Why was lou gehrig called biscuit pants

His Living Legacy. Little-Known Gehrig Facts. Library o' Gehrig. Shop MoreGehrig. The Memorial Wall. Fan's Tour of Yankee Stadium. Personal Gehrig Stories. Valuable Links. Questions and Answers. In the field, Wagon Tongue did not put his money where his mouth was. In , he set the all-time MLB low for fielding average by a shortstop. Clearly, the combination of his nickname and actual name earns Dickshot a spot on this list of worst baseball nicknames. In six major-league seasons spread over , he played in games Pirates, Giants, White Sox , hitting.

More than half his career offensive production came in his final season , White Sox , when he hit. He is a four-time All Star — and has also hit. Primarily a right fielder, Pence has started 1, games in right, 95 in center and 53 in left.

The bucketfoot stance seemed to work for him. He led his league in batting average, hits and total bases twice each and RBI once. As you will note, solid performance often results in a solid and memorable nickname. McDowell — whose blazing heater could be past you with amazing suddenness — was a six-time All Star and five-time league strikeout leader. Bench was a leader for the Reds for 17 seasons He put up respectable offensive numbers with a career line of.

He led the NL in games played five times, hits seven times, double five times, and runs scored four times. The typically dignified Gehrig returned the favor by telling a reporter that Honus Wagner was the greatest player he ever saw. Wally Pipp was the starting first baseman for the Yankees in The story goes that he missed a game with a headache and because of it lost his starting job to the youngster Gehrig.

The Yankees were floundering to start the season, and Wally was a big part of the problem with a recent three-week spell of anemic 0. Lou went 3 for 5 in his first start and never missed a game the rest of his career. The Yankees sold Pipp to Cincinnati in the offseason.

He played three more years before retiring. The headache makes for an amusing story, but anyone who saw Lou hit ringing line drives all over the park knew it was only time before he would be the starter. The popular movie franchise was heading to a new studio, and the producers need to find a replacement for Johnny Weissmuller, who had been playing Tarzan for the past several years and was still under contract with the previous studio. Lou always had movie-star looks, so his agent convinced the reluctant player to pursue the opportunity to get into moving pictures.

Lou traveled to Hollywood and tried out for the role by dressing in a loincloth and swinging a fake wood club. However, he was rejected for the role because his thighs were considered too bulky and muscular to be attractive on the silver screen. He did end up making a film called Rawhide in It was a modern western where he played himself, Lou Gehrig. The film received average reviews, but Lou said he had a great time riding horses and shooting fake guns. The legendary manager of the New York Giants took a look at Gehrig in Lou apparently hit numerous shots into the right-field stands during the audition, but he also let a grounder go through his legs, which was viewed by McGraw as an unforgivable sin.

Unfortunately, because of this shortsightedness, the Hall of Fame manager lost out on getting the best first baseman of all time. Gehrig was friends with a sportswriter who was convinced his wife had psychic powers. Lou and his wife Eleanor stayed with the couple before the season, and the paranormal topic came up. The Ouija board was soon brought out, and a spirit was consulted. However, the board said NO when asked. Gehrig and his wife left for spring training a few days later, still puzzled over the meaning of the prediction.

He would play only eight games that season before ALS robbed him of the strength to make even the most basic plays. Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS at the Mayo clinic in Afterward, he thought he maybe would need a cane in a few years and that he would eventually end up crippled and in a wheelchair.

The fans thought ALS was a disease like polio, and they were all familiar with President Roosevelt and his survival from the disease. Nobody really knew what would happen with Lou. ALS was rare, and there were few ways to get information about it in an era before the internet. From letters he wrote, Gehrig believed there were experimental treatments that would cure him like vitamin E megadoses and histamine injections, and he had a sense of optimism until the very end.

One of the most famous speeches in the history of baseball almost never happened. When it was clear that Gehrig was no longer going to play baseball, the Yankees decided to honor him with a ceremony on July 4, , between the games of a doubleheader.

After all the guests of honor, including the Babe, spoke, Lou shook his head no that he was declining to say anything. The guest of honor reluctantly stepped to the microphone and gave a heartfelt speech of gratitude that had grown men weeping.