When the New York Yankees took the field against the Tigers at Briggs Stadium on May 2, 1939, fans witnessed something that had not been seen in 16 years--Lou Gehrig sitting on the bench.
Gehrig, who hit 29 home runs with a .932 OPS during a relatively "down" 1938 season by his standards, began the 1939 season in a slump brought on by the early effects of ALS. The disease would ultimately take his life and bear his name.
In the Yankees first eight games, Gehrig his just .143 with a single RBI. So on the morning of May 2 he met with manager Joe McCarthy at Book-Cadillac Hotel, where the Yankees stayed when in Detroit, and requested to sit out the day's game.
When the two teams took the field that afternoon, Gehrig delivered a line-up card to the umpire that did not include his name. Babe Dahlgren played first base for the Yankees, thus ending Gehrig's record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played dating back to 1923.
Dahlgren played well, hitting a home run and double, as the Yankees crushed the Tigers 22-2. The Tigers used five pitchers, but none lasted three full innings and all gave up runs.
Interestingly enough, according to the New York Times account of the game, Wally Pipp, the man Gehrig replaced as Yankee first basemen in 1923 and a Grand Rapids resident, was at the Book-Cadillac with his old team that day.
Gehrig never played again, but the Yankees would go on to win 106 games that season. They swept the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series that October. The '39 Tigers would finish in fifth place with an 81-73 record. Gehrig's consecutive game streak would last another 56 years until Cal Ripken played in his 2131st straight game on Sept. 6, 1995.
