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The Farewell Speech
"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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