Lou Gehrig's The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth

Although this speech is perhaps one of the shortest speeches of note in the history of the world, it also ranks as one of the most emotional and powerful speeches of all time. To give the proper impact, one should have a little history on the events leading up to this moment in time.

Lou Gehrig was a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees from 1923 until 1939. Although he spent two thirds of his career playing in the shadow of Babe Ruth, the fact is that this man was equal to “the Babe” in both prowess and skill, with Babe Ruth's off-field activities and larger-than-life persona making him the media darling and star that he was. Lou Gehrig's records in baseball were so impressive, that some of them still stand to this day, or have only fallen in the last decade-- a decade that has decidedly been marred by rampant steroid use among players.


Between 1925 and 1939, Lou Gehrig played 2,130 consecutive games, a record that held until 1995. The only reason he did not have a longer stretch is because he benched himself, much to his coach's dismay, “for the good of the team”. Beginning in 1938, about halfway through the season, Gehrig's famed power hitting plays quickly diminished. It caused one reporter, James Kahn, to write in April of 1939: “I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don't know what it is, but I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers 'go' overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It's something deeper than that in this case, though. I have watched him very 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. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn't there... He is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere.“

On Lou Gehrig's 36th birthday, June 19th, after a week of testing at the famed Mayo Clinic, Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and informed that he was a dying man. The New York Yankees announced his retirement on June 21st, and proclaimed July 4th, 1939 to be Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. During the break between the doubleheader scheduled that day, there was a retirement ceremony dedicated to him, and practically everyone present gave him some platitude or gift in his honor, as well as praising him. At the end, he gave this speech. Because it is so short, I am going to include it here; because emotionally, it packs a wallop of a punch:

"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 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."

Here you have a man who had been diagnosed to die in a very painful and undignified manner within a few years, who, until only a year before, had been at the pinnacle and peak of his career, telling you that he's the luckiest man in the world, and how grateful he is, how blessed he is. This man had discovered his future fate a grand total of only 2 weeks prior, and yet, where most people might be angry, or withdrawn, or feeling sorry for the losing hand that they had been dealt-- to be cut down in the prime of their youth-- Lou Gehrig refers to it as a “bad break”, and then takes the time to thank the boy ushers who seat the guests at Yankee Stadium. It was met with a solid two minute standing ovation, and not one dry eye in the place.

This speech gives us an incredible insight into the character and heart of this remarkable athlete. Structurally speaking, it's very abrupt, with little introduction or conclusion, but filled with a solid delivery throughout. When Gehrig's own career is compared to this address, it is plain to see that the speech is a mirror of the humble, hard-working man who was worthy of all the headlines, but played without resentment or ill feeling in the long shadow of Babe Ruth. No fancy song and dance, no grand-standing for this man, just a clean sweep of the bases.