If it wasn't meant as a criticism, then okay, you wrote it, you know what you meant. Maybe I just misread it. But once a team leader, now a backup came across as criticism to me, especially when there aren't enough starting spots for all the talent on this team. A player coming off this bench doesn't mean they have regressed or are not playing well.
As for Gehrig, I'm not gonna get into any comparisons of this to that. And I don't know what fans in 1938 and early 1939 thought about his play not being what it had been because they didn't write it down for me to read. But I had a childhood friend die a few years ago from ALS. Good guy. And no, nobody thought it was his fault.