"...today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of baseball's Gettysburg Address. Lou Gehrig made that inspiring, and sad speech back on July 4, 1939, in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium.The anniversary will be celebrated around Major League Baseball, as MLB looks to raise money for ALS research to help fight the illness that now bears Gehrig's name.
Throughout baseball, players will wear “4ALS” patches on their uniforms, all first bases used will be auctioned off, and during the seventh inning stretch of every game Gehrig’s speech will be read to the crowd.
While his death was terribly sad, his career was one of the most impressive the game of baseball has ever seen. If it wasn't for Babe Ruth and that stupid disease, we might look at Gehrig as the greatest slugger who ever lived. If you don't believe me, just look at the stats.
He was a lifetime .340/.447/.632 hitter. That's a lifetime OPS of 1.080, which is third all-time behind Ruth and Ted Williams. In 17 seasons he racked up 493 homers, 2721 hits, 1995 RBI, and 1888 runs. Had he stayed healthy the Iron Horse those numbers probably would have increased to 500+ homers, 3000+ hits, and over 2000 RBI and runs scored. The man won two MVPs, and was the Yankees captain from 1935 until his death in 1941. Also, from what I've read, he was a hell of defensive first baseman.And I say all that without mentioning his famous consecutive games streak.
Sadly, I don't think most people realize how great a baseball player this man truly was. Hopefully this anniversary will get people talking about him and open some eyes. Think of Gehrig this weekend, and remember how great he was, because a lot of that Yankee Pride everyone talks about actually came from him.
2 Comments:
I love the history of the game and especially the Yankees. Gehrig has always been one of my all time faves.
My father was raised a Dodgers fan and is now a mets fan. (Sadly also a red sux fan too.)
Anyway, he was up from Florida a few months ago and hit me with a shocker.
He has an original ticket to Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939... for the Lou Gehrig speech.
I almost fell out of my freakin' chair.
I asked him how the heck he had never told me this before. I guess the story is that it was passed down through the family and he had it stored away and kind of forgot about it.
And I'll tell you one thing... it's getting passed on to me!!!
My father says that it is in good condition except that a corner is torn, thus marking it as a used ticket. I have yet to see it.
When I do get my hands on it, I plan to get an official photo of Gehrig giving his speech and get them framed together.
I have one other quick story but without as good of an ending.
The great grandfather of my oldest son on his mother's side (from my first marriage) was an original Yankee Stadium bat boy.
He was given an autographed dollar bill from the Babe but unfortunately it got passed down through the boys in the family and therefore a different branch on my son's family tree.
Would have loved to have that!
What a great piece of baseball history to have. That's really awesome.
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