Lou Gehrig Delivers His 'Luckiest Man' Farewell Speech

On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig stood at home plate in Yankee Stadium between games of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators and delivered the most famous speech in baseball history. Two weeks after his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that would kill him less than two years later, Gehrig told 61,808 fans, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

The ceremony had been organized as Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. His teammates from the 1927 Yankees, including Babe Ruth, returned for the occasion. Gehrig and Ruth had not spoken in years due to a personal falling out, but Ruth crossed the infield and embraced his former teammate in a moment captured by newsreel cameras and newspaper photographers. The crowd roared as the two icons reconciled at home plate.

Gehrig had played his final game on April 30, ending his consecutive games streak at 2,130, a record that would stand for 56 years until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. By the time of the ceremony, Gehrig's deterioration was visible. He needed help walking to the microphone. His voice was steady but thin.

The speech was not written out in advance. Gehrig spoke from the heart, thanking his teammates, his managers, his family, and even the opposing teams who had sent him gifts. He mentioned his mother-in-law and his wife Eleanor. He called his years with the Yankees "a wonderful thing." He never mentioned his illness by name, referring only to "a bad break."

The Yankees retired his number 4 that day, the first time any major league team retired a uniform number. Gehrig died on June 2, 1941, at age 37. His farewell speech endures as one of the most powerful moments in American sports, a declaration of gratitude delivered by a man who had every reason to feel cheated and chose instead to count his blessings.