Lou Gehrig's famous streak began because a teammate had a headache
On June 2, 1925, Yankees manager Miller Huggins benched his slumping first baseman Wally Pipp, who had a headache, and started a young Lou Gehrig. Gehrig then played 2,130 games in a row, a record that stood for 56 years and earned him the nickname the Iron Horse.
Gehrig was born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig on June 19, 1903, in East Harlem, a nearly 14-pound baby and the second of four children of German immigrants. He was the only sibling to survive childhood, and spoke German until about five. His father, a sheet-metal worker, was often out of work. Gehrig drew national notice at 17 during a game at Chicago's Cubs Park before more than 10,000 fans, then studied engineering at Columbia on a football scholarship, though an early stint playing professionally under the name Henry Lewis briefly cost him his college eligibility.
Columbia days gave one neat coincidence. On April 18, 1923, the day Yankee Stadium opened with a Babe Ruth home run, Gehrig struck out 17 batters for Columbia, a team record, in a losing effort. He made his big-league debut as a pinch hitter at 19 that June. After a breakout in 1926, his 1927 season ranks among the greatest ever: a .373 average, 218 hits, 47 home runs and a then-record 175 runs batted in, all overshadowed by Ruth's 60 homers and the Murderers' Row lineup. He wore number 4 because he batted behind Ruth, who hit third.
The feats kept coming. On June 3, 1932 he became the first player of the 20th century to hit four home runs in one game, nearly adding a fifth. He passed Everett Scott's consecutive-games mark on August 17, 1933, reached 300 home runs on April 30, 1934, and won the Triple Crown that year. His 23 career grand slams stood as a record until Alex Rodriguez. The streak survived close calls, including a pitch to the head on April 23, 1933 that nearly knocked him out.
Illness ended it. Gehrig retired in 1939 at 36, and at an appreciation day on July 4 that year he told the Yankee Stadium crowd he considered himself the luckiest man alive on earth. He died of complications from ALS on June 2, 1941. Cal Ripken Jr. finally broke the streak in 1995.
Source: Lou Gehrig
