4◊ALS Awareness

After officially announcing Lou Gehrig's retirement from baseball on June 21, 1939, the Yankees celebrated his career on July 4th 1939. (he would die less than two years later - at 10:10pm on June 2, 1941 - of complications resulting from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The Iron Horse had played in 2,130 games straight before benching himself in Detroit on May 2 of that year. At just 35, Gehrig's play had diminished drastically, and suddenly. So much so, in fact, that sports writer James Kahn noted:

"I have watched him closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely - and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield.... He is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere."

The festivities on July 4th, 1939, took place on the diamond in front of over 60,000 fans at Yankee stadium. Members of the 1927 Yankees World Championship team, aka "Murderers' Row" returned, the Yankees retired his number, and Babe Ruth famously bear-hugged his estranged friend. After remarks by Ruth, Lou Gehrig took to the podium to deliver his farewell speech (video excerpt and full text below).

This coming July 4th will mark the 70th anniversary of the day. To commemorate this event, Major League Baseball has joined with ALS TDI and three other major non-profit organizations to raise money and awareness to help find a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Please help MLB, ALS TDI, the Tristatetrek, and me work towards a cure/treatments for ALS by joining my ride and contributing money to ALS TDI!

"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 the 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 might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

— Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939