On April 29, 1939, Lou Gehrig stepped into the box for the 2,129th consecutive game. It was the fourth inning against the Washington Senators with 11,473 fans scattered throughout Yankee Stadium. The Iron Horse was breaking down and he didn’t know why. He was now batting fifth in the order, his average sat at .143, and Joe DiMaggio was the superstar on the team.
Gehrig stood in against Ken Chase for his second at bat after working a walk in the second inning, and hit a single. That was it. No standing ovation, no acknowledgment by the announcers, no grand scene. He simply stood on first base having just collected his 2,721st and final hit.
The next day, he went 0-4 and the whispers began to swirl. Many thought he should be benched, and there were rumors of disgruntled teammates doubting they could win with him hitting so poorly. The team traveled to Detroit, and Gehrig made the call to bench himself. This would end his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, and meant that the lone single he hit in a seemingly meaningless April game would be his last.
His 2,721 hits stood as the Yankees record for 70 years until another 35-year-old captain surpassed his mark, also with a single. On a rainy September night in 2009, Derek Jeter’s 2,722nd hit skipped passed the bag that Gehrig manned for 17 years and he passed the Iron Horse.
“I can’t think of anything else that stands out more so, and I say that because of the person that I was able to pass,” Jeter said. “Lou Gehrig, being a former captain and what he stood for, you mention his name to any baseball fan around the country, it means a lot.”
