1959 Yankee of the Past: Lou Gehrig

THE DAY GEHRIG ALMOST HIT FIVE IN A ROW

"Rocky Colavito is indebted to Connie Mack, deceased, for his recently acquired place in the record book (four successive home runs).

You might say Colavito got there before he was born ... which is somewhat better than par for the course.

With his A's trailing the Yankees by seven runs in the ninth inning, June 3, 1932, Connie Mack made a seemingly innocent defensive move.

He switched Al Simmons from left to center at Philadelphia's Shibe Park.

With what he later described as 'the greatest catch I ever made- I guess!' Simmons then proceeded to dash back to the center field wall to spectacularly pull down a line drive.

The catch probably cost Lou Gehrig his fifth consecutive home run of the contest. ('At least a triple,' Simmons confessed. 'And the velocity of that ball could well have given Gehrig an inside-the-park home run.')

That's how close young Colavito, born 14 months later, came to not joining Gehrig and charter member Bobby Lowe of Boston in the Four-in-a-Row record club.

Jimmie Foxx was in that ball game. When this agent saw him Foxx described Simmons' tremendous play as 'the catch of the year. Gehrig hit that ball a mile-a-minute.'

What was behind Mr. Mack's defensive move that put Simmons in center field for the ninth inning?

Foxx says, 'My recollection is that Doc Cramer played center that day, but was removed for a pinch hitter in the eighth inning. Mr. Mack sent Bing Miller into left field and moved Al (Simmons) to center.'

Gehrig had stroked George Earnshaw's pitches for three home runs and found Roy Mahaffey for a fourth (matching Lowe's 1894 record), before facing Ed Rommel in his fifth and final time at bat.

The Yanks won 20-13, the two teams totaled 77 bases (Ruth, Combs, Lazzeri, Cochrane and Foxx also homered) and Gehrig was of five straight homers by the long arm of Al Simmons.

Had the ball got past Simmons for even a triple, incidentally, it would have given Gehrig 19 total bases for the game.

In that event, Joe Adcock wouldn't have been in the record book, either, for his 18 bases (four homers, not successive, and a double) at Ebbets Field in 1954."

Jerry Nason, Boston Globe (Baseball Digest, September 1959)

"Mrs. Lou Gehrig confides that Lou's greatest thrill came out of All-Star Game. 'He hit a lot of homers (492),' she says. 'But the one he liked to recall was the one in the game at Washington in 1937.

'It came off Dizzy Dean and he hit the ball so hard that the imprint on the ball ... even down the lettering and signature of the league president ... still can be seen on the bat. I know. For I still have it back home in New York.' "

-Lyall Smith, Detroit Free Press (Baseball Digest, September 1959)