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July 4th 2009 was the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig Appreciation day in Yankee Stadium. Lou was never to play baseball again and died only a few short years later in 1941 at the age of 37. The following is an excerpt from his speech given to the 61,000 fans present that day........................... ..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 wouldnt consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, Im lucky. Who wouldnt consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseballs 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 — thats something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — thats 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."

— Lou Gehrig