The Greatest Farewell Speech. Ever.

They did not come any more humble than Lou Gehrig. The "Iron Horse" played for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 30s and is best remembered not for his prowess as a hitter or the longevity of his dope-free consecutive-games-played record, but his brief but tearful farewell speech 70 years ago tomorrow after he was stricken with a fatal disease that was to take his life at age 38.

Major League Baseball will honor Gehrig's farewell at 15 games tomorrow, when his speech will be read during the seventh-inning stretch:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the 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 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 Rupert? 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 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 groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies -- that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter -- that's something. When you have a father and a 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 might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

Gary Cooper (photo, above right) plays Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees and does the Iron Horse -- and his farewell speech -- great justice.