Happy 4th and “the luckiest man”
Today is the 4th of July. It also marks the 70th anniversey of Lou Gehrig famous goodbye. Lou Gehrig is perhaps one of the greatest American Athletes in the history of sports. It is very fitting that his speech was made on Americas Birthday.
Today across the diamond Major League Baseball will honor Lou Gehrig. A video tribute will be shown at Yankee Stadium. A “4-ALS” logo will adorn every base around the league. Below is his famous speech. Lou Gehrig was a special person, special ball player. Lou Gehrig was and is a Yankee. Lou Gehrig was American.
Lou Gehrig’s speech is below.
Happy 4th of July!
Stitch
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the badbreak I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the faceof this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and havenever received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider itthe highlight of his career just to associate with them for even oneday? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, EdBarrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow,Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best managerin baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.
When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.
So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”
