Tomorrow Major League Baseball will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrigs Luckiest Man on the face of the earth speech. While I think the publicity and awareness that it creates for the fatal illness that bares his name is great, I wonder how many people actually know what that speech was about. Do people understand that he was putting on a brave front during a retirement announcement because the man who was referred to as the Iron Horse due to the fact that he never missed a game had been diagnosed with a terminal illness or what he referred to in his speech as a bad break. I fully believe that Lou Gehrig the man should be celebrated, but lets understand the deeper ramifications of tomorrow being the 75th anniversary from when he told the world he was dying. 75 years later if he were alive and playing ball today he would have to give the exact same speech! Think about that, while every year we celebrate his memorable words and bravery, never forget that what we are truly doing is memorializing him on the day he told the world he was dying and there was nothing that science or medicine could do about it. Today in this country every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with the same bad break as Lou Gehrig and they are forced to give a similar speech as he did to their family and friends because just as it was for Lou in 1939 science and medicine still does not have an answer to help people diagnosed with ALS. So while the speech will be played over and over the next few days, lets remember that the speech should really serve to ask the world why are so many people continuing to be so unlucky 75 years later. If MLB really wants to celebrate Lou Gehrig they should sponsor grants for research that can help lead to a cure instead of having players read his I am dying speech.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 01:07:05 +0000
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