Annual July 4th Essay: Let’s Recall Baseball’s Most Eloquent Moment, The Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man” Speech, July 4, 1939

Annual July 4th Essay: Let’s Recall Baseball’s Most Eloquent Moment, The Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man” Speech, July 4, 1939



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 Lou Gehrig Photo Gallery

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My Annual July 4th Essay:

Let’s Recall Baseball’s Most Eloquent Moment:

The Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man” Speech, July 4, 1939

(To our readers: For the past few years, I’ve been reposting my Fourth of July tribute to Lou Gehrig and his “Luckiest Man” speech, with the beautiful featured painting by Graig Kreindler.)
 
Amidst all the Fourth of July celebrations today, all baseball history fans (like us!) should take a few minutes to reflect upon the anniversary of one of the most memorable – yet saddest – days in baseball history. It occurred 83 years ago today on “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day,” at Yankee Stadium between games of a Yankees- Senators doubleheader: Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” Speech.
 
To honor the occasion, check out the beautiful painting above by Graig Kreindler.  Be sure to click on the image to see all the wonderful detail.

Lou Gehrig Never Known For His Eloquence.

Famously shy by nature, Lou was never known for his public speaking ability. A magnificent hitter? For sure. Yet in fewer than 300 words, the dying Gehrig somehow managed to deliver one of the most moving and memorable speeches in American culture. I call it the baseball equivalent (in its eloquence, not in historical value) to the Gettysburg Address. It was composed the night before by Lou with help from his wife, Eleanor.




Classic Lou Gehrig from the Brace collection

 
There were 61,808 fans in attendance that day, including New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Postmaster General James Farley, and teammates from the 1927 Yankees. There is no known intact film of Gehrig’s speech; only a small snippet of the newsreel footage. So in order to fully appreciate the impact of this beautiful oration, I thought it would be a good idea to post the entire text.
 
Try to envision the scene as an eerie silence descended upon Yankee Stadium; and Lou, crestfallen and with his head down, slowly stepped up to the microphone. Somehow, amidst all the emotion of the day, he was able to deliver one of the most eloquent and moving speeches in American history. By the time he was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. There is no one definitive version of the speech, but the version below may be the closest in existence:
 
“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.”
 
“When you look around, wouldn’t you consider it a privilege to associate yourself with such fine-looking men as are standing in uniform in this ballpark today? 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 that 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.”
 
After Gehrig delivered the speech, the stunned crowd stood and applauded for almost two minutes. Lou was visibly shaken as he stepped away from the microphone and wiped tears away from his face with his handkerchief as Babe Ruth came over and hugged him. The New York Times called it “One of the most touching scenes ever witnessed on a ball field.” It was said that even hard-boiled reporters had to “swallow hard.”
 
Here’s a beautiful description of the speech written by Richard Sandomir found on the “Sports On Earth” website:
 
“No longer a magnificent ballplayer, he was a dying young man, grateful for his life, not complaining about his limited future. He gave them the essential Gehrig: no different than the decent man he had always been, but now faced with altered circumstances. He did not sound like a professional speaker. He lacked a baritone like Gary Cooper, the actor who played him in The Pride of the Yankees, which made Gehrig’s speech so much more effective. Gehrig simultaneously became a symbol of courage and the soul of the Yankees’ cold-as-steel empire. Had he died in 1971, not 1941, he would have been recalled for his statistics and humility. But by offering nothing but gratitude, for a life that would end two years later, days before his 38th birthday, he was canonized a sports saint.”
 
Very well said…
 
Gary Livacari 

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Photo Credits: Painting by Graig Kreindler; All others from Google search

I'm a baseball historian who also enjoys writing. My forte is identifying ballplayers in old photos, and my special interest is the Dead Ball Era.

10 Comments

  1. Dennis J Friedenbloom · July 4, 2022 Reply

    Thanks for the article and the reminder about Lou Gehrig. Although I was born in 1944, well after the moment of the speech, I learned about it at a very early age. Any one with a heart cannot keep from having tears flow upon reading or hearing the speech. I borrowed his speech the day I wed my wonderful wife saying ” today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” Thanks for the memories to the all time great Lou.

  2. Thomas Marshall · July 4, 2022 Reply

    So fitting to post the Lou Gehrig speech today. I knew of it from reading a biography of Gehrig when I was a youngster. Poignant {but not as somber} was the speech given by Mickey Mantle in 1969 on the day the Yankees retired his #7. In that speech, he mentions that he often wondered how a man who knew he was near death, could consider himself the “luckiest man on earth”, but then; at that moment, he knew how Gehrig felt. Two legendary speeches by two legendary Yankees. Great work, Gary. HAPPY BIRTHDAY U.S.A. !!!!

  3. Cary Seidman · July 4, 2022 Reply

    Thanks for posting Gehrig’s speech. Too many of us have the “Pride of the Yankees” version of events embedded in our minds as a true account of his life and career. May I suggest a book about Lou? In it, he is depicted as no less heroic but a good deal more complex than the klutzy one-dimensional character portrayed by Gary Cooper (who looks like he never picked up a bat and ball in his life). The “lap dog” reporter role played by Walter Brennan in the film is a childish fiction. Here’s the Amazon link to this excellent book, “Luckiest Man” by Jonathan Eig; https://www.amazon.com/Luckiest-Man-Life-Death-Gehrig/dp/0743268938/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B7916D337UJV&keywords=luckiest+man&qid=1656966176&s=books&sprefix=luckiest+man%2Cstripbooks%2C1639&sr=1-1

    • Gary Livacari · July 4, 2022 Reply

      Thanks Cary. I’ve read that book and I agree with you completely. Great development of Lou’s far-more complex character. It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember how much I enjoyed it. Another good one is Eleanor Gehrig’s book, “My Luke and Me.” Not as scholarly as the Jonathan Eig bok, but well worth reading,.

  4. Bill Schaefer · July 5, 2022 Reply

    Wonderful post, Gary. I appreciate the full text of Gehrig’s speech and I’m sure you put it together with great accuracy. I’ll have to get after the Eig and Eleanore book, both of which I’m only vaguely familiar with.
    Sure, Cary, the movie is an entertainment package more than an in-depth biography. But let’s give, “Pride…” its due. Coop was a little long in the tooth for the part and not an athlete, but the scene in the clubhouse when Gehrig bends over to tie his shoe and topples forward is memorable. And when he’s wrestling playfully with Eleanor and suddenly emits a fleeting wince of pain, combined with an expression of stark terror, knowing something is frightfully wrong, is just plain great acting.
    Yes, Walter Brennan is a loyal “lap dog” but a damn charming one, “You shoulda seen the send-off that guy in x-ray gave ya!”

    Best, Bill

  5. Dennis J Friedenbloom · July 5, 2022 Reply

    I always agree with you Bill and so on your last remarks. The Pride of the Yankees was a very entertaining movie even if not exactly true to life. Gary Cooper was a great actor and I always think of High Noon when his name comes up. Hope you are well and always enjoy your insight,

  6. Bill Schaefer · July 6, 2022 Reply

    Thanks so much, Dennis!
    And don’t forget the beautiful job turned in by Teresa Wright, as Eleanor, especially when she has to act as if nothing is wrong with the love of her life.

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