SUS - Shut Up Stats: Grand Slams for Gehrig and A-Rod

2011 Phungo 42-NYYa4 Lou Gehrig

Last night in the Yankees 6-4 win over the Braves Alex Rodriguez tied Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig for Career Grand Slams with 23.

Using the Baseball-Reference Home Run Log feature we can find out a little more about the 23 Slams hit by each of the players.

		Lou Gehrig
Slam#	HR #	Date	For		Vs	Pitcher	Score	Inning
1	11	7/23/1925	NYY		WSH	Firpo Marberry	behind 5-6	b 7
2	44	5/7/1927	NYY	@	CHW	Ted Lyons		t 9
3	65	1927-07-04 (2)	NYY		WSH	Bobby Burke		b 6
4	88	5/11/1928	NYY		CLE	Joe Shaute	behind 0-1	b 6
5	142	1929-09-10 (2)	NYY		DET	Phil Page		b 1
6	145	1929-09-18 (2)	NYY		CLE	Milt Shoffner		b 7
7	154	1930-05-22 (2)	NYY	@	PHA	Bill Shores		t 1
8	179	7/31/1930	NYY	@	BOS	Ed Durham		t 7
9	223	8/29/1931	NYY	@	PHA	Lefty Grove		t 6
10	225	8/31/1931	NYY		WSH	Lloyd Brown		b 5
11	227	1931-09-01 (2)	NYY		BOS	Ed Morris		b 3
12	240	5/26/1932	NYY	@	WSH	General Crowder		t 6
13	265	1932-09-09 (1)	NYY	@	DET	Earl Whitehill		t 3
14	305	5/10/1934	NYY		CHW	Lee Stine		b 5
15	307	5/13/1934	NYY		CLE	Lloyd Brown		b 1
16	314	6/10/1934	NYY		PHA	Bill Dietrich		b 1
17	321	7/5/1934	NYY		WSH	Lefty Stewart		b 3
18	359	7/7/1935	NYY	@	WSH	Bobo Newsom		t 5
19	368	1935-08-21 (1)	NYY	@	SLB	Jim Walkup		t 3
20	414	8/15/1936	NYY	@	PHA	Randy Gumpert		t 8
21	422	1936-09-09 (2)	NYY	@	CLE	Oral Hildebrand		t 2
22	458	8/31/1937	NYY	@	CLE	Mel Harder		t 5
23	488	8/20/1938	NYY	@	PHA	Buck Ross		t 1
		Alex Rodriguez
Slam	HR #	Date	For		Vs	Pitcher	Score	Inning
1	8	4/18/1996	SEA		DET	Clint Sodowsky	ahead 2-1	b 2
2	12	5/17/1996	SEA	@	BAL	Alan Mills	behind 7-9	t 8
3	22	7/6/1996	SEA	@	TEX	Kevin Gross	ahead 3-1	t 4
4	126	7/19/1999	SEA		ARI	Vicente Padilla	tied 3-3	b 6
5	130	7/30/1999	SEA		BAL	Arthur Rhodes	behind 1-2	b 5
6	144	9/16/1999	SEA	@	TBD	Esteban Yan	behind 0-2	t 8
7	153	4/16/2000	SEA	@	TOR	Pedro Borbon	ahead 15-7	t 8
8	214	7/5/2001	TEX		SEA	Brian Fuentes	ahead 8-1	b 4
9	275	7/27/2002	TEX		OAK	Billy Koch	tied 6-6	b 10
10	323	7/31/2003	TEX		BOS	Todd Jones	tied 3-3	b 11
11	388	4/26/2005	NYY		LAA	Bartolo Colon	ahead 6-2	b 4
12	430	4/3/2006	NYY	@	OAK	Barry Zito	ahead 3-0	t 2
13	447	7/2/2006	NYY		NYM	Alay Soler	behind 2-4	b 3
14	467	4/7/2007	NYY		BAL	Chris Ray	behind 6-7	b 9
15	486	6/7/2007	NYY	@	CHW	Ryan Bukvich	ahead 4-3	t 9
16	517	9/25/2007	NYY	@	TBD	Jason Hammel	ahead 1-0	t 3
17	552	9/14/2008	NYY		TBR	Edwin Jackson	tied 0-0	b 1
18	583	10/4/2009	NYY	@	TBR	Andy Sonnanstine	ahead 6-2	t 6
19	587	5/14/2010	NYY		MIN	Matt Guerrier	behind 3-4	b 7
20	590	5/31/2010	NYY		CLE	Chris Perez	ahead 2-1	b 7
21	596	7/6/2010	NYY	@	OAK	Trevor Cahill	tied 1-1	t 3
22	618	4/23/2011	NYY	@	BAL	Josh Rupe	ahead 9-3	t 8
23	639	6/12/2012	NYY	@	ATL	Jonny Venters	behind 0-4	t 8

He didn't know it at the time, but after Gehrig hit career Slam #23 he would play less than 60 more games. Lou Gehrig hit his last Grand Slam at the age of 35 - he only lived to be 37.  Alex Rodriguez is now 36.

There were at least two future Hall of Famers that Gehrig hit his slams off of, Lefty Grove and Ted Lyons.  None of A-Rod's victims appear to be of that caliber - Barry Zito is likely the best pitcher of the bunch.

Three of Rodriguez Slams are of the Walk-Off variety.  None of Gehrig's 23 were Walk-Offs.  Of course none of the Lou Gehrig's Home Runs were steroid induced either.

Source: Baseball-Reference.com