DECLARATION OF INSPIRATION

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The farewell speech at Yankee Stadium by the great Lou Gehrig made history with words that still resonate today. That he delivered his speech on the nation’s birthday was as appropriate as his fate was ironic. The man who appeared in 2,130 consecutive games as the first baseman for the Yankees, a man renowned and respected for his talent and durability, would be felled before his 40th birthday.

Lou Gehrig, July 4th, 1939, the Yankees’ first captain, the almost instant Hall of Famer and revered Iron Horse was brief, 275 words, but they were as powerful as anything Gehrig did with a bat in his hand.

He found a glimmer of good in a winding-down experience that many Americans considered profoundly sad and tragic. And he emphasized how fortunate and grateful he was. He had been stricken by a disease that would end his life nearly two years after he spoke that day at Yankee Stadium.

And though his already compromised body merely hinted at his weakness — a once-strapping body slumped slightly as he spoke, and he was unable to hold the gifts bestowed on him that day — his words provided only a veiled reference to the fatal, dreadful disease that took his life, ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Much of what Gehrig said that day seldom is heard these days. His famous words…

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet, today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”