He went hitless and grounded into two double plays on Opening Day after five games he had collected just one hit in 17 at-bats. While the Yankees went north to begin the regular season, Gehrig’s on-field play continued to go south. Upset over his late-season performance, Gehrig trained harder than ever through the winter and spring of 1939, and that made his debilitations at camp all the more frustrating. In the World Series, Gehrig collected just four singles with no runs batted in during the Yankees’ four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs it was by far his quietest Fall Classic performance. 300 for the first time since his rookie year. 218 over his last 19 games-forcing his final season average below. Gehrig had slumped at the end of the 1938 season, batting. He began falling down in the clubhouse for no apparent reason, and when Yankees players visited a golf tournament near camp, they noticed Gehrig walking about like an old man-meagerly sliding his feet forward, rather than lifting them upward like any other 35-year-old should. More alarming was what teammates saw of Gehrig off the field. All through the exhibition season, the action in Gehrig’s bat was startlingly gone on defense, his reflexes dramatically slowed. That, along with his broad-shouldered frame and unprecedented durability, earned him the nickname of the Iron Horse.īut in the spring of 1939, something was terribly wrong. 340 career batting average and 493 career home runs. Quiet and polite in nature, Gehrig let his bat do the talking, terrifying opposing pitchers with a. But despite those obstacles and the usual nicks and knacks that come with playing the game, Gehrig managed to appear in a record 2,123 consecutive box scores for the New York Yankees, dating back to June of 1925. Occasional back pain and a savage illness or two had attempted to thwart his everyday appearance in the lineup. It was the cruelest of ironies. Lou Gehrig had never missed a baseball game in 14 years.
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