself!

- He should wait him out.

The pitcher has been missing

the corners since the sixth inning.

If that's true, why don't you tell McCarthy

how to run his job?

Shut up.

McCarthy is going great today.

He has pulled three boners I know of.

How would you like to shut up yourself?

Say, why don't you both shut up?

Strike three. You're out!

What, no automobile?

No yacht?

I was lucky to get away with my life.

I struck out three times.

The last time, in the ninth,

with the bases full.

If I had my way, darling,

I'd give you the Yankee Stadium.

I wanted to knock a home run for you today,

but maybe I tried too hard.

"Good luck, Lou Gehrig."

If they only knew what I know.

If they only realized what lies back

of those 2,000 games you've played.

This is for the time in Chicago

you got beaned and went on playing.

This for having brown eyes!

That's for when you played 12 innings

in St. Louis with a broken toe.

Here's for being the

greatest fan a man ever had.

That's for when you had 103 fever

and played a double-header.

Here's for sitting up

all night and curing me.

Here's for when you had the flu

and wouldn't quit.

Here's for not letting me quit.

This is for all the times you've had

broken fingers and not told me about it.

Here's for putting up

with me all these years!

I've won fair and square.

Don't try to pretend...

What is it?

I must have sprained my

shoulder or something.

It felt kind of stiff at the game.

Maybe that's why I struck out.

I'll get the liniment.

That's the one, there.

Here we go.

On the hustle. Come on, babe.

That's the one.

Those kids don't know what to do

with their speed.

- Lucky you got out of the way so quick.

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