Yankees' legend Lou Gehrig's Hall of Fame replica statue sits outside of Yankee Stadium.
Courtesy autiscy/Creative Commons license
Gehrig took the field for the Yankees that day for the first time as their regular first baseman, and did not leave the field for the next 14 seasons.
Each and every day, Gehrig was penciled into the lineup, and eight seasons later, on August 17, 1933, Gehrig extended his consecutive game playing streak to 1,308, topping the previous mark held by former Yankee shortstop Everett Scott, set in 1925, ironically the same season in which Gehrig started his streak.
Gehrig went on to extend his steak until April 30, 1939. By then, it was very clear that something was wrong with him. Lacking his normal strength, balls he hit that normally would have been home runs turned into short pop flies. He had a hard time picking up his feet, shuffling most of the time.
In the first weeks of the 1939 season, Gehrig managed only four hits, and teammates were congratulating him for literally stumbling into an average play.
On April 30th, Gehrig took himself out of the game, and following a day off, on May 2nd, Gehrig told manager Joe McCarthy that he was benching himself, stating that he was no longer useful to the team.
Gehrig's consecutive game streak ended at 2,130, a record that stood until Baltimore Orioles' shortstop/third baseman Cal Ripken, Jr. surpassed the 56-year-old record when he played in his 2,131st consecutive game on September 6, 1995 between the Orioles and the California Angels in front of a sold-out crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
During Gehrig's streak, he persevered through a broken thumb, a broken toe, back spasms and a bout of lumbago. Later in his career it was revealed that Gehrig's hands had endured 17 different fractures that had "healed" while he continued to play.
During his incredible streak, Gehrig became the most feared right-handed hitter in the game. He was selected to each of the first seven All-Star games and he won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in 1927 and 1936. He was also a Triple Crown winner in 1934, leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.
Gehrig, ended his career with a lifetime .342 batting average, 475 home runs, 1,995 RBI's and was the first player in the American League ever to hit four home runs in one game, accomplishing the feat in 1932.
Several weeks after he pulled himself from the lineup, doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed Gehrig with a very rare form of degenerative disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is now called Lou Gehrig's disease. His baseball career was over, and he was fighting for his life.
On July 4, 1939, the New York Yankees held a recognition day to honor Lou Gehrig. During his speech, Gehrig told the sold out crowd that he was "the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
By the time Gehrig was done speaking, there was not a dry eye in the house, and even Babe Ruth, who had not spoken to Gehrig since 1934, came over to him, put his arm around Gehrig's shoulder, and offered words of encouragement. Gehrig was elected to the Hall of Fame later that same year.
On June 2, 1941, Gehrig finally succumbed to his disease, and the entire world mourned the passing of the man who forever became known as "The Iron Horse."
0 comments:
Post a Comment