Graded by SGC EX/NM+ 6.5. Brilliant color with a fully focused image of the smiling Lou Gehrig. Four sharp corners and clean surfaces highlight the Near Mint condition quality of this example. Coming off his first full season without Babe Ruth, Gehrig finally emerged from Ruth's shadows to post a career best season, winning the American League Triple Crown—leading the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. An under-graded classic gum card and the most desirable of all Gehrig baseball cards, this offered example has a pack fresh visual appearance, and has eye appeal far beyond most Near Mint to Mint slabbed specimens.
In producing their 1934 set, Goudey partnered with Lou Gehrig—via an arrangement with agent extraordinaire Christy Walsh—to sign off on blurbs about each American League subject; Chuck Klein provided the same for the National Leaguers represented. The first 79 cards in the set have blue banners along the bottom featuring Gehrig's likeness and "Lou Gehrig says...," with quotes ostensibly authored by him on the reverse. In this example, Gehrig states: "I love the game of baseball and hope to be in there batting them out for many years to come. Fortune has been kind to me"—words solemnly echoed five years later in his famed 'Luckiest Man' speech. Gehrig earned two cards of his own in the set, #37 and #61. The former, a superb portrait against a bright yellow background, is considered more desirable than the batting pose of #61, and stands as one of the most attractive cards of the 1930s.
