Eponymous Baseball-Related Disease Names Not in OED

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:31 PM -0400 8/28/10, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>Tangential, but NPR reported a study yesterday claiming that Lou
>Gehrig did not suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease but rather from
>traumatic brain injury.

A bit of an overstatement, if you read the study (which is hedged
with "possibly" and such, and never actually claims the study showed
he didn't have ALS, just that the concussions may have played a
role); my neurologist colleagues also note that he didn't seem to
have the cognitive deficits associated with the "punchdrunk fighter"
syndrome, FWIW.

>A hollow eponym?

Well, it's a nice thought, sort of like the Holy Roman Empire, which
wasn't, wasn't, and wasn't, respectively.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Tommy John did have Tommy John
surgery, although not labelled as such at the time, so he didn't get
the discount.

LH

>
>On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Eponymous Baseball-Related Disease Names Not in OED
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  I notice that "Tommy John surgery" is not in OED.  More
>>surprisingly, "Lou Gehrig's disease" also does not appear to be
>>included.
>>
>>  Fred Shapiro
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org