Julia Thompson, age 15, of Utica, N.Y., for her question:

WHY WAS LOU GEHRIG CALLED THE 'IRON HORSE?'

Lou Gehrig was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played a record breaking 2,130 straight games at first base for the New York Yankees between 1925 and 1939. It's a record that has never been approached. Gehrig was called the "Iron horse" because of his great endurance.

Gehrig had a lifetime batting average of .340. By the end of his baseball career, he had hit 493 home runs.

The great athlete set the American League record in 1931 for the most runs batted in for a season: 184. He batted in more than 100 rune each year fox 13 years in a row and hit the most home runs with the bases loaded: 23.

During the 1939 season Gehrig was forced to quit baseball because of a serious spinal disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is now called "Lou Gehrig's disease."

Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 and in 1940 he was appointed commissioner on the New York State Parole Board. He died in 1941 at the age of 38.