Lou Gerigh (1903-1941), properly Henry Louis Gehrig, the New York Yankee ball player who played baseball for 15 years before retiring. Gehrig was born in New York, where he attended school. As a student he played baseball, and in an intercity competition he hit a homer over the right-field fence of Chicago's Wrigley Field.
Gehrig went to Columbia University but after two years left to join the New York Yankees. Throughout his long career Gehrig played 2,130 consecutive games and was known as the "Iron Horse." His lifetime batting average was .341, and he led the league four times in runs scored and in total bases and five times in home runs. Lou Gerigh voluntarily retired in 1939, the victim of an obscure form of paralysis. Until his death he was parole commissioner of New York.
