On July 6, 1941, a little over a month after Lou Gehrig lost his battle with ALS, the Yankees dedicated a monument to the Iron Horse in center field at the Stadium. The plaque, which joins Miller Huggins’ as the only two at the time, hails Gehrig as, “A man, a gentleman and a great ballplayer whose amazing record of 2,130 consecutive games should stand for all time.”
The Yankees had planned the final tribute to Gehrig on the two year anniversary of his “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech, which of course was on July 4.