Lou Gehrig , New York Yankee first baseman, in 17 seasons, had a lifetime slugging percentage of .632, a record 23 grand slam home runs and 4 home runs in one game. With an amazing lifetime batting average of .340 and his 493 lifetime home runs and 4 home runs in one game, he never reached the $80,000 annual salary of Babe Ruth.
Gehrig's top salary was $39,000 per season and he never negotiated, it is said, and never had an agent. Lou simply accepted what was offered and he was grateful for it.
Lou was not a natural baseball player, his first organized sport was football, but his never ending practice sessions made him the greatest first baseman in baseball history.
During his career the Yankees won the American League pennant and the World Series 3 times.
Lou played with colds, fevers, lumbago, concussions and fractured bones while setting his iron man records, and he had at least 5 more productive seasons left in him when tradegy struck home.
It was on May 2, 1939 when Lou told Yankee manager, Joe McCarthy,to take him out of the game because he could not help the team anymore. Lou, himself, conceded that his once super athletic body could not function anymore.
Later into that last game , alone in the dugout, he wept and the streak ended at 2,130 consecutive games.
The disease that paralyzed him was diagnosed as amyothropic lateral sclerosis, and he became the victim of the incurable disease with 2 years to live.
Lou Gehrig never considered himself a hero, but his records included 6 all star games and most valuable player 4 times, with an all time World Series batting average of .361 and 10 home runs in 7 World Series, more than enough to have him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
In his farewell speech in Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, before a capacity crowd, there was not a dry eye,when he said,"when you have a Father and a Mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body---it's a blessing. When you have a Wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed---that's the finest I know. So I close in sayting that I may have had a tough break but I have an awful lot to live for".
