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I started this project as an assignment for a class, 

1
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then all of a sudden it's like, 

1
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going to be at the Hall of Fame, so, um, 

1
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it's certainly a daunting but flattering task.

1
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Ben approached me and said

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he would like to do his research paper on Lou Gehrig

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and then revealed to me that his mother had had ALS 

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and that he had been her caregiver. 

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And I commented at the time 

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that I would approve his doing a paper on Gehrig 

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if he would attempt to relate his experience

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and his mother's experience to the Gehrig experience. 

1
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Any time I think of baseball

1
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I can't help but think of Lou Gehrig 

1
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because his name has been a part of my reality for so long.

1
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Um, and when I first thought of it I thought, 

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I'm busy, I don't need the stress, 

1
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like why don't I just write about Ty Cobb 

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you know, or like something else. 

1
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But the more I thought of it

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the more I was like, 

1
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this is really what I should write, 

1
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it's very rare you get a chance in college 

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to really write something that really is you.

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I was asking Ben to do something that

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was probably very difficult.

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that he had, uh, perhaps never really processed 

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his mother's death. 

1
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And now I'm asking him as an assignment

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to do just that as a person.

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In writing this paper, the goal was again

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to try to make Lou Gehrig 

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as much as a human being as possible. 

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And by doing that the only way I had

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to do it was to look at my own mother, so.

1
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It was, you know, it was painful but

1
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I like to think there was some 

1
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level of healing that happened.

1
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I would be so bold just to say that this has gone

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beyond a student-teacher situation because

1
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I start out as his teacher, 

1
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I in fact think he has become my teacher 

1
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on this subject but more than that, we're friends.

1
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Baseball is essentially a game that's played by people

1
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and everyone is an individual and so, 

1
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while I won't know as many statistics, 

1
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I won't know a lot of things that a lot of the

1
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things these guys would know just off-hand, um, 

1
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but I hope that it will be received as an invitation

1
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to I guess just remember that even the most exceptional 

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baseball players are essentially human beings

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who are good at baseball.