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MLB to honor Lou Gehrig this weekend

Yankee Stadium concourse

Another MLB-wide promotion worth noting: The New York Yankees will honor the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech today, followed by recognition from all other teams on Friday.

Gehrig delivered his farewell to baseball on July 4, 1939, between games of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium. He was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. In the emotional speech, he called himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, thanking fans for their support. It’s one of the most openly emotional moments in the history of all sports.

The Yankees will honor Gehrig at today’s game, per MLB.com:

“The Yankees have to be leaders in this project,” said Debbie Tymon, the Yankees’ senior vice president of marketing. “It’s Lou Gehrig’s disease, so we really need to kick this off. We really need to lead the awareness, lead the fight and impact the fundraising, because it’s part of our history.”

The sides of the bases will bear special logos, marking the date of Gehrig’s speech as well as his famous phrase, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Here’s the video:

The Yankees will wear a special uniform patch honoring Gehrig, and the scoreboard will run a video featuring Derek Jeter and first basemen from all 30 teams reciting Gehrig’s speech. The video will also be played before all Major League games on Friday.

As part of the promotion, the Yankees are giving away 18,000 Lou Gehrig bobbleheads. This is drawing some negative comments from the ALS community; check out this post for more information.

Photo of Yankee Stadium concourse via flickr.com.

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