lou gehrig benched himself. on may 2 1939, halfway through a season, the iron horse who had played 2,130 games in a row took himself out of the lineup for the simple reason that he was getting too slow at first base. that day was the last he ever played in the major leagues. gehrig signed with the yankees at 19. he was so broke growing up that he didn't have proper equipment. one $1,500 bonus check later, he was the cleanup hitter behind ruth in the murderers' row lineup. he hit 23 grand slams. nobody beat that record for 81 years until alex rodriguez did it in 2013. he was the first american league player to hit four home runs in a single game. june 3 1932 against philadelphia. only 18 players have ever done it. he played hurt and never told anyone. medical records on him later revealed 17 separate healed fractures in his hands. he never missed a single game for any of them. what nobody at yankee stadium knew on july 4 1939: gehrig had been examined at the mayo clinic 15 days earlier. the prognosis was als, and it was unforgiving. his speech that afternoon wasn't fully recorded. only fragments survived in newsreels. what got remembered was the line he closed with: 'today, i consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.' his uniform number was retired that same afternoon. number 4. it was the first number ever retired in major league baseball history. they invented the practice for him. he passed 23 months later in his bronx home. june 2 1941. he was 37. the condition has carried his name for 85 years.