Henry Louis Gehrig, also known as Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig, was an American professional baseball first baseman who played seventeen 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 the nickname "the Iron Horse". He is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Gehrig 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 (RBIs). He is also one of eighteen players to hit four home runs in a single game. In 1939, Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame[4] and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired by a team when his number 4 was retired by the Yankees.
A native of New York City and a student at Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees on April 29, 1923. 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 fifty-six years and was long considered unbreakable until it was surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995. 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 in the field had become hampered by an undiagnosed ailment; it was subsequently confirmed to be amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable neuromuscular illness now commonly referred to in the United States as "Lou Gehrig's disease".
Gehrig never played again and retired in early 1939 at age 36. Two weeks later, the ball club held a Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day on July 4, 1939, at the close of which he delivered his speech declaring himself the "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth." at Yankee Stadium. Two years later, Gehrig died of complications from ALS. 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. A monument in Gehrig's honor, originally dedicated by the Yankees in 1941, currently resides in Monument Park at the new Yankee Stadium. The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award is given annually to the MLB player who best exhibits Gehrig's integrity and character.
