To find the movie "Pride of the Yankees" 

Rice, Rickey to Become Part of Hall's Storied History

In the Bronx, a Parting Shot

"Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken."  Yogi Berra

Bidding farewell to a baseball heirloom: Lou Gehrig's jacket

On this Day: Lou Gehrig Dies of ALS

"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it." John Wooden

When Major Leaguers Play Themselves: "Rawhide"

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it. "Heywood Broun

Dickey among best ever

The cruelest twist

"You can observe a lot just by watching."
Yogi Berra

Ranking Yankees

Ruth and Gehrig, frozen in time

"I didn't really say everything I said."
Yogi Berra

The Yankee Clipper in Philly 

"The future ain't what it used to be."
Yogi Berra

             Lou and the Babe

  <bgsound src="farewellspeech.wav" loop="true" autostart="false" height="25" width="100" controls="smallconsole"> Lou Gehrig's farewell speech can be heard here (it is a rather large file and might be slow loading).

Lou Gehrig's accomplishments on the field made him an authentic American hero, but his tragic early death from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis made him a legend.
The son of German immigrants, Gehrig was the only one of four children to survive. He was preparing to enter Columbia University when he was advised by Giants Manager John McGraw to play summer professional baseball under an assumed name ("Henry Lewis"). "Everyone does it," McGraw explained, even though the illegal ballplaying could have jeopardized Gehrig's collegiate sports career. Gehrig was discovered after playing a dozen games for Hartford of the Eastern league. As a result, Gehrig was banned from intercollegiate sports during his freshman year, 1921-22.

Gehrig returned to sports to play fullback during Columbia's 1922 football season, and then pitched and played first for the Columbia Nine in 1923. Signed by Yankee scout Paul Krichell in 1923, Gehrig returned to Hartford and hit .304. Called up to the majors in September, he hit .423 in 26 at-bats.

Manager Miller Huggins petitioned McGraw to permit Gehrig to replace the ailing Wally Pipp on the Yanks' roster for the World Series. McGraw, always looking for an edge, exercised his prerogative and refused. The Yankees won anyway. After a full season at Hartford, where Gehrig hit .369, he became a Yankee for good in 1925.

A tireless worker with a record 2,130 consecutive games played (this record has since been broken by Cal Ripken, Jr.), Gehrig spent his whole career in New York, the nation's media capital. But it seemed that another teammate always got more headline attention-first Babe Ruth, then Joe DiMaggio. When historian Fred Lieb asked Gehrig about playing in Ruth's shadow, Gehrig's answer was true to form: "It's a pretty big shadow. It gives me lots of room to spread myself."

Gehrig's consecutive-game streak didn't come easily. He played every game for more than 13 years despite a broken thumb, a broken toe, and back spasms. Later in his career Gehrig's hands were X-rayed, and doctors were able to spot 17 different fractures that had "healed" while Gehrig continued to play. Despite having pain from lumbago one day, he was listed as the shortstop and leadoff hitter. He singled and was promptly replaced but kept the streak intact.

His lifetime batting average was .340, fifteenth all-time highest, and he amassed more than 400 total bases on five occasions. Only 13 men have achieved that level of power in a season. Ruth did it twice, and Chuck Klein did it three times. Gehrig is one of only seven players with more than 100 extra-base hits in one season, and only he and Klein accomplished the feat twice.

In 13 years, Gehrig averaged 147 RBIs a season. No player was to reach the 147 mark in a single season until George Foster did it in 1977. And, as historian Bill Curran points out, Gehrig accomplished it "while batting immediately behind two of history's greatest base-cleaners, Ruth and DiMaggio." Gehrig's 184 RBIs in 1931 remains the second highest single season total in American League history.

After batting .295 in 1925, Gehrig hit .313, the first of 12 consecutive years he would top .300, and led the league with 20 triples in 1926. The Yanks won the pennant; Gehrig hit.348 in the World Series, but the Yankees lost to Rogers Hornsby's Cardinals in seven games.
Ruth and Gehrig began dominating the baseball headlines in 1927, in a way two players had never done before. That year Ruth hit 60 homers, breaking his old record of 59, and Gehrig clouted 47, more than anyone other than Ruth had ever hit. As late as August 10th, Gehrig had more homers than the Babe, but Ruth's closing kick was spectacular. Together they out-homered every team in baseball except one.

The Yankees chased away all competition, winning the flag by 19 games over the A's and sweeping the Pirates in the World Series. Ruth was not eligible for the Most Valuable Player Award, because he had won it before, so it went to Gehrig. In 1928, they tied for the RBI lead with 142 and put on quite a show in the World Series. Despite being walked six times, Gehrig hit .545 and slugged a stunning 1.727.

On June 3, 1932, Gehrig became the first American Leaguer to hit four home runs in a game. After Gehrig's third homer to right field in a game against Philadelphia, an upset Connie Mack removed pitcher George Earnshaw and demanded that Earnshaw stay with him to watch reliever Roy Mahaffey pitch to Gehrig. Gehrig's fourth homer was to left field, and only a great catch by Al Simmons kept Gehrig from hitting his fifth homer of the day.
Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934, with a .363 average, 49 homers, and 165 RBIs, and was chosen Most Valuable player in both 1927 and 1936. Despite his towering size, Gehrig stole home 15 times in his career, and he batted .361 in 34 World Series games with 10 homers, eight doubles, and 35 RBIs. He also holds the record for career grand slams at 23, he hit 73 three-run homers, and he hit 166 two-run shots, giving him the highest average of RBIs per homer of any player with more than 300 home runs.

Ruth's dominance as a power hitter was slipping, and Gehrig was taking his place. The Yanks missed the post-season three years in a row (1933-35). During an off-season barnstorming trip to Japan, the civil relationship between the two slugging stars boiled over, apparently over a comment Mrs. Gehrig made about how Ruth's daughter dressed. Ruth got word to Gehrig that he never wanted to speak to him again off the field, and the two never traded words until "Lou Gehrig Day" six years later.

In 1936, Gehrig led the American League in home runs, on-base, and slugging percentages, as the Yankees recaptured the title. For the next two years, DiMaggio and Gehrig would dominate the league the way Gehrig and Ruth had, and the Yankees began a four-season dynasty that included winning four World Series and losing only three games out of 19. Gehrig led the league in home runs and runs scored in 1936. In 1937, DiMaggio did the same.

In 1938, Gehrig fell below .300 for the first time since 1925, and it was clear that there was something wrong. He lacked his usual strength. Pitches he would have hit for home runs were only flyouts. Doctors diagnosed a gall bladder problem, and they put him on a bland diet, which only made him weaker. Wes Ferrell noticed that on the golf course, instead of wearing golf cleats, Gehrig was wearing tennis shoes and was sliding his feet along the ground. Ferrell was frightened. When asked if he would remove Gehrig from the lineup, Manager Joe McCarthy said, "That's Lou's decision."

Gehrig played the first eight games of the 1939 season, but he managed only four hits. On a ball hit back to pitcher Johnny Murphy, Gehrig had trouble getting to first in time for the throw. When he returned to the dugout, his teammates complimented him on the "good play." Gehrig knew when his fellow Yankees had to congratulate him for stumbling into an average catch it was time to leave. He took himself out of the game.
The next day, as Yankee captain, he took the lineup card to the umpires, as usual, but his name was not on the roster. Babe Dahlgren was stationed at first. The game announcer intoned, "Ladies and gentlemen, Lou Gehrig's consecutive streak of 2,130 games played has ended."

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed Gehrig as having a very rare form of degenerative disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There was no chance he would ever play baseball again.

New York writer Paul Gallico suggested the team have a recognition day to honor Gehrig on July 4, 1939. With more than 62,000 fans in attendance, Gehrig spoke his immortal words of thanks. (Note that the order of the sentences was changed for the movies and most history books.)

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that’s the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

At the close of Gehrig's speech, Babe Ruth walked up, put his arm around his former teammate and spoke in his ear the first words they had shared since 1934.
Gehrig was elected to the Hall of Fame that December. He worked on youth projects for New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia until he was unable to walk. He died in 1941, at age 38.

Name: Henry Louis Gehrig
Nickname: The Iron Horse
Born: June 19, 1903 New York,Ny.
Died: June 2, 1941 Riverdale,Ny.