Tag: Lou Gehrig

This day in baseball: Gil Hodges hits four home runs

August 31, 2026

In a game against the Boston Braves on August 31, 1950, Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges hit four home runs in front of a crowd of 14,226 fans. Hodges joined Lou Gehrig as only the second player since 1900 to hit four home runs in a game without the benefit of extra innings, and he hit them against four different pitchers, with the first coming off Warren Spahn. Hodges also had seventeen total bases in the game, tying him for third-most in Major League history.

Gil Hodges, c. 1949 (Baseball Digest / public domain)

This day in baseball: Commissioner Landis dies

November 25, 2025

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died on November 25, 1944 at Chicago’s St. Luke’s Hospital, just five days after his 78th birthday. Two weeks after his death, Landis was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee vote. This made him just the second person to have the five-year waiting period waived, after Lou Gehrig. 

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1921 (public domain / National Baseball Hall of Fame)

This day in baseball: Standing ovation for Gehrig

June 28, 2023

On June 28, 1939, Yankees captain Lou Gehrig brought the lineup card out to the umpires for the second game of a double header at Shibe Park and received a standing ovation from the crowd. Gehrig’s last game had been on April 30th of that year. Making a rare journey out of the dugout, A’s manager Connie Mack joined the group a home plate to shake Gehrig’s hand.

Portrait of New York Yankees first baseman, Lou Gehrig (1903 – 1941), seated with three baseball bats over his shoulder, circa 1930s. (Photo by Pictorial Parade/Getty Images)

This day in baseball: Yankees acquire Babe Dahlgren

February 17, 2023

On February 17, 1937, the New York Yankees purchased the contract of Babe Dahlgren from the Boston Red Sox. Dahlgren would go on to replace Lou Gehrig in the Yankees lineup at the end of the Iron Horse’s consecutive game streak in 1939. During his four-year tenure with the Bronx Bombers, Dahlgren would compile a .248 batting average in 1,143 at-bats before being bought by the Boston Braves.

Babe Dahlgren, 1940 (public domain)

“1927 Yankees,” by Robert L. Harrison

December 12, 2022

The 1927 New York Yankees featured the renowned Murderer’s Row, which included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earle Combs, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. The team won 110 games that year, and 1927 also happened to be the season when Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs.

This piece by Robert L. Harrison was first published in 1999.

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Gather ’round you fans of baseball
you lovers of season past,
let me take you back to the greatest team
that ever played on grass.

Guided by Miller Huggins
known as “murderer’s row,”
never was such a string of pearls
so feared this side of Hell.

Greedy was this awesome bunch
with Ruth and Gehrig leading the punch,
and Hoyt and Moore on the mound
shooting all the batters down.

Gasping crowds assemble
like sinners in a tent,
watching all the other teams
trying to repent.

God blessed those boys of summer
those pin-striped renegades,
with a winning passion
while others saw only the haze.

Gathering in the rosebuds
by playing excellent ball,
called the “five o’clock lightning”
taking the pennant in the fall.

Gone were any pretenders to the throne
no on stood wherever these Yankees roamed,
twenty-five men made up this team
and all had a year better than their dreams.

Quote of the day

June 28, 2022

Hell, better hitters than them couldn’t hit me. Why should they’ve been any different?

~Jackie Mitchell, on striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig

Woman Pitcher Jackie Mitchell
Jackie Mitchell, 1931 (Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

Quote of the day

April 29, 2021

Baseball isn’t just the stats. As much as anything else, baseball is the style of Willie Mays, or the determination of Hank Aaron, or the endurance of a Mickey Mantle, the discipline of Carl Yastrzemski, the drive of Eddie Mathews, the reliability of a (Al) Kaline or a (Joe) Morgan, the grace of a (Joe) DiMaggio, the kindness of a Harmon Killebrew, and the class of Stan Musial, the courage of a Jackie Robinson, or the heroism of Lou Gehrig. My hope for the game is that these qualities will never be lost.

~George W. Bush

George W Bush - Forbes - Getty Images
Forbes/Getty Images