Lou Gehrig

He was the second of four children of German immigrants Christina Foch (1881–1954) and Heinrich Gehrig (1867–1946).

His father was a sheet-metal worker by trade who was frequently unemployed due to alcoholism and epilepsy, and his mother, a maid, was the main breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family.

Gehrig was the only one of the four siblings to live past childhood.

His two sisters died at an early age from whooping cough and measles; a brother also died in infancy.

From an early age, Gehrig helped his mother with work, doing tasks such as folding laundry and picking up supplies from the local stores.

Gehrig spoke German during his childhood, not learning English until the age of five.

Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939).

Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, which earned him his nickname "the Iron Horse".

He is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

He was an All-Star seven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once, an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player twice, and a member of six World Series champion teams.

He had a career .340 batting average, .632 slugging average, and a .447 on-base average.

He hit 493 home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in (RBI).

He still has the highest ratio of runs scored plus runs batted in per 100 plate appearances (35.08) and per 100 games (156.7) among Hall of Fame players.

Gehrig was born June 19, 1903, at 1994 Second Avenue (according to his birth certificate) in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan; he weighed almost 14 lb at birth.

In 1910 he lived with his parents at 2266 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights.

In 1920 the family resided on 8th Avenue in Manhattan.

His name was often anglicized to Henry Louis Gehrig but he was known as "Lou" so he would not be confused with his identically named father, who was known as Henry.

(According to "The Pride Of The Yankees," Gehrig's uncle's name was Otto.) Gehrig first garnered national attention for his baseball ability while playing in a game at Cubs Park (now Wrigley Field) in Chicago on June 26, 1920.

His New York School of Commerce team was playing a local team from Lane Tech High School in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators.

With his team leading 8–6 in the top of the ninth inning, Gehrig hit a grand slam completely out of the major league park, which was an unheard-of feat for a 17-year-old.

Gehrig attended PS 132 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, then went to Commerce High School, graduating in 1921.

He then studied engineering at Columbia University for two years, finding the schoolwork difficult before leaving to pursue a career in professional baseball.

He had been recruited to play football at the school, earning a scholarship there, later joining the baseball squad.

Before his first semester began, New York Giants manager John McGraw advised him to play summer professional baseball under an assumed name, Henry Lewis, despite the fact that it could jeopardize his collegiate sports eligibility.

After he played a dozen games for the Hartford Senators in the Eastern League, he was discovered and banned from collegiate sports his freshman year.

In 1922 Gehrig returned to collegiate sports as a fullback for the Columbia Lions football program.

A native of New York City and a student at Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees on April 29, 1923.

Later, in 1923, he played first base and pitched for the Columbia baseball team.

At Columbia, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

On April 18, 1923, the same day Yankee Stadium opened for the first time and Babe Ruth inaugurated the new stadium with a home run against the Boston Red Sox, Columbia pitcher Gehrig struck out 17 Williams Ephs batters to set a team record, though Columbia lost the game.

Only a handful of collegians were at Columbia's South Field that day, but more significant was the presence of Yankee scout Paul Krichell, who had been trailing Gehrig for some time.

Gehrig's pitching did not particularly impress him; rather, it was Gehrig's powerful left-handed hitting.

In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number (4) retired by a team.

Gehrig's consecutive game streak ended on May 2, 1939, when he voluntarily took himself out of the lineup, stunning both players and fans, after his performance on the field became hampered by an undiagnosed ailment subsequently confirmed to be amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is an incurable neuromuscular illness, now commonly referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease".

The disease forced him to retire at age 36, and claimed his life two years later.

The pathos of his farewell from baseball was capped off by his iconic 1939 "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech at Yankee Stadium.

A monument in Gehrig's honor, originally dedicated by the Yankees in 1941, currently resides in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.

The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award is given annually to the MLB player who best exhibits Gehrig's integrity and character.

In 1969, the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted Gehrig the greatest first baseman of all time, and he was the leading vote-getter on the MLB All-Century Team chosen by fans in 1999.

He set several major-league records during his career, including the most career grand slams (23; since broken by Alex Rodriguez) and most consecutive games played (2,130), a record that stood for 56 years and was long considered unbreakable until it was surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr.. in 1995.