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June 1, 1925 is a rather historic day in baseball history. It was not only Babe Ruth's first game of season after he battled an illness, but it was also the very first game of Lou Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive games played streak. He replaced Wally Pipp for good the next day.
According to Richard Sandomir at the New York Times, the National Baseball Hall of Fame dug up some rare newsreel footage from before that day's game, with both Ruth and Gehrig in the Yankee Stadium dugout. The video isn't the most exciting thing in the world -- lots of standing around -- but it is believe to be the earliest footage of Gehrig:
"It's amazing to see," said Tom Shieber, who found the clip in the Fox Movietone archive at the University of South Carolina's moving image research collections. "To me, there's a real human connection when you can see how they hold themselves on film. You don't see it in photos ... It might be the earliest moving footage of Gehrig ever."
The Yankees lost that game 5-3 to the Washington Senators. Ruth, who was already an established superstar at the time, went 0-for-2 with a walk. Gehrig pinch-hit late in the game and flew out. Walter Johnson outpitched Sad Sam Jones for the win.
Shieber further detailed his findings at his website, Baseball Researcher.
