Major League Baseball will be acknowledging the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s famous “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech today.
During games played today, July 4, 2014, each MLB player, manager, coach, and umpire will wear a patch depicting Gehrig during his speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939.
As part of the anniversary MLB will donate $300,000 to various charities which fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Gehrig died at age 37 from ALS just two years after making his speech.
“When Lou Gehrig delivered his historic farewell speech at Yankee Stadium 75 years ago, he indelibly linked our national pastime to the fight against the disease that would bear his name” – MLB commissioner Bud Selig
You can watch Gehrig’s famous speech below recited by both Lou in 1939 and by current MLB first basemen: