MLB pays tribute to Gehrig on speech anniversary

By JAY COHEN
AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK — Derek Jeter helped Major League Baseball
commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s luckiest man
speech Saturday, reading the famous line from the icon’s
stirring words during a video tribute before the New York
Yankees’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Yankees also placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers
by Gehrig’s monument in Monument Park and made a $25,000
donation to Major League Baseball’s “4 (diamond) ALS”
initiative, an effort to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis – the disease that forced Gehrig out of baseball in
1939 and took his life two years later.

“It’s one thing to me to have the game taken away from you
before it should be but when you start talking about taking your
life before it should, the way he handled it was incredible,”
said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who has an uncle with ALS.

“I think any time you can pay tribute to this man I think you
should do it because of just the legacy he left and the type of
life that he lived,” Girardi added.

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, attacks nerve cells in the brain
and the spinal cord and robs from people who have it the ability
to move and speak. The majority of patients die from respiratory
failure within five years of the progress of symptoms, though
there are exceptions.

All major league players, coaches and on-field personnel wore
patches Saturday to honor Gehrig’s legacy and the initiative’s
logo was displayed on first base in each ballpark.

Gehrig played first for the Yankees for 17 years, hitting .340
with 493 homers and 1,995 RBIs. He hit a record 23 grand slams,
had 13 straight consecutive seasons of at least 100 RBIs and 100
runs and helped New York win six World Series titles.

The Hall of Famer played in 2,130 straight games before he sat
out against the Detroit Tigers on May 2, 1939, unable to play
because of the effects of ALS. His consecutive games streak was
the major league record before Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the mark in
1995.

Two months after Gehrig’s last game, the Yankees retired the
Iron Horse’s No. 4 in between games of a doubleheader against
the Washington Senators. He was the first player in all of
sports to receive such an honor.

In front of about 62,000 fans at the old Yankee Stadium, Gehrig
delivered one of the most memorable speeches in sports history.
He called his disease a “bad break,” praised his teammates and
manager Joe McCarthy and called his wife “a tower of strength.”

The Yankees recreated the speech in a tribute shown on the
videoboard of their new $1.5 billion ballpark Saturday, showing
Gehrig reciting the first sentence before cutting away to Jeter
for the signature line.

“Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the
Earth,” the current Yankees captain said.

Several Yankees stars, including Mark Teixeira, Jorge Posada and
Andy Pettitte, each read a line from the speech before the video
cut back to Gehrig for the final few words.

“It was great to be part of that ceremony,” Teixeira said after
the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 6-5 in 12 innings. “ALS is
obviously a very tough disease and Major League Baseball did a
great job today of raising awareness.”

In Washington, former U.S. Sen. George Allen, flanked by two ALS
patients, recreated the speech before the Nationals’ game
against the Atlanta Braves. The small crowd stayed mostly quiet
as Allen, the son of former Washington Redskins coach George
Allen, took 1 minute, 42 seconds to recite Gehrig’s address.

At Wrigley Field, former Cubs pitcher Dave Otto read Gehrig’s
words before Chicago’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. An
excerpt from Gehrig’s speech and a message about ALS was shown
on the main center-field scoreboard during the first inning of
Houston’s game at San Francisco.

The Yankees also hosted a couple of people diagnosed with ALS,
including Michael Goldsmith. The BYU law professor wrote a
column in Newsweek that led to baseball’s ALS initiative.

With help from his son, Austin, Goldsmith underhanded a
ceremonial first pitch to Teixeira as the crowd saluted him with
a warm ovation.

Nick Nicholson, of Virginia Beach, Va., a retired Navy commander
who turns 66 on Monday and was diagnosed with ALS last August,
brought his wife Joanna and two of his three children to the
ballpark. His daughter scurried around the field getting
autographs before the game while a grinning Nicholson sat in the
dugout.

“Dream come true,” he said.

=

AP Sports Writers Andrew Seligman in Chicago and Janie McCauley
in San Francisco, and AP freelance writer Pete Kerzel in
Washington contributed to this report.

The best newsletter on the web