On September 5, 1937, ten thousand fans turned out to Griffith Stadium to watch the Sunday game against the pennant-bound New York Yankees. Though many were there to see the league’s newest phenom, Joe DiMaggio, the fan-favorite was the team’s eternal first baseman, Lou Gehrig. Even at age 34 and playing every single game since June 1, 1925, Lou was batting a tremendous .364 going into that afternoon’s game. The Iron Horse would go 2-for-4 against the Senators, the highlight being his 3rd inning 2-run homer off Dick Lanahan. The blast, which also scored Joe DiMaggio, was Gehrig’s 459th of his career, maintaining his ranking as the second-most home runs in baseball history. By the end of 1938, his career home runs total would stand at a majestic 534, where it would remain frozen in time. Gehrig’s career would tragically be cut short at the beginning of the 1939 season when he was diagnosed with the illness that would take his life two years later.

This unique artifact is Gehrig’s 459th home run ball that he hit into stands that Sunday afternoon back in 1937. The Reach Official American League William Harridge stamped ball shows good game use, with the scuffs, abrasions and toning you expect on a home run ball. Details of the ball’s significance have been written in fountain pen on the ball’s sweet spot “32nd Home Run Lou Gehrig Sept. 5, 1937”, but portions have chipped off with age. However, “32nd HOME RUN” and the date remains easily visible. That this ball survived is astonishing – in Gehrig’s time, the collecting of game used balls was not generally practiced, and that a fan had the foresight to preserve what would be one of the last home run balls Lou Gehrig would ever hit seems almost miraculous. This ball comes with a LOA from MEARS (317505) for the game use, attributing this ball to Lou Gehrig’s home run.

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