THE IRON HORSE
Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak ended May 2, 1939. He never played another major league game.
Just over a month later, on Gehrig’s 36th birthday, it was announced that he had a rare, incurable disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Two days later, the Yankees announced his retirement from baseball. Many diseases, such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, are named for the scientists who identified them. Only Lou Gehrig’s Disease is named for a victim.
In a story published July 30, 1939, Daily News sportswriter Hy Turkin wrote of Gehrig’s speech, “If there were any angels perched on the fleecy clouds over Yankee Stadium on the sunblessed afternoon of July 4, 1939, they must have wept… That speech, objectively, was one of the greatest in history.” The address is often called the "Luckiest Man" speech (taking a phrase Gehrig used within to describe himself) and as Gehrig's farewell address. Less than two years after Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, 17 days shy of his 38th birthday, Gehrig died.
