On June 3, 1932, Lou Gehrig and the Yankees travelled to take on the Athletics in Shibe park. These two teams were the dominant teams of the late 20s and early 30s, yet surprisingly only 7300 fans were in attendance for the game. Those 7300 never forgot what they saw that day.
Gehrig stepped into the batters box in the first inning to face the Athletics George Earnshaw. Gehrig blasted a pitch from Earnshaw over the wall in left center. In the 4th inning he took one over the right field wall.But the A’s formidable offense came roaring back, and they took an 8-4 lead into the top of the 5th. But Gehrig hit his 3rd home run to get NY back in the game, and Connie Mack pulled Earnshaw. He should have left him in. The A’s bullpen imploded, allowing 13 runs in 4 innings of work. In the 7th inning, Gehrig batted again. And he homered again, this time to right off Rube Walberg.
Gehrig came to bat again in the 8th. By now, the Philadelphia fans knew they were witnessing history and stood on their feet, imploring him to hit his 5th home run. He grounded out weakly. It looked like he was done. However, the Yankees blew open a tight game in the 9th, scoring 6 runs, and Gehrig got to bat again, this time off of a shell shocked Eddie Rommel. Gehrig blasted one to deep center, the deepest part of the park. It was his hardest hit ball of the day. The crowd stood on its feet…then groaned as it was caught on the inches from the 468′ center field wall. He was the first 20th century player to hit 4 home runs in a game. (One of the 19th century players to do it was the Phillies Ed Delahanty.)
Incredibly, lost in the hubbub over Gehrig’s day, few people noticed that his teammate Tony Lazzeri hit for the cycle! The Yankees won the game, 20-13. The Yankees were in the midst of an amazing 108-47 record that year, which culminated in a sweep of the Cubs in the World Series.
RELATED: A list of all players to hit 4 homers in a single game. Incredibly the Phillies are the only team to have 3 players do it. (Delahanty, Klein, and Schmidt.)
