At 35 years old Lou Gehrig's final 1938 numbers coule easily have been written off as natural age-related decline or even as a poor season. His 29 home runs and 114 runs batted in were still strong enough to garner MVP votes and his .295 batting average and 301 total bases were still Herculean by league standards. The start of the 1939 season however made it clear that something was wrong. An 0-for-4 outing on Opening Day with two double play groundouts were overshadowed by a 2-0 Yankee victory. Through the team's first eight games however Gehrig could manage just four singles and a handful of walks in 28 at bats and on May 2 he famously removed himself from the lineup never to play again. On June 21 the Yankees announced Lou Gehrig's retirement from baseball. This beautiful 8 1/2" x 6 5/8" news service photo is dated June 22 and depicts Gehrig and manager Joe McCarthy in the dugout smiling. The headline "'Iron Horse' Will Play No More" says all it needs to the slug announcing his ALS diagnosis and inability to "continue active participation as a baseball player." The photo displays well with pinholes at the corners and very top edge none of which interfere with the crisp quality of the image. A beautiful photo of the smiling Yankee captain.