In 2009 my wife was due to give birth to our second
rugrat. After being named after Thurman Munson (middle name is Thurman)
it was a pretty big deal to me to continue the Yankee legacy and name
my son after another great Yankee. I fought for the name “Gehrig Scott”
by using my father-in-law’s first name as my sons middle name. After
starting a Facebook page, filling my wife’s inbox with emails from
strangers and a sister-in-laws accident (we love you Sasta) my wife
finally came to the middle and we agreed on Eli Gehrig. We call him
Buster but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, I’ve been working a
lot lately and decided to send a little I love you out to the rugrats
by posting….The Farewell Speech. I only hope I can raise my kids as
half as honorable as Lou Gehrig.
-Luc
The Farewell Speech – Lou Gehrig
“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 I 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 have considered it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also,
the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrows? 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 groundskeeper and those boys in white coats
remember you with trophies, that’s something. When you have a father and
mother work all their lives so that 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. I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the
Earth. And I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful
lot to live for.” – July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium on Lou Gehrig
Appreciation Day
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