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Babe Dahlgren

Although he got his nickname from his grandfather for his size when he was a boy, Babe Dahlgren (given first name Ellsworth) grew to be a 6-foot, 190 pound major league first baseman who played a total of 12 years with eight different teams.

A lifetime .261 righthanded hitter with 82 homers and 569 RBIs in 1,137 games, Dahlgren’s most notable brush with baseball fame came on May 2, 1939, when he replaced a failing Lou Gehrig at first base for the New York Yankees, thus ending Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games. Dahlgren had himself achieved an iron man reputation in the minor leagues, compiling a streak of over 600 consecutive games at first base, including 188 in 1932 and 189 in 1933, in the Pacific Coast League before being called up to the Boston Red Sox in 1935.

Standing in for Gehrig that historic day, Dahlgren homered, and after the game, he had the foresight to ask Gehrig for his glove (even though Gehrig was lefthanded). “Sure, go ahead and take it, I won’t be needing it anymore,” Gehrig replied. Years later, Dahlgren traded the valuable glove to renowned collector Barry Halper for some keepsakes of his own career.

Dahlgren remained the Yankee first baseman for two more seasons until he was sold to the Boston Braves in February 1941. That year, he hit a career-high 23 homers with both the Braves and Chicago Cubs. The following season, 1942, he played sparingly for three teams, the Cubs, St. Louis Browns, and Brooklyn Dodgers.
For the remainder of World War II, from 1943 to 1945, Dahlgren was the everyday first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1944 enjoyed his finest overall season, batting .289 with 12 homers and 101 RBIs. In 1945, his last year with the Pirates, he led National League first basemen in fielding with .996. Sold back to the St. Louis Browns in April 1946, Dahlgren retired after that season. For all his travels, Dahlgren appeared in only one World Series—1939 for the Yankees, where he batted .214 including a homer and a double in the second game.
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