What was lou gehrig known for

His parents, Christina Fack and Heinrich Gehrig, were German immigrants who lived in the lower-middle-class section of Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood in the early s.

Henry Louis Heinrich Ludwig , the second of four children, was the only one who survived infancy. He weighed an astounding 14 pounds at birth and grew quickly into a strong boy. The Gehrig family was poor. Heinrich Gehrig was an art-metal mechanic who worked sporadically due to drinking and ill health. Christina Gehrig took jobs as a maid, launderer, cook, and baker. From a young age, Henry helped his mother deliver laundry.

He developed a close, lifelong attachment to her. Gehrig's father took him to gymnasiums to work on building up his muscles. Henry Louis was a remarkable young athlete. At age 11, he swam across the Hudson River. But he spent as much time working as studying. When he was 16, he got a summer job with the Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers, New York, and was the company team's left-handed pitcher. Gehrig hit a ninth-inning grand slam to ice a victory and garner headlines in New York.

Columbia University recruited Gehrig on a football scholarship. Before enrolling in , Gehrig tried out for legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw, who reprimanded him for missing a ground ball at first base and sent him to the Class A Hartford team, where he played 12 games. Gehrig didn't know that the professional play violated collegiate rules.

He was banned from Columbia sports for a year. Playing one season of baseball at scruffy South Field, he hit long home runs off the steps of the Low Library and the walls of the journalism building, while others landed on Broadway. He pitched, played first base and outfield, and hit.

Paul Krichell, a New York Yankees scout, signed him to a contract. Gehrig arrived at Yankee Stadium via subway, carrying his spikes and gloves in a newspaper.

He made an immediate impact by clouting long homers during batting practice. But he was returned to Hartford and played there for most of and , appearing in only 23 games with the Yankees in those two seasons. Gehrig stuck with the Yankees in On June 1, he pinch-hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger. On May 6, Wanninger had replaced Everett Scott in the lineup, ending Scott's record streak of 1, consecutive games played.

On June 2, a batting-practice pitcher from Princeton hit first baseman, Wally Pipp, before the game. Pipp went to the hospital with a concussion and Gehrig replaced him in the lineup.

Pipp never returned to his first-base job, and Gehrig went on to shatter Scott's mark by games. Gehrig batted fourth in the lineup, behind Ruth, and had a great career that was overshadowed by Ruth's fame and achievements. By the time Gehrig broke in, Ruth was already the nation's biggest sports star. Ruth was a flamboyant character with a voracious appetite for publicity, food, drink, and women.

Gehrig, in contrast, was quiet and called little attention to himself. He was a team player, dedicated to winning and unimpressed by personal achievements. Ruth's frequent holdouts for higher salaries bothered Gehrig, to whom "the game was almost holy, a religion," according to sportswriter Stanley Frank. Sportswriter Marshall Hunt described Gehrig as being "unspoiled, without the remotest hint of ego, vanity or conceit. The "bad break" was his recent diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS.

The progressive, degenerative disease affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. It impacts speech, as well as the ability to eat, move and breathe. Now, 80 years later, Major League Baseball is commemorating Lou Gehrig Day for the first time on June 2: the day Gehrig became a Yankees' regular in , and the day he died in at just 37 years old. The "Iron Horse". Read More. Gehrig was an unlikely American hero.

The son of poor immigrant parents, he was born in New York in It was at Columbia University in that Gehrig first discovered baseball. Spotted by a talent scout, he was later signed to the Yankees in Gehrig just missed out on an eighth such season in , when he racked up hits and walked 95 times.

No player has put up a season since Todd Helton back in In the season span from , Gehrig not only played in every single game, but also hit the following benchmarks in each season: A. Just three: Ty Cobb, Ruth and Bonds. And he's one of only four players during that time to win the MLB Triple Crown -- that's leading not just his league, but the Majors, in batting average, home runs and RBIs.

Gehrig did it in , when he batted. The other three to do it: Hornsby , Williams and Mickey Mantle Consider this: he had a career. In the postseason? He had a. Both of those are second-best among all players with or more career playoff plate appearances, trailing only Paul Molitor.

The Yankees won six of the seven World Series Gehrig played in. Gehrig recorded a 1. One sign of that?