50 Fun Facts About Lou Gehrig

For which team did Lou Gehrig play all 17 of his MLB seasons?

He never played for anyone else, and apart from minor-league Hartford every team he ever joined was based in New York City.

What nickname did sportswriters give Gehrig for his durability?

Sportswriters coined it in 1931, six years into his consecutive-games streak.

How many consecutive games did Gehrig play to set the record that stood for 56 years?

Cal Ripken Jr. finally passed it on September 6, 1995, and finished with 2,632.

Which uniform number did Gehrig wear, the first ever retired by an MLB team?

He wore it because he batted fourth, right behind Babe Ruth, when the Yankees first put numbers on their uniforms in 1929.

Which disease ended Gehrig's career and is now often named after him in the US?

ALS attacks the motor neurons; Gehrig's doctors told his wife the mind stays fully aware to the end.

In his farewell speech, Gehrig called himself the luckiest man on the face of what?

The July 4, 1939 speech has been called baseball's Gettysburg Address.

How many career home runs did Gehrig hit?

He added 1,995 RBIs and a .340 career batting average.

What was Gehrig's career batting average?

His slugging average was .632 and his on-base average .447.

Who broke Gehrig's consecutive-games record in 1995?

Ripken, the Baltimore Orioles shortstop, passed 2,130 on September 6, 1995.

Gehrig held the career grand slam record with 23 until which player broke it?

Rodriguez also tied Gehrig's mark of 13 straight 100-RBI seasons in 2010.

In which New York City neighborhood was Gehrig born?

He was born at 1994 Second Avenue on June 19, 1903, weighing almost 14 pounds.

Gehrig's parents were immigrants from which country?

He spoke German as a child and did not learn English until he was five.

At roughly what weight was Gehrig born?

His mother, a maid, was the family's main breadwinner; his father was often unemployed.

Which language did Gehrig speak at home before learning English at age five?

He was known as Lou so he would not be confused with his father Heinrich, called Henry.

Where in Chicago did a 17-year-old Gehrig hit a grand slam out of a big-league stadium in 1920?

The park is now Wrigley Field; his Commerce High team beat Lane Tech in front of more than 10,000 fans.

Which university did Gehrig attend before turning pro?

He studied engineering for two years and was recruited on a football scholarship before joining the baseball team.

Under what assumed name did Gehrig play summer pro ball in 1921 while still a collegian?

He was found out after 12 games with Hartford and banned from college sports as a freshman.

Which Yankees scout signed Gehrig after watching him pitch in college in 1923?

Krichell was unmoved by Gehrig's pitching; it was the left-handed power that sold him.

What position did Gehrig play on his college football team?

He had a long history of concussions from football, which later fuelled speculation about CTE.

For which minor-league club did Gehrig hit 61 homers in 193 games in 1923–24?

Hartford was a two-hour drive away, the only team he ever played for outside New York City.

Which first baseman famously sat out with a headache on June 2, 1925, and lost his job to Gehrig?

Pipp, a two-time AL home run champion, never got the position back.

Which Yankees manager started Gehrig at first base on June 2, 1925?

Huggins was shaking up a slumping lineup and also replaced Aaron Ward and Wally Schang that day.

How many RBIs did Gehrig drive in during his monster 1927 season?

It broke Ruth's record of 168; Gehrig also hit .373 with 47 homers that year.

What was the nickname of the 1927 Yankees lineup that overshadowed Gehrig's MVP season?

The 1927 team went 110–44 and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.

Against which team did Gehrig hit four home runs in one game on June 3, 1932?

Al Simmons robbed him of a fifth with a leaping catch at the center-field fence at Shibe Park.

Whose retirement announcement stole the headlines from Gehrig's four-homer game?

McGraw quit after 30 years managing the New York Giants on the very same day.

Whose consecutive-games record of 1,307 did Gehrig pass in August 1933?

Scott attended the game at Sportsman's Park as a guest of the St. Louis Browns.

In which year did Gehrig win the American League Triple Crown?

He led the league with 49 homers, 166 RBIs and a .363 average.

What total did Gehrig set in 1931 that remains the American League single-season RBI record?

Only Hack Wilson's 191 in 1930, in the National League, beats it.

Gehrig's number 4 came from batting where in the order?

Batting right behind Ruth made intentionally walking the Babe counterproductive for opposing pitchers.

Gehrig was the first athlete to appear on boxes of which breakfast cereal?

Agent Christy Walsh, borrowed from Babe Ruth, arranged it after Gehrig married Eleanor.

What was the first name of Gehrig's wife, whom he married in 1933?

She was the daughter of Chicago Parks Commissioner Frank Twitchell and later devoted her life to ALS research.

Where in Rochester, Minnesota was Gehrig diagnosed with ALS on his 36th birthday?

Six days of tests in Rochester, Minnesota ended on June 19, 1939.

In which city did Gehrig tell Joe McCarthy "I'm benching myself" on May 2, 1939?

Wally Pipp, the man he had replaced 2,130 games earlier, happened to be in the stands at Briggs Stadium.

Who replaced Gehrig at first base when the streak ended?

McCarthy told Gehrig the job was his whenever he felt able to play again; he never did.

How many fans were at Yankee Stadium for Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day on July 4, 1939?

The New York Times called it as colorful and dramatic a pageant as ever was enacted on a ball field.

Which mayor called Gehrig the perfect prototype of sportsmanship and citizenship at the farewell?

La Guardia later appointed Gehrig to a ten-year term on the city's parole commission.

Which song did the band play as Babe Ruth hugged Gehrig after the speech?

The crowd stood and cheered for almost two minutes and chanted "We love you, Lou!"

Which Times writer wrote the poem inscribed on the trophy the Yankees gave Gehrig?

The trophy was one of his prized possessions and now sits in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

How many World Series titles did Gehrig win?

He played in seven Series and hit .361 with 10 homers in 34 games.

What public job did Gehrig take in 1940 after retiring?

He turned down far richer offers for the $5,700-a-year post and insisted prison visits go unreported.

In which Bronx neighborhood did Gehrig die on June 2, 1941?

He died 17 days before his 38th birthday; flags across New York flew at half-staff.

Where in Valhalla, New York were Gehrig's ashes placed?

It is in Valhalla, New York, next door to Gate of Heaven, where Babe Ruth is buried.

At 36, Gehrig became the youngest Hall of Famer; who later took that distinction?

Koufax was five months younger than Gehrig had been when he was elected in 1972.

Which fraternity created the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1955?

Gehrig had been a member at Columbia; the award goes to the MLB player who best shows his character.

Which date did MLB declare Lou Gehrig Day in 2021?

It is both the day he became the starting first baseman in 1925 and the day he died in 1941.

Which 1938 Fox film was Gehrig's only feature-film role, playing himself?

Neurologists later studied the footage and found no visible ALS symptoms in January 1938.

Gehrig once auditioned, in a leopard-spotted costume, for which movie role?

Producer Sol Lesser found his legs more functional than decorative; decathlete Glenn Morris got the part.

Who played Gehrig in the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees?

Teresa Wright played Eleanor, and Babe Ruth played himself; the film earned 11 Oscar nominations.

What nickname did Gehrig's thick legs earn him?

The same legs cost him the Tarzan role in 1936.