biography
| name: |
Gehrig, (Henry) Lou(is)
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| |
originally Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig, nickname the Iron Horse
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pronunciation:
[gerig]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1903–41)
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| biography:
| Baseball player, born in New York City, USA. Baseball's ‘iron horse’, the left-handed first baseman played in a major league record 2130 consecutive games during his 17-year career with the New York Yankees (1923–39) led by Babe Ruth. Twice named the American League Most Valuable Player (1927, 1936), he posted a ·340 lifetime batting average and slammed 493 career home runs (including 23 grand slams, a major league record). His career and incredible games-played streak came to an end when he was afflicted with the incurable disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as ‘Lou Gehrig's Disease’). His emotional farewell to baseball (1939), in which he proclaimed himself ‘the luckiest man on the face of this earth’ was powerfully portrayed in the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper. In 1939 he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. |
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