Gehrig died from ALS in 1941, and his life was further immortalized a year later by Gary Cooper in the Hollywood depiction of his life, The Pride of the Yankees. Added the New York Post: “He was close to breaking down.”, Mercer told the crowd: “He is too moved to speak.”. June 8, 1942. There is little record of the speech known as baseball’s Gettysburg Address, but there is that movie. Cooper turned Gehrig into yet another one of his characters with quiet dignity: a decent man who loves his wife and faces death with grace. Comment below or Send us a Tip. Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts and events, and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. Lou Gehrig, first baseman for the New York Yankees, is shown at the microphone during Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, a farewell to the slugger, at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. Lou Gehrig, July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. And if not for Cooper’s rendition of the speech, its power might have faded long ago. The tributes had overwhelmed him. He limped. Heartfelt and poignant, this man with less than two years to live shared his feelings to an enraptured audience that … His head was often bowed. Whatever his preparation, Gehrig delivered a magnificent speech — short, memorable and filled with gratitude despite the diagnosis of ALS that had forced him to retire and endure the growing indignities of a body that was betraying him. Back in the comfort of the clubhouse with teammates and friendly reporters around him, he asked, “Did my speech sound silly?” It was a humble man’s question with an easy answer: it did not. The ceremony would have ended with gift-giving and speechifying by luminaries like New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Postmaster General James Farley if he had not given his speech. Gehrig’s speech can be found on the list of top 100 speeches because of the humility that Gehrig showed and because of … The speech itself has become the stuff of legend, even though no complete recording, on film or audio, remains. More than 62,000 fans witnessed Gehrig give his farewell speech. Accompanying them was Rosaleen Doherty, a reporter for the Daily News who wrote that Eleanor did not cry as Lou spoke “although all around us, women and quite a few men, were openly sobbing.”, Eleanor told her: “I’m glad Lou was able to walk out there and make his little talk over the microphone. They gave it a rewrite (rendering it less literary than the original) that reduced Gehrig’s litany of thanks and moving the “luckiest man” line to the end where it had a greater dramatic wallop that it did in the original. If there had been a written speech, it is surprising that Eleanor had not pasted it into one of the scrapbooks she had meticulously filled to record his career and their precious few years together. To McCarthy—who adored Lou—he looked wobbly. But was ALS the cause of Lou Gehrig’s death? After some encouraging words whispered by McCarthy, who adored Gehrig, Lou reluctantly stepped to the microphones. Gehrig joined the New York Yankees midway through the 1923 season and made his major-league debut as a pinch hitter at age 19 on June 15, 1923. If we think we know a complete speech, it is because of the version that Cooper delivered in “Pride,” which borrowed from what Gehrig’s wife, Eleanor, remembered of July 4, 1939, and from newsreels that had not yet wasted away or been discarded. His legacy also rests with his retirement speech—dubbed "baseball's Gettysburg Address"—which he gave on July 4, 1939. Gehrig brought such significant attention to ALS that it is now known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” At this time, the country was slowly recovering from the Great Depression and war was imminent in Europe. The backdrop of Lou Gehrig’s speech is extremely important in considering why his speech was so rhetorically effective. This Friday, July 4 th, marks the 75 th year of Lou Gehrig’s iconic farewell speech when he stepped away from the game of baseball because of his struggle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). 1) Which of the following is not intended to … Do you know the scoop? However, it turns out that the road from the actual speech to the silver screen (now a pop culture touchstone as well) was not a direct one—especially since there was no known contemporaneous or a written transcription. Gifts were presented. For the last 76 years, Cooper’s portrayal of Gehrig has helped perpetuate the Iron Horse’s memory. Lou Gehrig died just two years later at age 37 at his home in Riverdale, New York. Share your email address to get our top stories each day. New York Yankees' Lou Gehrig wipes away a tear while speaking during a tribute at Yankee Stadium in New York on July 4, 1939, The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic. The speech was filmed on Goldwyn’s studio lot — not at the other Wrigley Field, in Los Angeles, where most of the baseball action was shot. Lou Gehrig’s disease damages the motor neurons in an individual’s brain and spinal cord. Gehrig looked lonely, even desolate, a solo figure on the infield, surrounded by retired teammates from the 1927 Yankees and members of the current team who had carried on brilliantly without him, with Babe Dahlgren now at first base. Lou stood alone except when he stepped forward to shake hands with well-wishers or briefly hold the gifts he set down on the infield. © 2021 New York Public Radio. Lou Gehrig used pathos and repetition to encourage and thank all the fans and spectators that have supported him throughout his career. He had played in 2,130 consecutive games until his finale on April 30, 1939 — when he acknowledged that his once-mighty body had betrayed him with unyielding cruelty. The Experiment, from The Atlantic and WNYC Studios, is a new weekly podcast that looks at the powerful ideas that shaped the United States—and what happens when America’s big ideals collide with people’s everyday lives. “He gulped and fought to keep back the tears as he kept his eyes fastened to the ground,” The New York Times wrote. It was July 4, 1939 — “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day.”. For about an hour, though, the focus returned to the star of Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. “If Lou starts to fall, catch him,” McCarthy told Babe Dahlgren, who had replaced Gehrig as the Yankees’ first baseman two months earlier. The Iron Man had reached the end. Seventy-five years ago Lou Gehrig delivered his famous farewell speech, widely regarded as the greatest speech in sports history. On this day, nearly 62,000 fans listened to Gehrig as he gave his famous speech where he deemed himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” It was at this point that Ruth moved toward Lou, embraced him and said something that brought a smile to Lou’s face, leading sportswriter Jack Miley to wrote that Ruth “clasped baseball’s most famous invalid in a bear hug and Lou’s ceremony was a success. In his first two seasons, he saw limited playing time, mostly as a pinch hitter – he played in only 23 games and was not on the Yankees' 1923 World Series roster. English Composition 1301 26 May 2012 Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech Analysis Imagine a young boy and his father going to the New York Yankees ballpark on a warm sunny day. By July 4, 1939, the Yankees were playing as if they did not miss the ailing Lou Gehrig. Now, she didn’t have to stay. The date is July 4, 1939 and it is Lou Gehrig appreciation day at the ballpark. When Lou spoke, he leaned into the microphones. Had he, after working on it the day before with Eleanor (as she has said), discarded any drafts and decided to deliver it extemporaneously? With his condition rapidly deteriorating, Gehrig put his name to a syndicated article (almost certainly ghostwritten) that explained what he felt was a lifetime of thankfulness: for his parents, for making his high school football team, for attending college, for signing with the Yankees, for Eleanor. That would have been a bold and risky decision given Lou’s shyness and lack of experience at giving speeches. It was very familiar to Eleanor — and all too difficult to watch. Eleanor took a seat on Stage 4, trying to be unobtrusive. By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms. When that moment was described by the screenwriters Herman Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling nearly three years later in their script for “The Pride of the Yankees,” they wrote: “The roar of the crowd is like a sustained note from a mighty organ. But he walked — in an uncertain gait — onto the field without a piece of paper. They were filled with gratitude for the people in his life: Eleanor, his parents, his mother-in-law, his Yankee managers, his roommate Bill Dickey, the New York Giants and the stadium’s groundskeepers. “You can count on the wording being perfect,” she wrote to Goldwyn on April 16, 1942, when the shooting of Pride was nearly over, “because Lou and I worked on it the night before it was delivered, and naturally my memory could not fail me in this instance.”, Conceding that she had set the speech down from memory suggests that if there was an actual written speech, it had been lost. In 1939, Lou Gehrig gave his "luckiest man on the face of the Earth" speech in announcing his retirement from the New York Yankees. Both versions of the speech, the real and imagined, raise one question: What would make a man who had received a diagnosis of a terrible disease speak only of good fortune and the people he was grateful for? But Lou had at least prepared to speak. And her version was imperfect — it omitted some lines and differs in respects from the way that some reporters rendered it in their newspapers' accounts of the speech; in one instance, United Press wrote that Gehrig had inelegantly said: “I am a fellow who got a tough break. By the time he was asked to speak, he made a gesture to the M.C., the sportswriter Sid Mercer, that he would not say a word. Lou Gehrig gave his speech in front of the Yankee’s fans that filled the stadium that day, as well as his fellow players. Gehrig The purpose wanted to thank the baseball community for supporting him throughout his career and raise awareness for ALS and its victims. At the close of his short speech, Babe Ruth put his arms around his teammate and spoke to him for the first time in six years. Soon thereafter people started referring to the disease he had by his name: Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It gave the speech more feeling and it made it feel alive. Richard Sandomir, the author of The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic, writes obituaries for The New York Times. Emily gave this informative speech on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in her public speaking class. Lou had wept as he spoke — as did many of the nearly 62,000 other people in Yankee Stadium on that Fourth of July 80 years ago. July 4th marks the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's iconic speech. “Film of Lou’s Life Is Approved By Mrs. Gehrig.” INS, as printed in The Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Lou Gehrig Speech Analysis 1622 Words | 7 Pages. Credit... Stanley Weston/Getty Images Gehrig was by far the most famous person of his time to develop the disease, so it was renamed after his death in 1941. His gratitude poured out: to his teammates; his mother, father, mother-in-law; McCarthy and his predecessor, Miller Huggins; his roommate Bill Dickey; the New York Giants, who played across the Harlem River in the Polo Grounds; sportswriters and groundskeepers and concessionaires, and, of course, Eleanor (“a tower of strength” who had “shown more courage than you have dreamed existed”). McCarthy whispered enouragement to him and Lou hobbled to the bank of microphones. New York Times writer Richard Sandomir reveals the surprising backstory in an excerpt from his book, The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic. Gehrig’s mother was a dominant force in his life, and even after becoming a star Yankee he lived with his parents until shortly before his marriage at age 30. Richard Sandomir spoke with Karen Given about how the speech … So he stood, wobbly enough that Manager Joe McCarthy worried he might fall, in the summer heat between games of a doubleheader between the Yankees and Washington Senators. Gehrig did not have a written speech to deliver — and no actual copy of it appears to exist. Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell to Baseball Address” is a prime example of using a small amount of words to help get a large point across. A great fellow that Ruth and always the life of the party!”. When the ceremony neared its end, Lou waved off the emcee Sid Mercer’s request to speak. He was helped onto the field by team president Ed Barrow while a fretful Manager Joe McCarthy kept an eye on his weakened star. They had rolled to a 51-16 record and were 12 1/2-games ahead of the Boston Red Sox. And, in his final sentence, he returned to his opening, saying: “So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”, Eleanor watched the ceremony from a box seat behind the dugout with her brother, Frank, and Lou’s parents. Richard Sandomir is the author of “The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of A Classic.”, Eighty Years On, Lou Gehrig’s Words Reverberate. Emotion had overcome him. The speech is short, but it seems to carry so much with so little words. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. The official version that has been quoted in the decades since is almost certainly the one Eleanor sent to Samuel Goldwyn, who produced The Pride of the Yankees, the 1942 biopic about Lou, with instructions that Gary Cooper deliver it in the film as Gehrig did on the field. If Mankiewicz and Swerling’s words struck a hyperbolic chord, Gehrig’s did not. On July 4, 1939, baseball legend Lou Gehrig, who was battling ALS, gave his iconic "Luckiest Man" speech at New York's Yankee Stadium. Lou Gehrig uses several rhetorical strategies to support his purpose. Lou Gehrig had finally made it to the Yankees’ clubhouse that afternoon, drained and drenched with perspiration, having delivered a speech of such simple eloquence that it would one day be called baseball’s Gettysburg Address. “We want Lou!”. Only four lines from the speech have survived — and no official written version exists. 3 Parsons, Louella O. All rights reserved. Eig’s piece contains excerpts from the letters Lou Gehrig wrote to his doctors at the Mayo Clinic, in the two years preceding his death. In words that echoed the speech, he wrote, “This summer I got a bad break. His voice — the sound of a New Yorker who had been raised in Manhattan by German immigrant parents — reverberated around the stadium. Gehrig’s growing frailty contrasted with the physically hale men surrounding him on the infield: the current Yankees, the Senators. Lou Gehrig could not have looked any lonelier. She knew that he had played in the shadow of Ruth and would not have wanted him to leave his stage without saying something. Although there had been no public announcement that he would speak, Gehrig planned some remarks with Eleanor. That’s what counts.”. of 1.080, third in major league history to Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Lou’s baggy uniform was hanging on him as if it were a size too large for his once-muscular frame. His career cut short by ALS, Gehrig spoke to the crowd at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, which was designated Lou Gehrig Day.

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