The Luckiest Man: Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech

On July fourth, nineteen thirty nine, the most iconic sports speech ever given was done by lou Gerrick Whollowing after retiring a few weeks earlier due to being diagnosed with ALS, a debilitating disease that would slowly paralyze you. Today, we're going to give you a brief history and listen to the recording of the speech so you may all be inspired on this independent holiday. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. Lou Gehrick was known as the iron Man in baseball. He played two thousand, one hundred and thirty games, record that stood till it was broken by Cal Ripken. But the ironic thing was, at the age of thirty six, he took a deep slide in his career. All his numbers started to dip. He gripped the bat harder than he had ever done before, and the game was more of a challenge, and he pulled himself out of the lineup to go get a check up at the Mayo Clinic, where he's quickly diagnosed with ALS, which later became known as Luke Gyrick's disease. And we retired on June twenty first, nineteen thirty nine, and on July fourth, the team held a Luke Gyrick Appreciation Day in the middle of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium, where the mayor and many others gave speeches, including bay Ruth and a man who didn't like the public spotlight, took the microphone in front of over sixty thousand fans where they heard him speak for the last time. Here's the recording that was saved from the speech. Part of what's memorable is the echo you hear, and due to the challenges at the time, we only have part of the speech, but even that is iconic. For the past two weeks, been reading about a bad rag today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. When you're looking around, wouldn't you consider it, Ziba, to associate yourself with such a time looking man, as a standing in uniform in this ballpark today that I might have been given a bad grade, but I've got an awful lot to lift for. Thank you. Sadly, Louke Eric would pass away on June two, nineteen eighty four, just two weeks away from turning thirty eight. But he's a legend. But he's always remembered as a legend, as a Yankees legend. I want to thank you for listening to this short episode today. I want you to come back again. We might do a couple more of these until we officially come back on July fifteenth. From the break, I'm taking to focus on my son and my family. But you can still listen to the back catalog as much as you want, but subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss any episodes that might pop up.