The Iron Man takes a seat...
Little did the world know that when Lou Gehrig played on April 30th that it would be his last game. Gehrig wasn't even sure until the Yankees rolled into Detroit for a series with the Tigers on May 2, 1939. With the consent of manager Joe McCarthy, Gehrig scratched himself from the lineup that day deciding to rest his aching muscles. The decline in his productivity had been on-going during the early part of the season and Lou realized he could no longer help his team, either at-bat or in the field...
For decidedly different reasons, Gehrig would become the new Wally Pipp who was benched in favor of Lou 15 years earlier. The new Lou Gehrig was Ellsworth "Babe" Dahlgren who had waited for this day for 3 years but we knew Gehrig and Dahlgren was "no Lou Gehrig". The Yankees would trade him after the 1940 season...
Lou Gehrig started the first game of his phenomenal 2,130 consecutive game streak that stopped that day in Detroit as a pinch hitter June 1, 1925. The next day he was at first base and stayed there through the streak, a record that would last for 56 years before being broken in 1995 by Cal Ripken Jr...
Gehrig's illness was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or as it is known today, Lou Gehrig's disease, in honor of the Yankee first baseman. It was then as it is now, incurable. After his moving 1939 farewell at Yankee Stadium, the disease would take Gehrig quickly and he would die in 1941...
More May 2 Memories...
1885] Good Housekeeping magazine is published...
1939] Lou Gehrig's streak ends (feature story)...
1941] The FCC agrees to let regular scheduling of television broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941 which signals the start of network television...
1949] Arthur Miller wins the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman"...
1957] Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis) dies at Bethesda Naval Hospital at 48...
1960] Ben E. King leaves the Drifters for a solo career after signing a deal with ATCO Records...
1964] Bill Hartack rides Northern Dancer to victory in the Kentucky Derby in 2 minutes flat and sets a record for fastest time for a horse in the Derby (Secretariat will latter shatter the record)...
1966] Ba-da, ba-da, da-da...The Mamas and Papas are #1 with "Monday, Monday"...
1972] J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for 48 years, dies at 77...
1974] The filming of "Jaws" begins on Martha's Vineyard, MA (next time you're on the Cape, take the boat over for a tour. They point out the area around that little bridge where filming actually took place)...
1976] "Welcome Back" (the theme song of "Welcome Back Kotter") by John Sebastian is #1...
1988] Reds manager Pete Rose is suspended for 30 days for pushing an umpire in a game (Pete Rose Jr. just got into a jam for passing steroids to minor leaguers and looks like he will do some time)...
1994] Nelson Mandela claims victory in South Africa's 1st democratic elections...
1997] Tony Blair at 44, becomes Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years...
1997] Donald Trump and Marla Maples say their "I don'ts" and separate...
1999] John Elway of the Denver Broncos calls it quits after 16 NFL seasons (Elway is in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame)...
2001] Over 40 fans are ejected in a Yankee-Twins game as former Twin Chuck Knoblauch visits his former city for the 1st time as plastic beer bottles and coins rain down on the field but Twins skipper Tom Kelly appeals to the crowd and a game that was almost forfeited resumes after a 12-minute delay (we should be thankful that the fans at Fenway didn't resort to that last night when Johnny Damon returned)...
2002] Seattle's Mike Cameron becomes the 13th major leaguer to hit 4 home runs in a game in a 15-4 Mariner's victory over the White Sox...
2003] The MLB player's association agrees to a 2-year experiment in which the winning league of the All-Star Game will have home-field advantage during the World Series (the 2 years are up but they're still doing it)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]
Oops...
Despite the above disclaimer, occasionally I do slip up (but at least I admit it). I ran an item in yesterday's timeline that needs to be corrected. I stated that Charlie Robertson pitched a perfect game in 1922 and that there wasn't another one for 46 years, not fact. Following that perfect game, Don Larsen pitched the first and only perfect game in World Series history for the Yankees against the Dodgers. Also, Jim Bunning, then with the Phillies, pitched the next perfect game against the Mets in 1964...
The definition of a perfect game is this: all 27 batters must be retired in order. That means no one walks, gets hit by a pitch or reaches base by error. In the history of baseball there have been 17 perfect games pitched...
Happy Birthday To...
1924] Theodore Bikel...
1936] Engelbert Humperdinck...
1945] Bianca Jagger...
1946] Lesley Gore...
1950] Foreigners' Lou Gramm...
1952] Christine Baranski...
1972] The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)...
1985] Gold winning Olympic figure skater Sarah Hughes...
[Today is the 122nd day of 2006 with 243 days left in the year and 27 days until Memorial Day]...
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