75 Years Later, We're the Lucky Ones

When I was little, Pride of the Yankees was my favorite movie.  To this day, four is still one of my favorite numbers.  As I got older and the more I learned about Lou Gehrig, the bigger a fan of his I became.  The fact that he died 41 years before I was born doesn't matter.  (By coincidence, my apartment is only a few blocks away from where he once lived.)

Lou Gehrig was such a remarkable man.  He wasn't just a great ballplayer.  He was a well-respected, beloved gentleman.  I've never heard a single ill word ever spoken about the man.  And even in death, he was a pillar of strength.

I still find it almost impossible to fathom.  He was suffering from a debilitating neurological disease that would eventually take his life for God knows how long, yet was still playing Major League Baseball at a high level every single day until he was no longer physically able to do so.  Stephen Hawking has been living with ALS for more than 50 years.  And has been confined to a wheelchair unable to speak for just as long.  Another former Yankee, Catfish Hunter, died a year after receiving his own diagnosis.  Yet Lou Gehrig, not knowing what was wrong or the seriousness of his illness, continued to play and was still physically able to perform.  Until he wasn't.

Of course, he's best known for his streak of 2,130 consecutive games over 14 years.  That streak ended on May 2, 1939, when Gehrig took himself out of the lineup.  About a month later he got the diagnosis--amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has been known as Lou Gehrig's disease ever since.  It's fatal and there's no cure (even with all the advancements in modern medicine, that's still the case today).

It was then that Lou Gehrig retired and Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium was planned.  On that day, July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig, the captain of the New York Yankees, a six-time World Series champion and a .340 career hitter with 23 career grand slams (which was the Major League record until A-Rod broke it last year), said farewell in one of the most memorable speeches in American history.  For all he accomplished during his Hall of Fame career, it might be his poignant farewell that was Gehrig's defining moment.

A man who knew he was dying stood in front of a microphone with a sellout crowd at the largest baseball stadium in the country listening intently to his every word.  And he called himself "lucky."  Gehrig had every right to be angry or any selection of similar adjectives.  Yet "lucky" is the word he chose.  One lasting reminder of how remarkable a man he truly was.

Major League Baseball honored the 75th anniversary of the speech by having every team wear a Lou Gehrig patch on their uniforms today.  They also made a video of all 30 first basemen and Derek Jeter, the current Yankees captain, reciting the speech.  Interspersed within that video was original footage of Gehrig's original speech.  It was beautiful and fitting.  And I bet there was more than a few people that got choked up while watching it, even though 95 percent of them are too young to remember it.

Since the Yankees were on the road today, they honored Gehrig on Wednesday.  It was Lou Gehrig Bobblehead Day.  Gates opened at 11:00 for the 1:00 game.  I got to the Stadium at 11:05 and the line was wrapped around the block at all four gates (don't worry, I got my bobblehead).  The line was just as long to get into Monument Park.  Everyone wanted to get a picture of the "4" on the wall and the Lou Gehrig monument.  And there was more than one Lou Gehrig jersey in the stands.

But the best part was the pregame ceremony.  The Gehrigs never had any children.  After Lou Gehrig's death, his wife dedicated the rest of her life to ALS research.  So, Lou Gehrig's legacy is truly the people who suffer from the terrible disease that took him much too soon.  The Yankees honored that legacy by welcoming ALS patients onto the field and making a donation to the ALS Foundation.

 

Even 75 years later, Lou Gehrig is still a big deal.  He might've declared himself "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth" in the face of certain death, but I think that it's actually us that are the lucky ones.  And that's thanks to Lou Gehrig.  He was a great ballplayer, yes, but he was a pillar of class and dignity who had strength and courage that the rest of us can only aspire to.  I can only hope to live my life in that same way.  If I do, then I'll consider myself lucky, too.