Today in 1939, the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
It was also the day that Lou Gehrig, who would soon be part of that Hall of Fame, played in a baseball game for the last time… six weeks after his well-known last game.
Gehrig had been one of baseball’s biggest stars for more than a decade, leading the New York Yankees to championship after championship and famously playing in 2,130 consecutive games.
But in spring 1939, both he and the baseball world realized that his usual strength and skill were lacking.
On May 2, Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, ending his record consecutive games streak at 2,130.
And he started working with doctors to find out what was behind his sudden decline.
That would mark his last appearance with the team in official play, but the Iron Horse did take part in an exhibition game in Kansas City between the Yankees and one of its minor league teams.
Gehrig played for three innings; he played fine in the field and grounded out in his only at-bat before leaving the game for a substitute.
Afterward, he went to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he was diagnosed with ALS, or as it has often been called, Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
That ended Gehrig’s hopes of a comeback; he would only live for a few more years.
But after that exhibition, Gehrig did make one more appearance on a baseball field.
On July 4, he was on hand for Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium.
That’s where he famously told the crowd that despite the “bad break” he’d received, “today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
Today in 1977, a very unusual sight at County Stadium in Milwaukee.
Overnight, someone had broken into the clubhouse of the visiting Kansas City Royals and stolen 52 out of the team’s 60 jerseys, along with some baseball shoes, warmup jackets and other gear.
Because there was still a game to play, the Brewers loaned their opponents some of their away uniforms, a helpful but strange-looking move that was made even stranger because two Royals players had been Brewers players the previous season.
The actual Brewers defeated their Kansas City alter egos 4 to 0.
Hall of Fame opened the day of Lou Gehrig’s final game (Baseball Hall of Fame)
The Royals had to wear Brewers uniforms for a game 42 years ago Wednesday (Kansas City Star)
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Photo by Harris & Ewing – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division ID hec.22989, via Wikicommons
