Lou Gehrig Final-Game Jersey

The Iron Horse

Lou Gehrig was born June 19, 1903, in Manhattan. He studied engineering at Columbia University, where he played football and baseball, and signed with the Yankees on April 29, 1923, after Yankees scout Paul Krichell had trailed him for some time. He spent much of 1923 and 1924 with the Yankees' Hartford farm team, hitting .344 with 61 home runs over 193 games.

On June 1, 1925, Gehrig appeared as a pinch hitter, and that day began a streak of 2,130 consecutive games that lasted until 1939. The next day manager Miller Huggins started him at first base in place of Wally Pipp, who never got the job back. Along the way Gehrig won the 1934 Triple Crown and two American League MVP awards, led the league in home runs three times and in RBIs five times, and helped the Yankees win six World Series.

He wore number 4 because he batted fourth, behind Babe Ruth. On June 3, 1932, he became the first player of the 20th century to hit four home runs in one game. He finished with a .340 career average, 493 home runs and 1,995 RBIs.

1939: the end of the streak

Something was wrong by the middle of 1938. 'I tired mid-season,' Gehrig said. 'I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again.' In the first weeks of 1939 he hit .143 with a single RBI. On April 30, 1939, the day the New York World's Fair opened, he went 0 for 4 against the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium. It was his last major league game.

On May 2 in Detroit he asked manager Joe McCarthy to take him out of the lineup, then carried the lineup card to home plate without his own name on it. The streak ended at 2,130 games. He went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on June 13, and after six days of tests doctors confirmed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on June 19, his 36th birthday.

On July 4, 1939, at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, he told 61,808 fans at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth.' He stayed with the team as captain for the rest of the season, often taking the lineup card to home plate before games.

Game 2, October 5, 1939

The Yankees won the 1939 pennant and met the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, October 4-8. They swept. In Game 2 at Yankee Stadium on October 5, Monte Pearson threw a two-hit shutout and the Yankees won 4-0.

Gehrig did not play, but he was in uniform as the team's captain. Photographers knew his career was over and documented his last days with the club. The best-known images show him smiling with Babe Ruth beside him and gazing out from the top of the dugout. This jersey has been photo-matched to those images and to colorized film from that day.

Games 3 and 4 were played in Cincinnati, so Game 2 was the last time Gehrig wore the Yankees uniform at the stadium where he had spent 17 seasons. The sweep that followed was his last World Series title.

Saved by a dry cleaner

From the 1920s to the 1950s, major league teams commonly sent used uniforms to their minor league affiliates. Many great players' jerseys survived only because tailors, team officials and others pulled them out of that pipeline. This one survived because of a dry cleaner who cleaned uniforms for the Newark Bears, a Yankees affiliate. He noticed Gehrig's final home shirt among those headed for the minors and kept it for more than 50 years.

While it was being readied for the minors, a '1' in a different color and texture was added beside the original '4' to make '41.' The shirt stayed that way until it surfaced in the summer of 1991. It went first to a prominent New York dealer, who then sold it privately to Dr. G.B. Espy for $115,000. After the purchase the '1' was removed and the '4' moved back to its original place.

Espy, an Alabama-born doctor who built a collection of sports and Hollywood memorabilia over almost 50 years, called it his most cherished possession. He died in November 2024 at 89. His collection was sold at auction in New York on October 22, 2025, with a presale estimate of $2 million to $4 million on the jersey. It sold for $2,712,000 including the buyer's premium, the most ever paid for a piece of Gehrig memorabilia. A bat described as very likely used in his last World Series, in 1938, sold in the same auction for $1,197,000.

How to know it

It is a pinstriped Yankees home jersey with the original 'NY' logo on the left chest. 'L.Gehrig' is chain-stitched in the collar, and '39' is embroidered on the inside tail. A Spalding manufacturer's tag sits below the name with a size 46 flag tag attached.

Some of what you see is restoration, and the catalog says so. The '4' on the back was put back in place after the minor league '1' was removed. The 1939 baseball centennial patch on the sleeve is a period example sewn where the original had been, but it is not the exact style that would have been on Gehrig's jersey, since two variants of the patch are known. A light green stain on the upper left chest and shoulder has been professionally conserved.

It is not the jersey Gehrig wore for the 'Luckiest Man' speech. Where that one is today is not known.

What came after

On December 7, 1939, the Baseball Writers' Association elected Gehrig to the Hall of Fame in a special election because of his illness. The Yankees retired his number 4, the first time a major league team had retired a uniform number.

Gehrig died on June 2, 1941, sixteen years to the day after he replaced Wally Pipp. His streak of 2,130 consecutive games stood for 56 years, until Cal Ripken Jr. passed it on September 6, 1995.

The numbers

Consecutive games

2,130 (June 1, 1925 to April 30, 1939)

Career

17 seasons, 2,164 games, .340 BA, 2,721 hits, 493 HR, 1,995 RBI

1939 season

8 games, 4 hits in 28 at-bats, .143, 0 HR, 1 RBI

World Series (as a player)

7 Series, 34 games, .361 BA, 10 HR, 35 RBI

1939 World Series Game 2

Yankees 4, Reds 0; Monte Pearson two-hit shutout (Gehrig did not play)

Timeline

1. Jun 19, 1903

   Lou Gehrig is born in Manhattan.

2. Apr 29, 1923

   Gehrig signs with the New York Yankees.

3. Jun 1, 1925

   Gehrig pinch-hits, beginning a streak of 2,130 consecutive games. The next day he replaces Wally Pipp at first base.

4. Jun 3, 1932

   Gehrig hits four home runs in one game.

5. Apr 30, 1939

   Gehrig plays his last major league game, going 0 for 4 at Yankee Stadium.

6. May 2, 1939

   Gehrig takes himself out of the lineup in Detroit, ending the streak at 2,130.

7. Jun 19, 1939

   The Mayo Clinic confirms ALS on his 36th birthday.

8. Jul 4, 1939

   The 'Luckiest Man' speech on Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium.

9. Oct 5, 1939

   World Series Game 2 at Yankee Stadium: Gehrig is photographed in this jersey at his last appearance in uniform there.

10. Dec 7, 1939

    Gehrig is elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election.

11. Jun 2, 1941

    Gehrig dies at age 37.

12. 1991

    The jersey surfaces after more than 50 years with a Newark dry cleaner and sells privately to Dr. G.B. Espy for $115,000.

13. Sep 6, 1995

    Cal Ripken Jr. passes Gehrig's consecutive-games record.

14. Nov 2024

    Dr. G.B. Espy dies at 89.

15. Oct 22, 2025

    Sells at auction in New York for $2,712,000, a record for any Gehrig item.

The world in 1939

• Mar 30, 1939

  Batman makes his debut in Detective Comics #27.

• Apr 9, 1939

  Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial after being barred from Constitution Hall.

• Apr 30, 1939

  The New York World's Fair opens, the same day as Gehrig's last game.

• Aug 2, 1939

  Albert Einstein signs the letter to President Roosevelt warning of the potential for an atomic bomb.

• Aug 23, 1939

  Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

• Sep 1, 1939

  Germany invades Poland, setting off World War II.

• Dec 15, 1939

  Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Lou Gehrig Final-Game Jersey is number 36 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (27 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The jersey spent decades wearing the number 41, because a '1' was added for minor league use before a dry cleaner rescued it.
• Gehrig's last game, on April 30, 1939, was played the same day the New York World's Fair opened.
• Gehrig died sixteen years to the day after he took over first base from Wally Pipp.
• His number 4 was the first uniform number retired by a major league team.
• When Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, the Detroit announcer told the crowd it was the first time in 2,130 games his name would not appear on the Yankee lineup.
• In 1991 this jersey cost $115,000; it sold for more than 23 times that in 2025.