From what I have been told, no American was more the embodiment of health and physical durability throughout the 1930s than Lou Gehrig, the Yankee first baseman who was known as "the Iron Horse." After playing in 2,130 consecutive games from 1926 to 1939, Gehrig had to take himself out of the lineup and break that streak on May 2, 1939 due to strange physical problems that were first diagnosed as a gall bladder condition. By the time he appeared to say goodbye to baseball at Yankee Stadium on the 4th of July, the disease that would kill him two years later had been diagnosed as amytrophic lateral sclerosis, but it would be known forever after as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
He was more than just a good man, a good teammate, a guy who didn't miss a day's work for 13 years, and a Papi-esque clutch hitter who still holds the all-time record with 23 career grand slams. He was also one of the greatest baseball players ever, the author of the best steroid-free offensive season in the history of the game (especially when compared with what other players did in that era) in 1927, when he hit .373 with 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs, 10 steals, 109 walks, 149 runs scored and an other-worldly 175 runs batted in.
And today, on the Speech of the Day blog, we honor him for one of the most graceful speeches in the face of adversity in the history of American celebrity, whether you prefer the text below, this Youtube clip of Gehrig himself, or Gary Cooper's declamation in the movie Pride of the Yankees. "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? 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 manager in 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."
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