Remembering farewell speech by ‘Iron Horse’

Major League Baseball (MLB) Network showed the 1942 movie classic, “The Pride of the Yankees,” the biopic about legendary baseball player Lou Gehrig, known as “The Iron Horse,” who was played by the late legendary actor Gary Cooper.

Tuesday marked not only America’s 247th birthday, but the 84th anniversary of Gehrig’s farewell speech he gave on July 4, 1939, at Yankee Stadium.

Here is that famous speech in its entirety: ““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 this 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 may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

As many of you know, Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games, which began June 2, 1925 when he replaced New York Yankees starter Wally Pipp, who was suffering from his now infamous headache.

The streak ended April 30, 1939, when one of the strongest men ever to play the sport began showing signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — now known commonly as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

ALS is a rare neurological disease that affects motor neurons—those nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Voluntary muscles are those we choose to move to produce movements like chewing, walking, and talking. The disease is progressive, meaning the symptoms get worse over time. ALS has no cure and there is no effective treatment to reverse its progression.

ALS is a type of motor neuron disease. As motor neurons degenerate and die, they stop sending messages to the muscles, which causes the muscles to weaken, start to twitch (fasciculations), and waste away (atrophy). Eventually, the brain loses its ability to initiate and control voluntary movements.

I thought it was a classy move on MLB Network’s part to show this movie classic. Of course, I know why they chose Sunday night to showcase it. Tuesday, Independence Day, was full afternoon and night of MLB games on the network.

It’s sad that such a raw, pure, talented athlete that could have played in even more consecutive games, hit more than his actual career total 493 home runs, had more than this career total 1,995 runs batted in was stricken down by such a debilitating disease — whose cure is still being sought after to this day.

If you’ve never seen “The Pride of the Yankees,” I highly recommend it. There might be a little Hollywood glamorization in it, but it’s pretty much factual.

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Speaking of Major League Baseball, we will hit the traditional midpoint of the 2023 season after Sunday’s games as we will hit the All-Star Break, with the Home-Run Derby slated Monday night and the 93rd All-Star Game — colloquially nicknamed “The Mid-Summer Classic” — taking place Tuesday night.

I thought I’d take a moment to take a glance back at some of the surprises and disappointments of the first half of the season.

As for surprises, there’s been the success of teams that weren’t predicted to do so — like the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds and the Miami Marlins in the National League and the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers in the American League.

Individually, you have the likes of Miami’s Luis Arraez, who is catching everyone’s attention in his attempt to hit .400 for the year — and if he does, he will be the first MLB player to do so since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. You also have a rookie phenom in Cincinnati’s Elly de la Cruz, who only arrived with the Reds June 25 but is tearing it up on the diamonds — including a 4-for-4 performance on Independence Day in Washington against the Nationals.

As for disappointments, you’ve had rough first-half performances by the Kansas City Royals and the Oakland A’s in the AL and the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets and San Diego Padres for being sub-.500 — and as a second disappointment in the case of the Padres the fact they are not closer to the top of the NL West, which is where most prognosticators had them in the preseason.

As for individual disappointments, you have key players injured, like Los Angeles Angels’ centerfielder Mike Trout, who is out with a hamate fracture on his left wrist, and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge who is battling a toe injury. These are two MLB superstars people coming to the stadiums are currently being disappointed in not getting to see play.

Also, St. Louis veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright, who seems to be playing in his final season, is suffering through a 3-4 season with an earned-run average of 7.66 after taking the loss in his Cardinals’ Independence Day’s 15-2 setback at the hands of the Miami Marlins.

I know this doesn’t hit on every peak and valley so far this 2023 MLB season, but these have been the notable ones to me.

David Seeley is sports editor of Your TIMES. He can be reached by telephone at 918-775-4433 (office) or by e-mail at davids@cookson.news.