DATE: 1975 TEAM: New York Yankees SUBJECTS: Lou Gehrig, Joe Tinker, Frank Chance, Harry Wright, Mel Ott, Christy Mathewson, Rogers Hornsby, Jimmy Foxx, Jimmy Collins, Chief Bender, Gabby Hartnett, Rabbit Maranville, Bill McKechnie, Amos Rusie, Eddie Collins, Elmer Flick, Connie Mack, Eppa Rixey, Roger Bresnahan, Buck Ewing, Ed Barrow, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, Clark Griffith ISSUER: TCMA APPROXIMATE SIZE: 3-5/8"x5-1/2" MARKS / STAMPING: Mixture of blank back, divided postcard, and stat + postcard back varieties. NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 23 COMMENTS / CONDITION: This is one of a large accumulation of vintage sports photographs, slides and negatives that we will be listing over the coming months. Wear on these, if any, is mostly confined to minor corner and edge wear, but see scans for further details including condition. We do not deal in stock images or modern reprints, and all scans shown are of the actual vintage photograph, slide or negative being sold. If you have any questions about a particular piece, please ask before the auction ends. BIO: Henry Louis Gehrig (The Iron Horse or Biscuit Pants) was born in New York, NY and died in 1941 in Riverdale, NY. He went to college at Columbia University. He played major league baseball from 1923 to 1939 as 1st baseman for the New York Yankees, appeared in the 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937 and 1938 World Series, was selected 7 times as an All-Star, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Popularly called "The Iron Horse" for his durability, Gehrig set several Major League records. His record for most career grand slams (23) still stands as of 2008. Gehrig was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association. Gehrig was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, chosen by fans in 1999. A native of New York City, he played for the New York Yankees until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now commonly referred to in the United States as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Over a 15-season span between 1925 and 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games. The streak ended when Gehrig became disabled with the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long believed to be one of baseball's few unbreakable records,[citation needed] stood for 56 years until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr. He won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in 1927 and 1936 and was a Triple Crown winner in 1934, leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. On May 2, the next game after a day off, Gehrig approached McCarthy before the game in Detroit against the Tigers and said, "I'm benching myself, Joe", telling the Yankees' skipper that he was doing so "for the good of the team". McCarthy acquiesced and put Ellsworth "Babe" Dahlgren in at first base, and also said that whenever Gehrig wanted to play again, the position was his. Gehrig himself took the lineup card out to the shocked umpires before the game, ending the 14-year stamina streak. Before the game began, the Briggs Stadium announcer told the fans, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time Lou Gehrig's name will not appear on the Yankee lineup in 2,130 consecutive games." The Detroit Tigers fans gave Gehrig a standing ovation while he sat on the bench with tears in his eyes. Gehrig stayed with the Yankees as team captain for a few more weeks, but he never played baseball again. On June 21, the New York Yankees announced Gehrig's retirement and proclaimed July 4, 1939, "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium. Between games of the Independence Day doubleheader against the Washington Senators, the poignant ceremonies were held on the diamond. In its coverage the following day, The New York Times said it was "Perhaps as colorful and dramatic a pageant as ever was enacted on a baseball field [as] 61,808 fans thundered a hail and farewell". Dignitaries extolled the dying slugger and the members of the 1927 Yankees World Championship team, known as "Murderer's Row", attended the ceremonies. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Gehrig "the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship" and Postmaster General James Farley concluded his speech by predicting, "For generations to come, boys who play baseball will point with pride to your record." Yankees Manager Joe McCarthy, struggling to control his emotions, then spoke of Lou Gehrig, with whom there was a close, almost father and son-like bond. After describing Gehrig as "the finest example of a ballplayer, sportsman, and citizen that baseball has ever known", McCarthy could stand it no longer. Turning tearfully to Gehrig, the manager said, "Lou, what else can I say except that it was a sad day in the life of everybody who knew you when you came into my hotel room that day in Detroit and told me you were quitting as a ballplayer because you felt yourself a hindrance to the team. My God, man, you were never that." The Yankees retired Gehrig's uniform number "4", making him the first player in Major League Baseball history to be accorded that honor. Gehrig was given many gifts, commemorative plaques, and trophies. Some came from VIPs; others came from the stadium's groundskeepers and janitorial staff. Footage of the ceremonies shows Gehrig being handed various gifts, and immediately setting them down on the ground, because he no longer had the arm strength to hold them. The Yankees gave him a silver trophy with their signatures engraved on it. Inscribed on the front was a special poem written by The New York Times writer John Kieran. The trophy cost only about $5, but it became one of Gehrig's most prized possessions. It is currently on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. After the presentations and remarks by Babe Ruth, Gehrig addressed the crowd: "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 the 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 that 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. Thank you." The crowd stood and applauded for almost two minutes. Gehrig was visibly shaken as he stepped away from the microphone, and wiped the tears away from his face with his handkerchief. Babe Ruth came over and hugged him as a band played "I Love You Truly" and the crowd chanted "We love you, Lou". The New York Times account the following day called it "one of the most touching scenes ever witnessed on a ball field", that made even hard-boiled reporters "swallow hard". In December 1939, Lou Gehrig was elected unanimously to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in a special election by the Baseball Writers Association, waiving the waiting period normally required after a ballplayer's retirement. At age 36, he was the youngest player to be so honored. On June 2, 1941, at 10:10 p.m., sixteen years to the day after he replaced Wally Pipp at first base, Henry Louis Gehrig died at his home at 5204 Delafield Avenue, in the Fieldston section of the Bronx, New York. Upon hearing the news, Babe Ruth and his wife Claire went to the Gehrig house to console Eleanor. Mayor LaGuardia ordered flags in New York to be flown at half-staff, and Major League ballparks around the nation did likewise. Joseph Bert Tinker was born in Muscotah, KS and died in 1948 in Orlando, FL. He went to college at University of Tennessee. He played major league baseball from 1902 to 1916 as shortstop for the Chicago Orphans, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Chi-Feds, appeared in the 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910 World Series, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Tinker also managed the 1913 Cincinnati Reds, the 1914-15 Chicago Chi-Feds, and the 1916 Chicago Cubs. Tinker is perhaps best known as the shortstop in the "Tinker to Evers to Chance" double play combination immortalized in the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" by New York newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams. Yet on September 14, 1905, he and Evers ended up in a fistfight on the field because Evers took a cab and left his teammates behind in the hotel lobby. They didn't speak to one another for 33 years until they were both asked to help broadcast the 1938 World Series (Cubs versus Yankees) and tearfully reunited. Frank Leroy Chance (Husk or The Peerless Leader) was born in Fresno, CA and died in 1924 in Los Angeles, CA. He played major league baseball from 1898 to 1914 as catcher and 1st baseman for the Chicago Orphans, Chicago Cubs, and the New York Yankees, appeared in the 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910 World Series, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Chance also managed the 1905-12 Chicago Cubs, the 1913-14 New York Yankees, and the 1923 Boston Red Sox. He earned the nickname "the Fearless Leader" by leading the Chicago Cubs to four National League championships in the span of five years (1906-1910). Clark Calvin Griffith (The Old Fox) was born in Clear Creek, MO and died in 1955 in Washington, DC. He played major league baseball for a single season in 1891 as pitcher for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Reds, Chicago Colts, Chicago Orphans, Chicago White Sox, New York Highlanders, Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Senators, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Griffith managed the 1901-02 Chicago White Sox, 1903-08 New York Highlanders, the 1909-11 Cincinnati Reds, and the 1912-20 Washington Senators. He was the uncle of Sherry Robinson. SKU: L13909
Item: L13909
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