Lou Gehrig Biography
New York Yankees Vintage Baseball Stories
On June 1, 1925, a 21 year old bench warmer named Lou Gehrig pinch hit for Yankees shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger and rapped a single to keep a New York Yankees rally alive. The next day, Lou Gehrig was rewarded with a start at first base. For the next 14 years Gehrig never missed a game.
During that incredible span, the strapping lefty dazzled fans with his batting prowess, registering a .632 career slugging average that stands as tops among first basemen and third best on the all time list. However, it was Lou's consecutive game streak that was most important to Gehrig. Gehrig became obsessed with keeping the streak alive. He played with broken fingers, sprained ankles, cracked ribs and a variety of other injuries that would have landed a lesser man on the disabled list.Privately, Gehrig hoped to reach 2,500 games. However, by 1938, he could no longer turn on the inside fastball and was unable to go to his right in the field. When his condition worsened the next season, Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup for the team's sake. It was then that he learned that he had a fatal degenerative disease, now commonly referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease."
On July 4, 1939 Lou Gehrig was honored at Yankee Stadium. There, before a crowd of 61,000 weeping fans and a national radio audience that numbered in the millions, the Iron Horse delivered his farewell speech. Gehrig thanked baseball fans for the kinndness and encouragement that they had shown him over the years.
"For the past two weeks," he said, "you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet, today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Two years later Lou Gehrig died and baseball lost a legend, an icon, and a hero.
Did You Know?
Lou Gehrig often played in exhibition games against the great teams of the Negro Leagues. So impressed was he with contemporaries Martin Dihigo, Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson, that he became an early champion of the move to desegregate Major League Baseball.
Lou Gehrig Timeline Biography
- Born : June 19, 1903
- Age 7 : Delivers laundry his mother takes in to help support the family.
- Age 9 : Shows batting and pitching skills in neighborhood games. His father mistakenly buys him a right handed catchers mitt for Christmas.
- Age 12 : Develops massive thighs and powerful arms at the local gym. Babe Ruth was his childhood hero.
- Age 17 : Voted All City high school running back hits grand slam at Chicago's Wrigley Field to win the High School World Series.
- Age 18 : Stars as tackle and fullback for Columbia University. Plays Minor League ball under the name of "Lewis"
- 1927 : Hits 47 homers batting behind Babe Ruth, who hits 60.
- 1931 : Sets AL RBI record with 184
- 1934 : Wins Triple Crown
- 1939 : Removes himself from lineup after 2,130 straight games.
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