GaryMrMets
05-29-2005, 05:41 PM
http://www.nypost.com/sports/24580.htm
4-Gone Conclusion
By FREDERICK G. LIEB Staff Correspondent of Evening Post
May 29, 2005 -- PHILADELPHIA - Returning to the 1932 home run procession, Lou Gehrig, Columbia's contribution to baseball, did his best to catch up yesterday with one grand slam. "Columbia Lou" dazed about 10,000 Shibe Park addicts by matching a major-league record which has stood unchallenged thirty-six years, four home runs in one game.
Lou surely was hot. He hit three the first three times he faced George Earnshaw. Two went into the left-field stands and one over the right-field wall. Then, when he opposed Roy Mahaffey in the seventh, he rammed another one over the right-field wall.
Only two other batters in major-league history have hit four home runs in one game. The feat was performed twice in the National League in the nineties. Bobby Lowe, former Boston outfielder, hit four homers and a single on May 30, 1892. On July 13, 1896, Ed Delahanty, former Philly slugger, duplicated the feat at the old Philly National grounds, less than a mile from where Gehrig did his cannonading yesterday.
Lou barely missed making it five. In the eighth inning, he encountered Lew Krausse, a former Philadelphia high school boy, and dribbled weakly to the infield. However, Gehrig came near connecting for a fifth in the ninth against Eddie Hommel. He whaled a line drive to center field at its deepest point. Al Simmons, who had moved over to center field, made a running, one-handed circus catch of the ball. Had this got away from Al, it would have bounded back and might have stretched to a homer. The least it would have been was a triple.
"You know I think that last one was the hardest ball I hit all day," said Lou this morning. "Gosh, it felt good. It was my misfortune to hit this to the deepest corner of the field in center.
"However, I am well pleased. And I guess I had to get some breaks. I wonder what Mom and Pop up at New Rochelle thought of it. Mom didn't see it. I'll bet Pop is marching around the neighborhood with a chip on his shoulder.
"Do you know I've been hitting the ball on the nose for three weeks, especially in the early games here. But I was hitting all my balls to center, right center and left center. They were playing me in front of the fences and managed to pull them in."
While Lou was tying a major-league record that had evaded Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Chuck Klein and the other modern home-run hitters, the Yanks hung up a few records of their own. Don't for a moment think Mrs. Gehrig's Louie was the only Yankee who was punching base hits around the yard and over the fences.
Mr. Anthony Lazzeri wasn't so feeble himself. Tony started with a strikeout, but thereafter he became tougher and tougher. He cracked a single, then a double, a triple, another single and wound up with a home run off Rommel with the bases full. Our Bambino, George Herman Ruth, also mashed out his 15th home run of the year while Earle Combs birched one, making it seven for the Yankees.
The Yanks knocked out 23 hits for 50 bases. The former American League record was 44, and the modern National League record is 46. Seven homers for one team ties an all-time record. As Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Cochrane also whacked homers for the A's, the total for the two teams was nine. That fell one short of tying the record of 10 for two teams.
Despite that terrific assault by the Yankees, the barely did manage to win. The game was much closer than the final score, 20-13, would indicate. Up until the ninth, it was anybody's game. Joe McCarthy was so scared the game might slip out of his grasp he sent Lefty Gomez, who had pitched the day before, to finish it up. Foxx slapped Gomez for his 19th homer in the ninth.
4-Gone Conclusion
By FREDERICK G. LIEB Staff Correspondent of Evening Post
May 29, 2005 -- PHILADELPHIA - Returning to the 1932 home run procession, Lou Gehrig, Columbia's contribution to baseball, did his best to catch up yesterday with one grand slam. "Columbia Lou" dazed about 10,000 Shibe Park addicts by matching a major-league record which has stood unchallenged thirty-six years, four home runs in one game.
Lou surely was hot. He hit three the first three times he faced George Earnshaw. Two went into the left-field stands and one over the right-field wall. Then, when he opposed Roy Mahaffey in the seventh, he rammed another one over the right-field wall.
Only two other batters in major-league history have hit four home runs in one game. The feat was performed twice in the National League in the nineties. Bobby Lowe, former Boston outfielder, hit four homers and a single on May 30, 1892. On July 13, 1896, Ed Delahanty, former Philly slugger, duplicated the feat at the old Philly National grounds, less than a mile from where Gehrig did his cannonading yesterday.
Lou barely missed making it five. In the eighth inning, he encountered Lew Krausse, a former Philadelphia high school boy, and dribbled weakly to the infield. However, Gehrig came near connecting for a fifth in the ninth against Eddie Hommel. He whaled a line drive to center field at its deepest point. Al Simmons, who had moved over to center field, made a running, one-handed circus catch of the ball. Had this got away from Al, it would have bounded back and might have stretched to a homer. The least it would have been was a triple.
"You know I think that last one was the hardest ball I hit all day," said Lou this morning. "Gosh, it felt good. It was my misfortune to hit this to the deepest corner of the field in center.
"However, I am well pleased. And I guess I had to get some breaks. I wonder what Mom and Pop up at New Rochelle thought of it. Mom didn't see it. I'll bet Pop is marching around the neighborhood with a chip on his shoulder.
"Do you know I've been hitting the ball on the nose for three weeks, especially in the early games here. But I was hitting all my balls to center, right center and left center. They were playing me in front of the fences and managed to pull them in."
While Lou was tying a major-league record that had evaded Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Chuck Klein and the other modern home-run hitters, the Yanks hung up a few records of their own. Don't for a moment think Mrs. Gehrig's Louie was the only Yankee who was punching base hits around the yard and over the fences.
Mr. Anthony Lazzeri wasn't so feeble himself. Tony started with a strikeout, but thereafter he became tougher and tougher. He cracked a single, then a double, a triple, another single and wound up with a home run off Rommel with the bases full. Our Bambino, George Herman Ruth, also mashed out his 15th home run of the year while Earle Combs birched one, making it seven for the Yankees.
The Yanks knocked out 23 hits for 50 bases. The former American League record was 44, and the modern National League record is 46. Seven homers for one team ties an all-time record. As Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Cochrane also whacked homers for the A's, the total for the two teams was nine. That fell one short of tying the record of 10 for two teams.
Despite that terrific assault by the Yankees, the barely did manage to win. The game was much closer than the final score, 20-13, would indicate. Up until the ninth, it was anybody's game. Joe McCarthy was so scared the game might slip out of his grasp he sent Lefty Gomez, who had pitched the day before, to finish it up. Foxx slapped Gomez for his 19th homer in the ninth.