In “The Pride of the Yankees,” Richard Sandomir tells the story behind what he calls “the first great sports film,” the 1942 movie starring Gary Cooper as the doomed Lou Gehrig.

The producer Samuel Goldwyn considered Spencer Tracy and other actors to star, though it’s impossible now to picture anyone but Cooper in the role. Many unknowns also offered their talents, including a young man who wrote in: “My girl won’t marry me until I pay off my debts. I owe $600. I am 6 feet tall and possess personality traits similar to those of Lou Gehrig.”

Filled with larger than life characters and unexpected facts, Iron Hero shows us how Samuel Goldwyn had no desire to making a baseball film but he was persuaded to make a quick deal with Lou’s widow, Eleanor, not long after Gehrig had passed; Hollywood icon Cooper had zero knowledge of baseball and had to be taught to play; unknown parts of the screen treatment and screenplay that will be written about for the first time.

Nostalgic, breezy and fun, The Pride of the Yankees captures a lost time in film and sports history.

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