June 2 is now Lou Gehrig Day in baseball. June 2 of 1925 was the date that Lou Gehrig began a legendary streak to establish a record of 2,130 games played in a row — that’s 14 years of consecutive games — as the first baseman for the New York Yankees. This remarkable streak ended only when Gehrig’s fatal illness finally forced him off the field. In a sorrowful irony, June 2 was also the date on which Lou Gehrig passed from complications of ALS in Riverdale, New York, 1941, just shy of his 38th birthday. And not just baseball fans, but an entire nation mourned his loss.