Farewell to Baseball

Lou Gehrig
Farewell to Baseball Address
Delivered 4 July 1939, Yankee Stadium, New York

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a 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.”


Argument: What are the consequences of leaving the game of baseball on Lou Gehrig’s Life?

Leaving the game of baseball will make Lou Gehrig an even luckier man

Because by not playing baseball anymore, he will get to focus on the things most important in life: his friends and family.

The target audience for Lou Gehrig’s speech is the multitude of fans that have supported him all his years of playing baseball for the New York Yankees.

His goal for giving this speech is to assure his fans that even though he has been diagnosed with a terrible disease and has to leave the game he loves, he is going to be okay and there are greater things in life to live for.

Lou Gehrig greatly appeals to the pathos of the audience. He talks about his fellow players and coaches, mother-in-law, father and mother and his wife very affectionately. Admiration for Lou Gehrig is a strong emotion that can be felt when reading or hearing this speech. The audience is worried about him because they know he has been diagnosed with an incurable disease. However, hearing the optimism that resounds from his speech is very hard to ignore. This fills the audience with hope for him and his future. His speech is also is very sufficient. While I’m sure it could have been longer and drawn out, Lou Gehrig is very concise and his words are carefully chosen. There is a perfect amount of information to make you feel connected to the speaker and have his message sink in.

This speech was very effective mostly because it was reassuring to the audience and made them feel more at ease with his exit from the world of baseball. Lou Gehrig was an amazing baseball player. It is very impressive that these words, about his family and friends, were the last to his fans.

Word Count: 313