Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig, here still in the jersey of the Columbia University baseball team
First baseman
Born: June 19, 1903 New York City , United States
Died on: June 2, 1941 New York City, United States
Suggested: Left	Threw: Left
Debut in Major League Baseball
June 15,  1923  with the  New York Yankees
Last MLB assignment
April 30,  1939  with the New York Yankees
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Batting average	.340
Hits	2,721
Home runs	493
Runs Batted In	1.995
Teams
New York Yankees ( 1923 - 1939 )
Awards
7 × All-Star ( 1933 - 1939 ) 6 x World Series winner ( 1927 , 1928 , 1932 , 1936 - 1938 ) 2 × AL MVP (1927, 1936) Triple Crown (1934) Best batsman in the AL (1934) 3 × batsman with the most home runs in the AL (1931, 1934, 1936) He hit 4 home runs in one game on June 3, 1932 In his honor, the # 4 of the New York Yankees is no longer awarded Major League Baseball All-Century Team Major League Baseball All-Time Team
member of
Baseball Hall of Fame
Recorded	1939

Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (born June 19, 1903 in New York City , New York as Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig , † June 2, 1941 there ) was an American baseball player in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played as a first baseman with the New York Yankees throughout his career . Gehrig was elected to the All-Star Team seven times in a row , won six World Series titles, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as an active player in 1939 . He is considered one of the most successful players in the history of the sport.

Childhood and early years

Gehrig was born as the son of the German immigrants Heinrich Gehrig and Christina Fack in extremely poor circumstances. His father worked as a cleaning man, but was often unable to work due to epilepsy , so that the mother had to support the family. Since his parents stayed on a good education, Gehrig went in 1921 first with a Football - scholarship to Columbia University . At that time, football was almost exclusively a school and student sport, while baseball had a well-established professional business, but on the other hand was rarely played in educational institutions. Even before his first semester, he played baseball under a false name for a team in Hartford , Connecticut , in violation of the then strict amateur principles of college sports . It was very dangerous because if discovered he would have jeopardized his college sports career and thus his scholarship. That's exactly what happened after a few games, and Gehrig was banned during his freshman year in college.

In 1922 Gehrig returned to the Columbia University football team and then played on the Columbia Nine baseball team. Here Gehrig was discovered by a scout and signed by the New York Yankees in 1923 .

Star of the New York Yankees

First he played one more season for the team from Hartford before he was called to the team of the Yankees in 1925. Here he replaced the previous regular at First Base, Wally Pipp , who (at least that's how it is passed down) complained of headaches, and from then on he played every regular game of his team for over 13 years, which meant 2,130 games in uninterrupted succession Record that was only broken by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995 . In 1925 he lost the World Series with the Yankees, where he and Babe Ruth broke record after record. The two fought hard for the most home runs in a season.

In 1927 the longed-for title win finally came: the Yankees dominated their league at will and overran the Pittsburgh Pirates in the finals of the World Series; the 1927 Yankees are considered the strongest team in baseball history. Gehrig received the MVP award for best player in the World Series.

In 1932, Gehrig became the first American League player to hit four home runs in one game. As Ruth gradually became weaker, Gehrig slowly took his place in the team. Added to this were personal difficulties with Ruth, and the two of them did not speak to each other outside of the field for several years. That same year, the Yankees still won the World Series, Gehrig's second title. In 1934 Gehrig won the Triple Crown .

After Ruth had finished his career, Gehrig got Joe DiMaggio as a new competitor within the team. The duo won the World Series with the Yankees in 1936 and dominated the league for the next several years. This is illustrated by the four-year Yankees dynasty, when they won the World Series four times in a row between 1936 and 1939. Gehrig and DiMaggio led the league in home runs.

However, it was noticed that Gehrig was weak in the 1938 season. A year later he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which has been called "Lou Gehrig's disease" in the USA since then (in German "Lou Gehrig syndrome"). This meant the end of his career. He was no longer part of the Yankee team that contested the 1939 World Series.

On July 4th, 1939, United States Independence Day , he was bid farewell in a tearful ceremony at the Yankees Stadium, where he uttered the still legendary sentence: "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" ( "Today I consider myself the happiest person on earth"). It is noteworthy that at this point he knew that his death was near. On this occasion, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig spoke again after eight years.

In the film The Big Throw from 1942, actor Gary Cooper embodies Gehrig and is very similar in appearance.

The time after exercise

Gehrig's time after baseball was very short. His wife Eleanor was at his side when he succumbed to his illness on June 2, 1941, at the age of 37. His death touched the American public, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent flowers.

Web links

Commons : Lou Gehrig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Player information and statistics from Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  The Baseball Cube  or  Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
• Official Lou Gehrig website (English)
• Lou Gehrig in the Baseball Hall of Fame (English)