Lou Gehrig’s Farewell to Baseball Address
Called “The Gettysburg Address of Baseball,” the following speech was delivered by Lou Gehrig on July 4, 1939 to a packed Yankee Stadium under heart-breaking circumstances. Gehrig, considered the greatest first baseman in history, had just learned two months earlier of the fatal medical condition--amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-- that would destroy his physical abilities. Moved to tears by his teammates’ and fans’ tribute that day, the naturally shy athlete delivered, without notes, the now iconic speech.
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 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.
Identify and list ONE EXAMPLE for each rhetorical appeal from the speech above