Lou Gehrig

Date of Birth: June 19, 1903

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Date of Death: June 2, 1941

Biography

Henry Louis Gehrig, famously known as Lou Gehrig, was an iconic American baseball player who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. Renowned for his remarkable hitting abilities and durability, Gehrig earned the nickname “The Iron Horse.” His career was tragically cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that later became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in his honor. Gehrig’s legacy as one of the greatest baseball players of all time is cemented by his impressive statistics, his consecutive games played streak, and his poignant farewell speech delivered at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939.

5 Interesting Facts about Lou Gehrig

1. Lou Gehrig was the first athlete to have his number retired; the New York Yankees retired his number 4 in 1939.

2. He played in 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood for 56 years until it was broken by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995.

3. Gehrig won the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award twice, in 1927 and 1936.

4. He was a seven-time All-Star and a six-time World Series champion with the Yankees.

5. Lou Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 through a special election due to his illness.

5 Most Interesting Quotes from Lou Gehrig

1. “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

2. “There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all.”

3. “I’m not a headline guy. I know that as long as I was following Ruth to the plate, I could have stood on my head and no one would have known the difference.”

4. “In the beginning, I used to make one terrible play a game. Then I got so I could make one a week and finally I’d pull a bad one once a month. Now, I’m trying to keep it down to one a season.”

5. “The ballplayer who loses his head, who can’t keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all.”

Highest Net Worth Achieved

At the time of his death in 1941, Lou Gehrig’s net worth was estimated to be around $1.5 million, which is equivalent to over $25 million today when adjusted for inflation.