Lou Gehrig
"The Iron Horse"
Lou Gehrig's legendary accomplishments on the baseball diamond include a .340 lifetime batting average, the 15th highest in baseball history. He collected more th an 400 total bases in five different seasons; a major league record. Only 16 players have achieved that level of power in a single season, Babe Ruth did it twice and Chuck Klein three times. Gehrig is one of only ten players with more with than 100 extra base hits in a single season, and only he and Chuck Klein did it in two different years.
Lou Gehrig hit 23 career grand slam home runs, a major league record, he hit 73 three-run homers and 166 two-run homers, giving him the highest average of RBI's per home run of anybody in history with more than 300 HR's. On June 3, 1932, Gehrig hit four home runs in a single game becoming the first American League player to accomplish this feat.
Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 with a .363 batting average, hit 49 HR's with 165 RBI's. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in 1927 and in 1936. In the 1920's, a player could only win the Most Valuable Player Award once in his career. The award was changed in 1932 to allow a player to win it as often as he could. Either Gehrig or Babe Ruth would have won the MVP award every year in the 1920's and early 1930's as they were the greatest run producers baseball has ever known. Lou Gehrig was a compulsive worker with a record of 2,130 straight games played, and he proudly played his whole career with the New York Yankees. He played every game for more than 13 seasons, despite a broken thumb, painful back spasms, and a broken toe. X-rays taken late in his career, showed Gehrig's hands had 17 different fractures that had healed while he continued to play.
Gehrig is the only player who can stand comparison with his spectacular teammate, Babe Ruth. Batting back-to-back in the Yankee lineup, Ruth batting ahead of Gehrig were the most fearsome combination in history. Lou Gehrig's RBI's totals catch one's eye first, next his great run scoring makes a compelling statistic to rank him as the game's greatest total runs producer in baseball's history.
In his 13 full seasons, Lou Gehrig averaged 147 RBI's a year, from 1926 thru 1938. No other player was able to even reach the 147 RBI mark until George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds did so in 1977. In 1927, Gehrig had 175 RBI's, in 1930 he had 174 RBI's and in 1931 his 184 RBI's are the highest total in American League History. Gehrig drove in over 150 runs in a season seven times, over 170 three times.
This great run producer scored on average 138.8 runs per season in his 13 years. In 1927, Gehrig scored 149 runs, in 1931 he scored 163 runs and in 1936 he scored an incredible 167 runs. Only in his last season did he score less than 120 runs and in that year he scored 115 times.
Lou Gehrig, American Legend, "The Pride of the Yankees," a player of incomparable slugging feats, a man of quiet modesty, holds the major league record with Ruth and Foxx with 13 years of driving in over 100 runs. Gehrig's 13 years being consecutive. He led the league in home runs three times and in RBI's five different times. He also scored over 100 runs in 13 consecutive seasons.
First baseman, Lou Gehrig followed Babe Ruth in the batting order and was his principal rival as a slugger. As some indication of the way these two players dominated the slugging statistics during the late 1920's, consider these facts: in 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs and Gehrig belted 47, the man who finished third hit only 18. The combined home run total of Ruth and Gehrig was almost twice as great as that of any other 1927 team.
In 1930, Gehrig lined 220 hits, batted .379, 42 doubles, 17 triples, 41 HR's, that's 100 extra base hits. He scored 143 runs and had 174 RBI's. His slugging average of .721 still ranks in the top ten for one season's play.
Lou Gehrig batting statistics rank him in the top five of all-time hitters. In eight different years he got 200 hits or more in a season. Gehrig career batting average was .340. He struck out on average less than 50 times a year. He batted over .370 in three different seasons, his high mark was .379 in 1930.
In 1934, Lou Gehrig batted .363, hit 49 homers, with 165 RBI's, walked 109 times and only struck out 31 times. This quote is from an old newspaper clipping in 1935: "Gehrig is not a pronounced pull hitter; as he hits "screamers" in all directions".
Keep in mind, Gehrig only played 13 full seasons. He hit 20 triples in 1926, he slugged ten or more triples in eight different years. Gehrig was considered a good base runner, he stole home 15 times along with 102 lifetime stolen bases. His career fielding average was a high .991 and he was considered one of the better fielding first baseman of his era. In World Series play, Gehrig was devastating, with a .361 batting mark. He slugged 10 home runs, drove in 35 runs in 34 World Series Games.
On May 1, 1939, Gehrig removed himself from the starting lineup after playing in 2,130 consecutive games. Baffled and frustrated by his body's inability to perform simple tasks, he check into Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. His illness was diagnosed as amyotropic lateral sclerosis, a disease which destroys a person's muscles - later named Lou Gehrig's Disease. On July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium was overflowed to honor this great person and ballplayer. Two years later, Gehrig died at the age of 37.
Lou Gehrig career: played 2,164 games (2,130 in a row); batted 8,001 times, hit 534 D, 163 T, 493 HR's, scored an incredible 1888 runs with 1995 RBI's, he walked over 1500 times and only fanned 790 times. Gehrig's lifetime batting average .340 including 2721 hits.
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