Spring Training

Wisdom and strength are in bloom this season

For many including myself, spring is synonymous with the start of Major League Baseball (MLB). It’s around this time when I get overly hopeful about my New York Mets, knowing that this optimistic perspective will change into a fatalist one sometime in early June.

Springtime is also when I get to train outdoors because the conditions are often perfect for the type of high intensity workouts I typically perform: sunny, slight breeze and warm, but not hot and humid.

Baseball legend Lou Gehrig in the gym.

Soon my workouts will likely be serenaded with the play-by-play of Mets radio announcer Howie Rose et al. The approaching 2024 MLB season is a good time to reflect on baseball’s storied past. Its history is full of renowned moments and personas. Along with Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig is one of the game’s most trailblazing and uplifting figures. He was a durable player who made history for his physical prowess, mental toughness and for playing in 2,130 consecutive games, which was a record that stood for fifty-six years until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it on September 6, 1995.

Gehrig was the most notable counterpart to Babe Ruth during the New York Yankees’ incredible championship run throughout the 1920s and 30s. There might not be a greater one-two punch in all of baseball than Ruth and Gehrig (Ruth batted third in the order while Gehrig hit fourth, aka the “cleanup” hitter). He is also the unfortunate and tragic namesake of “Lou Gehrig’s disease,” medically known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Any athlete's worst fear is having their body fight them in a manner that affects their in-game productivity. Gehrig was still in his prime at the age of thirty-five, an age when many modern and contemporary baseball players hang up their cleats for retirement. Had he stayed healthy, he clearly could have kept performing at a high level. He would have reached several other career milestones, including hitting 500 home runs (he ended his career just seven short). But in a relatively short period of time, his health deteriorated and he passed away two years later at the age of thirty-seven.

Gehrig was a pillar of good fitness, which makes his fate from a physically degenerative illness seem so confounding. Pictures of him in the gym and locker room show an athlete who took great care to condition his body. He was completely toned from the legs up, which no doubt contributed to his dynamic bat swinging ability.

For someone triggered by OCD related fears of contamination and sickness, Gehrig’s story instills a great sense of dread. One day, as I was expressing some of these OCD concerns, my therapist said to me: ”Enjoy the good moment before it leaves and returns again.” This statement lingers in my mind and is often part of the self-talk required to combat negative OCD thoughts and compulsions.

Life may be a cycle, but its progression is bumpy and unpredictable. Sometimes we’re faced with life-altering circumstances, which might impact our ability to do the things we enjoy and work hard to achieve. But rather than give up and feel sorry for ourselves, having an upbeat and appreciative outlook can make these ordeals seem more bearable. Even when faced with an irremediable situation, Gehrig took great care to express his gratitude for all that he’d obtained and experienced in his life. The words Gehrig recited at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, during Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, are truly profound: “For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Spring is a time of natural renewal. Plants emerge from the soil after a winter’s hiatus, as resilient and beautiful as ever. Our minds can also be refreshed and blossom in a fruitful manner, if we allow ourselves to go with the flow of nature, and revel in the good experiences and phenomena that life brings our way.