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50 free Lou Gehrig trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Lou Gehrig played 17 seasons at first base for the New York Yankees, drove in 1,995 runs and never missed a game for 14 years. Then, at 36, he benched himself, was diagnosed with ALS on his birthday and gave baseball its most famous speech. This quiz runs from East Harlem and Columbia through Murderers' Row, the Triple Crown and the four-homer game to the farewell at Yankee Stadium, the parole board job and The Pride of the Yankees. Roughly a third of the questions are easy for anyone who knows the story, a third are medium and the rest are for Yankees historians. Every answer is checked against Gehrig's biography.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01For which team did Lou Gehrig play all 17 of his MLB seasons?
New York Yankees
He never played for anyone else, and apart from minor-league Hartford every team he ever joined was based in New York City.
Q 02What nickname did sportswriters give Gehrig for his durability?
The Iron Horse
Sportswriters coined it in 1931, six years into his consecutive-games streak.
Q 03How many consecutive games did Gehrig play to set the record that stood for 56 years?
2,130
Cal Ripken Jr. finally passed it on September 6, 1995, and finished with 2,632.
Q 04Which uniform number did Gehrig wear, the first ever retired by an MLB team?
4
He wore it because he batted fourth, right behind Babe Ruth, when the Yankees first put numbers on their uniforms in 1929.
Q 05Which disease ended Gehrig's career and is now often named after him in the US?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
ALS attacks the motor neurons; Gehrig's doctors told his wife the mind stays fully aware to the end.
Q 06In his farewell speech, Gehrig called himself the luckiest man on the face of what?
The Earth
The July 4, 1939 speech has been called baseball's Gettysburg Address.
Q 07How many career home runs did Gehrig hit?
493
He added 1,995 RBIs and a .340 career batting average.
Q 08What was Gehrig's career batting average?
.340
His slugging average was .632 and his on-base average .447.
Q 09Who broke Gehrig's consecutive-games record in 1995?
Cal Ripken Jr.
Ripken, the Baltimore Orioles shortstop, passed 2,130 on September 6, 1995.
Q 10Gehrig held the career grand slam record with 23 until which player broke it?
Alex Rodriguez
Rodriguez also tied Gehrig's mark of 13 straight 100-RBI seasons in 2010.
Q 11In which New York City neighborhood was Gehrig born?
East Harlem
He was born at 1994 Second Avenue on June 19, 1903, weighing almost 14 pounds.
Q 12Gehrig's parents were immigrants from which country?
Germany
He spoke German as a child and did not learn English until he was five.
Q 13At roughly what weight was Gehrig born?
14 pounds
His mother, a maid, was the family's main breadwinner; his father was often unemployed.
Q 14Which language did Gehrig speak at home before learning English at age five?
Q 21Which first baseman famously sat out with a headache on June 2, 1925, and lost his job to Gehrig?
Wally Pipp
Pipp, a two-time AL home run champion, never got the position back.
Q 22Which Yankees manager started Gehrig at first base on June 2, 1925?
Miller Huggins
Huggins was shaking up a slumping lineup and also replaced Aaron Ward and Wally Schang that day.
Q 23How many RBIs did Gehrig drive in during his monster 1927 season?
175
It broke Ruth's record of 168; Gehrig also hit .373 with 47 homers that year.
Q 24What was the nickname of the 1927 Yankees lineup that overshadowed Gehrig's MVP season?
German
He was known as Lou so he would not be confused with his father Heinrich, called Henry.
Q 15Where in Chicago did a 17-year-old Gehrig hit a grand slam out of a big-league stadium in 1920?
Cubs Park
The park is now Wrigley Field; his Commerce High team beat Lane Tech in front of more than 10,000 fans.
Q 16Which university did Gehrig attend before turning pro?
Columbia
He studied engineering for two years and was recruited on a football scholarship before joining the baseball team.
Q 17Under what assumed name did Gehrig play summer pro ball in 1921 while still a collegian?
Henry Lewis
He was found out after 12 games with Hartford and banned from college sports as a freshman.
Q 18Which Yankees scout signed Gehrig after watching him pitch in college in 1923?
Paul Krichell
Krichell was unmoved by Gehrig's pitching; it was the left-handed power that sold him.
Q 19What position did Gehrig play on his college football team?
Fullback
He had a long history of concussions from football, which later fuelled speculation about CTE.
Q 20For which minor-league club did Gehrig hit 61 homers in 193 games in 1923–24?
Hartford Senators
Hartford was a two-hour drive away, the only team he ever played for outside New York City.
Murderers' Row
The 1927 team went 110–44 and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.
Q 25Against which team did Gehrig hit four home runs in one game on June 3, 1932?
Philadelphia Athletics
Al Simmons robbed him of a fifth with a leaping catch at the center-field fence at Shibe Park.
Q 26Whose retirement announcement stole the headlines from Gehrig's four-homer game?
John McGraw
McGraw quit after 30 years managing the New York Giants on the very same day.
Q 27Whose consecutive-games record of 1,307 did Gehrig pass in August 1933?
Everett Scott
Scott attended the game at Sportsman's Park as a guest of the St. Louis Browns.
Q 28In which year did Gehrig win the American League Triple Crown?
1934
He led the league with 49 homers, 166 RBIs and a .363 average.
Q 29What total did Gehrig set in 1931 that remains the American League single-season RBI record?
185
Only Hack Wilson's 191 in 1930, in the National League, beats it.
Q 30Gehrig's number 4 came from batting where in the order?
Fourth
Batting right behind Ruth made intentionally walking the Babe counterproductive for opposing pitchers.