TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

May 2, 1939, Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games comes to an end. An ailing Gehrig removes himself from the lineup against Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium, telling manager Joe McCarthy that he cannot play because of continuing weakness and it is for the good of the team. Doctors will later diagnose Gehrig with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, later to be called Gehrig's Disease, a fatal disease that affects the muscles. Gehrig will never play again.

On the last day of April, 1939, in New York, 601,484 people went through the turnstiles during the opening of the World's Fair as President Roosevelt opened the exhibition. Across town, only 23,712 were at Yankee Stadium as the Washington Senators beat New York 3-2. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .143. No one, not even Gehrig, knew it would be his final game. The Yankees were off the following day, gathering at Grand Central Terminal for the train ride to Detroit.

While Gehrig had started the season in a 4-for-28 slump, the talk around the team was of Joe DiMaggio. The 24-year-old outfielder had torn muscles in his right ankle during Saturday's game and was taken, in a wheelchair, from his apartment in the Hotel New Yorker to St. Elizabeth Hospital, near the site of the Yankees' original ballpark. Despite Gehrig's slump, Yankee manager Joe McCarthy didn't expect Gehrig to take himself out of the lineup Tuesday. McCarthy flew to Detroit from Buffalo and saw Gehrig in the lobby of the Book Cadillac Hotel.

"Joe, I'd like to talk to you," Gehrig said, according to Arthur E. Patterson's account in the New York Herald Tribune. "Sure thing, Lou. C'mon around the corner here and sit down," McCarthy said. "Joe, I'm not helping this team any," Gehrig said. "I know I look terrible out there. This string of mine doesn't mean a thing to me. It isn't fair to the boys for me to stay in there. Joe, I want you to take me out of the lineup today."

Gehrig's streak had begun June 1, 1925, when he pinch-hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanniger. Gehrig replaced Wally Pipp at first the following day and went on to smash Everett Scott's record of 1,307 consecutive games played, a streak that ended in 1924. Gehrig wound up with a career average of .340, 493 homers and 1,976 RBIs. He still holds major league records for consecutive seasons playing all of his team's games (13), career grand slams (23), seasons with 400 total bases (5), and American League records for RBIs in a season (184) and seasons scoring 100 or more runs (13).Gehrig's average had dropped to .295 in 1938 from .354 the previous season. In a July 1938 issue of The Sporting News, Dan Daniel wrote: "Gehrig has been in a long and seemingly hopeless slump. We hope he can rally. But he just can't keep going consistently once he does right himself. It is my conviction that

Gehrig is a very tired man. "Gehrig had tears in his eyes when he took the lineup card out with Babe Dahlgren's name on it at first base. At 2,130, the streak had come to an end. "The signs of his approaching fadeout were unmistakable this spring at St. Petersburg, Fla.," James F. Dawson wrote in The New York Times.

"I decided last Sunday night on this move," Gehrig said that day. "I haven't been a bit of good to the team since the season started. It would not be fair to the boys, to Joe or to the baseball public for me to try going on. In fact, it would not be fair to myself, and I'm the last consideration.

"It's tough to see your mates on base, have a chance to win a ballgame and not be able to do anything about it. McCarthy has been swell about it all the time. He'd let me go until the cows came home, he is that considerate of my feelings, but I knew in Sunday's game that I should get out of there."I went up there four times with men on base. Once there were two there. A hit would have won the ballgame for the Yankees, but I missed, leaving five stranded, and the Yankees lost. Maybe a rest will do me some good. Maybe it won't. Who knows? Who can tell? I'm just hoping.”

It wasn't known yet that Gehrig was suffering from amytrophic lateral sclerosis, would never play in another major league game, and would die June 2, 1941. By July 4, 1939, two months after he came out of the lineup, Gehrig's illness had been diagnosed and he was honored at Yankee Stadium with Lou Gehrig Day.

"Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth," he said in his famous speech.

At first, Gehrig's 1938 slump was attributed to lumbago, then to a gall bladder condition."I just can't understand," Gehrig said the day after the streak ended. "I am not sick. The stomach complaint which was revealed last year in three separate examinations I underwent has been cleared up by observance of a strict diet. My eye is sharp, yet I was not swinging as of old. I reduced the weight of my bat from 36 to 33 ounces, thinking a change might work to my advantage, but it didn't. I went back to the 36 and it was the same.

"Teammates thought Gehrig would be back quickly.

"They told me he was slumping when I first joined the club, but he's still here," DiMaggio said from his hospital bed. "He never was a spring hitter in my time with the club. I think he'll come around in this warm weather. It's a funny game. The breaks count a lot. Now, if Lou had held off another day, he might have got himself a couple of hits in that game. It's almost a cinch that with the Yankees winning by 22-2 that he would have done something, and it might have pulled himself out of that slump.

"DiMaggio, who also would play until he was 36, was amazed at Gehrig's feats. "Whatever Lou does in the future doesn't count," DiMaggio said. "He has had 14 great seasons -- and I mean great. If I could have only 10 of them, I'd be satisfied. Here's a fellow who has lasted 'til he's 36, and only this morning I was wondering -- and me 24 -- how long I'll last. Say, if I could go 10 more years, 'til I'm 34, I'd be glad to call it a career."

When Gehrig came out of the lineup, it was front-page news in the afternoon papers, alongside stories of Adolf Hitler offering a non-aggression pact to Scandinavian and Baltic countries. Columnists immediately filled their stories with praise.

"Gifted with no flair whatever for the spectacular, except as it might be produced by the solid crash of bat against ball at some tense moment, lost in the honey days of a ballplayer's career in the white glare of the great spotlight that followed Babe Ruth, he nevertheless more than packed his share of the load," Bill Corum wrote in the Journal-American.

"So they unhitched the Iron Horse from the old wagon, but Marse Joe McCarthy didn't order him to be taken behind the barn and destroyed," John Kieran wrote in The New York Times.

Even back then, they weren't so sure the consecutive games record would last forever. But they thought it would last a long time." Mighty few major league ballplayers are going to play in 2,130 baseball games without missing one," Corum wrote." But his greatest record doesn't show in the book," Kieran wrote. "It was the absolute reliability of Henry Louis Gehrig. He could be counted upon. He was there every day at the ballpark bending his back and ready to break his neck to win for his side. He was there day after day and year after year. He never sulked or whined or went into a pot or a huff. He was the answer to a manager's dream."

Features in over 16 games broadcasted!

Hs interview vault includes:

13+ highlights and interviews

May 2, 1909 -- Honus Wagner steals his way around the bases in the 1st inning in the nightcap of a twin bill against Chicago at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park. The Flying Dutchman's trio of thefts, three additional stolen bases, two walks, a batter hit by a pitch, two errors, and two hits all add up to a five-run first frame in the Bucs' eventual 6-0 victory and a sweep the twin bill. It is the fourth time he steals second base, third and home in the same inning, a National League record.

May 2, 1947 -- At Cleveland Stadium, Bob Feller fires his second one-hitter in 10 days, stopping the Boston Red Sox, 2 - 0, while striking out 10. Johnny Pesky has the only hit for Boston. Joe Gordon's home run off Dave Ferriss is the only run Feller needs.

May 2, 1954, Now you know why they call Stan Musial Stan the Man. No other hitter in major league history ever hit five home runs in one day. Only nine days ago Musial was bumping along at .250. gripped by the same slump that tortured him| last spring. Now he is hitting .400 with eight homers and seven doubles among his 24 hits. The $80,000-: salaried St Louis Cardinal outfielder leads the majors with 21 runs batted in and shares the home run lead with Chicago’s Hank Bauer.

May 2, 1964, At Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, the visiting Minnesota Twins hit four consecutive home runs in one inning. Tony Oliva (his second of the game), Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Harmon Killebrew (his second of the game, he hit a go-ahead home run in 9th) go deep in the 11th inning against A's pitchers Dan Pfister (3) and Vern Handrahan (1) in a 7-3 win over the Kansas City A’s. The Twins become only the third team in major league history to hit four consecutive home runs in an inning. The A's will surrender 220 round-trippers, breaking the big league mark of 199 established by the team's pitching staff last season.

May 2, 1972, the long holdout of Oakland A’s pitching star Vida Blue comes to an end. Blue, who won the both the American League MVP and Cy Young awards in 1971, agrees to sign a contract for $63,000, after balking at owner Charlie Finley’s previous offers. Perhaps affected by the long layoff, the A's 22 year-old southpaw will post a 6-10 record, failing to make Oakland's postseason starting rotation.

May 2, 1987 -- After having missed spring training and the first month of the season because of collusion, Tim Raines signs a $5 Million Dollar contract on May 1st and in his return to the Montreal Expos outfielder Raines goes 4 for 5, including a starting a rally in the 9th with the Expos down 6-4 by beating out an infield hit, he then caps it off with a 10th-inning grand slam, in an 11 - 7 win over the New York Mets.

Members click here or Start your free 7-day trial

TRIVIA

TRIVIA: Who got the first ever Major League All-Star Game hit?

Hint: #1 His eyesight varied so much day-to-day that he kept three different pairs of eyeglasses at all times.

Hint: #2 He was the first to record six extra-base hits in a doubleheader.

IF you think you know the answer and bonus points for how many respond with details and if you are right I will give you a shut out! No Googling!

Know someone who loves baseball like you do? Earn rewards by sharing the Rewind!

 ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA

YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA:  

JOIN CLASSIC BASEBALL BROADCASTS TODAY

"Every story in today's newsletter has a broadcast behind it. They're all in the archive, exactly as they sounded on the radio the day they happened. Start your free 7-day trial and hear them tonight."

Get the FREE 7 day trial!