“There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all.”

Henry Louis Gehrig (1903–41)
Athlete
Columbia College 1921–1923

As first baseman (1925–39) for the New York Yankees, Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive league games (a record that would stand for more than fifty years), batted .361 in seven World Series, and broke many other major-league records. Known as the Iron Horse for his remarkable endurance, Gehrig was a four-time Most Valuable Player, earned a lifetime batting average of .340, and hit 493 home runs, including 23 grand slams, a record that still stands today. In 1939, stricken by a rare form of paralysis now widely known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, he retired from the Yankees with a short, graceful speech that has been called the Gettysburg Address of baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in a special election in 1939, and was the first baseball player ever to have his uniform number retired.