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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 Notes: Joe 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.
A July 4, Memorial full ticket from
this game will sell for about
$2,250.-4,000.
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