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On
July 4,
1939
the New
York
Yankees
held
Lou
Gehrig
Appreciation
Day at
Yankee
Stadium,
and in
tribute,
Gehrig's
uniform
number
4, will
become the
first
ever to
be
retired.
After
emcee
Sid
Mercer
informs
the
sell-out
crowd
that
Gehrig
is too
moved
to
speak,
'the
iron
horse'
changes
his
mind
when
Skipper
Joe
McCarthy
encourages
him,
and
delivers
the
keynote
address
in
baseball
history
describing
himself
as "the
luckiest
man on
the
face of
this
earth".
Two years later on June 2, 1941 Lou Gehrig succumbed to amyotrophic
lateral
sclerosis
at the
age of
37.
Special
Lou
Gehrig
Memorial
Game
tickets
were
printed
by the
Yankees,
planning
to
honor
Gehrig
on the
anniversary
of his
speech,
July 4,
1941,
by
placing
a
monument
in
center
field
next to
the
monument
for
Yankees
manager
Miller
Huggins.
Unfortunately
the
game
was
rained
out.
Typically, tickets for games that were rained out are voided,
and the
rain
check
could
be
exchanged
at the
ticket
window
for
another
scheduled
game
later
in the
season. If the
"Make
Up
Game"
for the
rain
out was
added
to
another
scheduled
game to
create
a
double
header,
the
ticket
number
for that
scheduled
game
was
used
for
admission
to both
games.
What
the
Yankees
did
instead;
was
reschedule
the
event
by
adding
a
second
game to
the
game
scheduled
on July
6, voided
out the
game
number
40
tickets
printed
for
that
game,
and the
special
tickets
printed
for
July
4th
were
honored
for
admission
to the
double
header.
A reported attendance of 60,948 fans witnessed the event and the Yankees
swept
the
doubleheader,
but it
was
also
reported
to be a
sell-out
crowd.
Grandstand
ticket
Game
No. "E"
is
believed
to be
used
for
walk up
ticket
sales.
Further
research
needs
to done
to
confirm
this,
but it
is the
only
game in
1941,
that
had an
excess
crowd.
Tickets
featuring
a
letter
as the
game
number
were
used in
a pinch
for
games
that
were
made up
on an
off
day, or
for
large
crowds
exceeding
the
number
of
tickets
available
for a
game.
Ticket
Game
No. "E"
is the
only
lettered
ticket
that
has
surfaced
for
1941,
and
there
was no
need to
use a
lettered
ticket
for any
other
game.
Special Note on DiMaggio's 56 Game hitting streak: On
July 6,
1941,
Joe
DiMaggio
extended
his
hitting
streak
to 47
in
game-I,
and 48
in
game-II.
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