Art by Tim Carroll

*****SOLD - Private Collection - February, 2010*****

 

      Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.......also known as:  A.L.S.  You know it as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”.  Now, think about this:  how special does a person have to be to have something world-renown named after them?

      For seventeen years, baseball’s most storied franchise penciled Lou Gehrig into the lineup day-in, day-out.  154 games a year – Gehrig was at first base.  2,130 consecutive games played – only bested by Cal Ripken, Jr. 

     To most people that dabble in the game of baseball, Babe Ruth is far and away the greatest player to ever live.  Those that have taken the time dig a little deeper find that Lou Gehrig was the driving force behind Ruth.  Ruth didn’t just have to play hard to be the best player in the game – he had to play at that extreme level just to be the best player on his own team! 

     “The Iron Horse”, as he was known, was a tremendous fan favorite.  The people of New York loved him.  He loved them.  Eight games into the 1939 season, Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup for the first time in years.  He had been feeling strange and very fatigued.  He knew something was wrong.  After a battery of tests, it was determined that Gehrig was in an advanced stage of A.L.S.  He had been living with it and playing baseball with it for quite some time.  His career was over, and according to the doctors – his life was as well. 

     On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig put on those Yankee pinstripes for the final time.  This time it was not to play.  This time it was to address the fans in a “Farewell Speech.”  Often known as a quiet man, Lou Gehrig spilled 276 heart-wrenching words from his heart.  Although it was brief, it was said that there wasn’t a dry eye in Yankee Stadium that day – including Gehrig’s.  Less than 2 years later, at the age of 37, “The Iron Horse” lost his life to A.L.S.  His legacy has lived on.  Gehrig’s “Farewell Speech” is on the list for top 100 speeches of all-time.  He was also the subject of arguably one of the greatest movies ever – The Pride of the Yankees. 

     So…….how special does a person have to be to have something world-renown named after them?  Read the following speech – Gehrig’s Farewell Address.  Hinge on every word.  Put yourself in the shoes of a man that knows he is at the end of his life.  Then you’ll understand.  Gehrig was a VERY special man.

 

 

 

     “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 have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.  Look at these grand men.  Which one 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 consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins; then to have spent the last 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’d give your right arm to beat, and vice-versa, sends you a gift – that’s something!  When everybody down to the groundskeepers those boys in the white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something.  When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter – that’s something.  When you have a father and mother who 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.

     So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.  Thank you.”

 

 

 

 

For this piece I used a piece of 11x14 Bristol paper (Strathmore), a set of Kimberly pencils, and the Gehrig speech above.  I wrote the Gehrig speech over and over – left-to-right – and I darkened it in certain areas to achieve the desired effect.  The speech is written 6 complete times.  One partial.  A grand total of 1,745 words.  I titled this one:  “Lucky Man”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work in progress:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And one final look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, September 11, 2009, Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig to become the New York Yankees all-time career leader in base hits.  It is only fitting that Jeter did it on September 11.   While that was a perfect way to celebrate New York's rise from that terrible 2001 day, I felt I also had to pay tribute to the Yankee hero that he passed.