This Week In Yankees Baseball: A Monumental New York Yankees Record Is Set

Of all the monumental events in New York Yankees history, none is more monumental than Lou Gehrig‘s consecutive games streak. And it was on Aug. 17, 1933, that the Iron Horse initially set the record.

Any baseball fan can tell you that, but true Yankee fans know the rest of the story. That’s because what is often overlooked is that before Gehrig, the record was held by Everett Scott, who also had played for the Yankees.

Gehrig broke Scott’s record on Aug. 17 with game number 1,308. Of course, Gehrig would go on to play in 2,130 straight games, a record that stood for more than 50 years until the Orioles’ Cal Ripken eclipsed it.

Scott played for the Yankees from 1922 until 1925. He was a shortstop who led the American League in fielding percentage for seven straight years. He also had the honor of serving as a Yankee captain.

Gehrig’s streak marched on until he benched himself on May 2, 1939, because of the effects of ALS prevented him from meeting his own high performance standards. The effects of the disease had actually begun during the 1938 season. Doctors had a difficult time arriving at a diagnosis.

The Yankees acted quickly in honoring Gehrig. On July 4, 1939. A packed Yankee Stadium paid tribute to him on Lou Gehrig Day.  It was then that Gehrig spoke his unforgettable words, provided by Lou Gehrig.com:

"“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”"