Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the formal name, but is popularly known today in North America as Lou Gehrig's Disease, named after its most famous victim, and New York Yankee's Hall of Famer, Lou Gehrig.
Gehrig felt the onset of ALS in the midst of the 1938 baseball season, despite posting solid statistics, reportedly saying "I tired mid-season. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again." By 1939's spring training, Gehrig had slowed even more, tripping over his feet, unable to muster any energy to play first base, with base hits dribbling out into the field. During April, the first month of the season, Gehrig's statistics dropped dramatically, causing media speculation as to what was the cause, and resulting in Gehrig removing himself from the starting lineup--the first time his name didn't appear in 2,130 straight games.
Weeks later, on June 19th, Gehrig visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, seeing Charles William Mayo (the surgeon son of the namesake founder of the Mayo Clinic) for a diagnosis. Mayo determined Gehrig had amyotrophic laeral sclerosis, a grim diagnosis with rapidly deteriorating outcomes, with maybe a few years to live. Gehrig's career was over immediately.
Within two weeks, the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day in the middle of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators on the 4th of July. The ceremony was filled with official dignitaries from the world of baseball, politics, and local civic organizations, in which Gehrig was presented with numerous awards, plaques, and trophies honoring him for his service to the game and to the community. Gehrig, too weak to hold some of the awards, often placed them to the ground.
To cap off the ceremony, Gehrig was asked to give a speech. It was then, on a warm, beautiful 4th of July in 1939, that Gehrig gave a largely extemporaneous speech claiming that--despite his death sentence--he was the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
Excerpts of the speech are shown in the video above. The text of Gehrig's speech is below:
"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."
Gehrig died two years later on June 2, 1941, at the age of 37. It was 16-years to the day of when he began his streak of 2,130 straight games played.
Gehrig felt the onset of ALS in the midst of the 1938 baseball season, despite posting solid statistics, reportedly saying "I tired mid-season. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again." By 1939's spring training, Gehrig had slowed even more, tripping over his feet, unable to muster any energy to play first base, with base hits dribbling out into the field. During April, the first month of the season, Gehrig's statistics dropped dramatically, causing media speculation as to what was the cause, and resulting in Gehrig removing himself from the starting lineup--the first time his name didn't appear in 2,130 straight games.
Weeks later, on June 19th, Gehrig visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, seeing Charles William Mayo (the surgeon son of the namesake founder of the Mayo Clinic) for a diagnosis. Mayo determined Gehrig had amyotrophic laeral sclerosis, a grim diagnosis with rapidly deteriorating outcomes, with maybe a few years to live. Gehrig's career was over immediately.
Within two weeks, the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day in the middle of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators on the 4th of July. The ceremony was filled with official dignitaries from the world of baseball, politics, and local civic organizations, in which Gehrig was presented with numerous awards, plaques, and trophies honoring him for his service to the game and to the community. Gehrig, too weak to hold some of the awards, often placed them to the ground.
To cap off the ceremony, Gehrig was asked to give a speech. It was then, on a warm, beautiful 4th of July in 1939, that Gehrig gave a largely extemporaneous speech claiming that--despite his death sentence--he was the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
Excerpts of the speech are shown in the video above. The text of Gehrig's speech is below:
"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."
Gehrig died two years later on June 2, 1941, at the age of 37. It was 16-years to the day of when he began his streak of 2,130 straight games played.
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