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Henry Louis "Lou" or "Buster"〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Re-Discovering Lou Gehrig’s Lost Nickname )〕 Gehrig (Born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig; June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1923 through 1939. Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, a trait which earned him his nickname "The Iron Horse". He was an All-Star seven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once,〔() "Baseball-Almanac Statistics"〕 an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player twice,〔 and a member of six World Series champion teams. He had a career .340 batting average, .632 slugging average, and a .447 on base average. He hit 493 home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in (RBI). In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame〔 National Baseball Hall of Fame, Lou Gehrig () Retrieved May 7, 2015 〕 and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired. A native of New York City and attendee of Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees in 1923. He set several major league records during his career, including the most career grand slams (23) (since broken by Alex Rodriguez)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lou Gehrig Grand Slams )〕 and most consecutive games played (2,130), a record that stood for 56 years and was long considered unbreakable until surpassed by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ESPN Classic - Iron Man Ripken brought stability to shortstop )〕 Gehrig's streak ended in 1939 after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly referred to as ''Lou Gehrig's disease'' in North America. The disease forced him to retire at age 36 and was the cause of his death two years later. The pathos of his farewell from baseball was capped off by his iconic "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech at the original Yankee Stadium. Gehrig was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association in 1969,〔Frank Graham, ''Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.〕 and was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team chosen by fans in 1999. A monument in Gehrig's honor, originally dedicated by the Yankees in 1941, currently resides in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award is given annually to the MLB player best exhibiting his integrity and character. ==Early life== Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig was born at 309 East 94th Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, weighing almost at birth. He was the second of four children of German immigrants Heinrich and Christina Gehrig. His father was a sheet metal worker by trade but frequently unemployed due to alcoholism, and his mother was a maid, the main breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family. His two sisters died from whooping cough and measles at an early age; a brother also died in infancy.〔Eig: p. 7, 11.〕 Young Gehrig helped his mother with her work, doing tasks such as folding laundry and picking up supplies from the local stores.〔Eig: p. 9〕 In 1910, he lived with his parents at 2266 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights.〔1910; Census Place: Manhattan Ward 12, New York, New York; Roll T624_1026; Page: 26B; Enumeration District: 683; Image: 431.〕 In 1920, the family resided on 8th Avenue in Manhattan.〔1920;Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 11, New York, New York; Roll T625_1205; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 830; Image: 541.〕 His name was often anglicized to Henry Louis Gehrig and he was known as "Lou" so that he would not be confused with his identically named father, who was known as Henry. Gehrig first garnered national attention for his baseball ability while playing in a game at Cubs Park (now Wrigley Field) on June 26, 1920. His New York School of Commerce team was playing a team from Chicago's Lane Tech High School in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators. With his team leading 8–6 in the top of the ninth inning, Gehrig hit a grand slam completely out of the major league park, an unheard-of feat for a 17-year-old.〔 Gehrig attended PS 132 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, then went to Commerce High School, graduating in 1921.〔Robinson, ''Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time'', p. 44.〕 He then studied at Columbia University for two years, although he did not graduate.〔''World Book Encyclopedia'', Chicago: Field Enterprises, 1958, p. 2897.〕 Initially, he went to Columbia on a football scholarship, where he was preparing to pursue a degree in engineering. However, before his first semester, under the influence of New York Giants manager John McGraw, he was advised to play on a summer professional baseball team under a false name, Henry Lewis, despite the fact that it could jeopardize his collegiate sports eligibility. After a dozen games played for the Hartford Senators in the Eastern League, he was discovered and banned from collegiate sports his freshman year. In 1922, Gehrig returned to collegiate sports as a fullback for the Columbia Lions football program. Later, in 1923, he played first base and pitched for Columbia.〔 At Columbia, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. On April 18, 1923, the same day that Yankee Stadium opened for the first time and Babe Ruth inaugurated the new stadium with a home run, Columbia pitcher Gehrig struck out seventeen Williams College batters to set a team record, though Columbia lost the game. Only a handful of collegians were at South Field that day, but more significant was the presence of Yankee scout Paul Krichell, who had been trailing Gehrig for some time. It was not Gehrig’s pitching that particularly impressed him; rather, it was Gehrig’s powerful left-handed hitting. During the time Krichell observed him, Gehrig had hit some of the longest home runs ever seen on various Eastern campuses, including a home run on April 28 at Columbia's South Field, which landed at 116th Street and Broadway.〔Robinson, ''Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time'', pp. 58–59.〕 He signed a contract with the Yankees on April 30.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Five things you didn't know about Lou Gehrig )〕 He returned to minor-league Hartford to play parts of two seasons, 1923 and 1924, batting .344 and hitting 61 home runs in 193 games. It was the only time Gehrig had ever played any level of baseball—sandlot, high school, collegiate or pro—for a team based outside New York City. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lou Gehrig」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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