He did say, Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Gehrig was 36 years old.

That was either denial or chutzpah. He had ALS or Lou Gehrig Disease (in his case Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

It was July 4, 1939; Yankee Stadium was full of first-hand eye-witnesses. There was news- reel with audio, yet, it isn’t clear what Gehrig said; the audio was faulty and only four sentences survive. The speech was pieced together from various newspaper accounts by Jonathan Eig in his book, The Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig.

Gehrig was the original iron man, playing in 2130 consecutive games. He hit 493 home runs, batted a life-time .340 and drove in 1995 runs over 17 years–incredible statistics for any era.

Even with iron in his veins, he was shy and humble in public saving his ferocity for the playing field. In his speech, he thanked everyone, even the groundskeepers and stadium ushers. He must have been a good man.

He apparently used the word lucky three times suggesting maybe it was all going to work out for him, but was dead within two years. A more cynical person may have said unlucky, since all the love and adulation of the fans could not save him.

But whatever he really said, it would not have been like Lou Gehrig to complain. He was one of the most talented, nicest men ever to play the game of baseball.