His Career

On June 19^th 1903 Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig was born. He would later

be known as Lou Gehrig. He pocessed a rare combination of power,

speed and consistency. While attending Columbia University he was

spotted by a scout for the New York Yankees. That was the start of a

brilliant career.

When someone mentions the name “Lou Gehrig” the first thing they

think of is the disease. If you search the internet you would probably

find 9 times out of 10 the disease would show up before the hall of

fame baseball player. I have ALS, MND or Lou Gehrig’s disease. If I

am going to build a home page, I should mention the career of this

legend.

Lou Gehrig earned the nickname “the Iron Horse” for playing 2,130

consecutive games before retiring due to the disease that would later

bare his name. He had 13 straight seasons of 100 runs scored and 100

runs batted in. In 1931 he had 184 runs batted in which is to this day

is still an American League record. Along with his record 23 grand

slams, he had a .361 batting average in 7 World Series leading the New

York Yankees to six world titles in 13 years. In 1934 he won the Triple

Crown. Some say he would have broken and set a lot more records if it

were not for the disease.

His Farewell

On July 4^th 1939, in front of 62,000 fans and reporters at Yankee

Stadium Lou Gehrig gave this emotional farewell speech that will

go down in history as one of the sports best retirement speeches.

“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 groundkeepers and the 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 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 then you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know. So

I close in saying that I have had tough break but I have an awful lot

to live for.”

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