Gehrig, Lou 19O3-1941

GEHRIG, LOU 19O3-1941

Baseball player

Young Athlete

The only surviving child of German immigrants, young Lou Gehrig was an outstanding all-around athlete at the High School of Commerce in New York City. He continued his athletic prowess at Columbia University and became a baseball star there as a pitcher and right fielder. Since he played in the minors at Hartford (under an alias) he lost one year of eligibility at Columbia. In 1923 Yankee scout Paul Krichell signed him to a contract, and Gehrig spent two years in the minors (though he played a few games each year with the parent club), honing his skills as a first baseman.

Larrupin' Lou

Gehrig batted .295 and .313 in his first two major-league seasons, and by 1927 he had developed into one of the best players in the game, outhitting Babe Ruth in most categories. His 47 home runs were second to Ruth's 60 that year. Gehrig won the most valuable player (MVP) and led the Yankees to a sweep of the Pirates in the World Series. By the 1930s he was on his way to achieving recognition as the finest first baseman ever to play baseball, a remarkable feat in that he was playing in the era of Jimmie Foxx (who probably edged Gehrig in most categories) and Hank Greeberg. He played hurt a lot throughout his career and never took a day off, thus earning his moniker, "The Iron Horse."

Hall of Fame Numbers

By 1931, with Ruth on the decline, Gehrig became the symbol (and captain) of the New York Yankees. In 1931 he hit 46 homers, knocked in 184 runs, and scored 163. Yet he did not win a Triple Crown until 1934. He was awarded as MVP for a second time in 1936. On 3 June 1932 he hit four home runs in one game, something neither Ruth nor any other American League ballplayer had ever accomplished. He finished his career with a .340 batting average, 493 home runs, 1,990 runs batted in, 1,188 runs scored, 535 doubles, 162 triples, and 1,508 bases on balls. Even more remarkable was his 2,130-consecutive-game playing streak. For all his greatness, he played the first part of his career in the shadow of Babe Ruth and the latter in the shadow of young Joe DiMaggio.

Streak Ends

Gehrig's consecutive-game playing streak began on 31 May 1925 and ended on 2 May 1939. Wrote James P. Dawson in The New York Times, "A deafening cheer resounded as Lou walked to the dugout, doffed his cap and disappeared in a corner of the bench." Though he was only thirty-five years old, there were definite signs that all was not well with him. He had contracted a rare muscle disease that in layman's terms now bears his name. On 4 July 1939 the Yankees honored him on "Lou Gehrig Day" at Yankee Stadium. It was there before a crowd of 61,000 fans that he announced, "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.…" He died on 2 June 1941, the day of the nineteenth game of DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Fans lined up outside Christ Episcopal Church for the viewing of the man sportswriter Frank Graham aptly called "A Quiet Hero."

Sources:

Tom Meany, Baseball's Greatest Players (New York: Barnes, 1953);

Ray Robinson, Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time (New York: Norton, 1990).