Letters From The Iron Horse

post from Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog on 03 July 2009 12:30:00 PM. © Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog

"...today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of baseball's Gettysburg Address. Lou Gehrig made that inspiring, and sad speech back on July 4, 1939, in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium.

The anniversary will be celebrated around Major League Baseball, as MLB looks to raise money for ALS research to help fight the illness that now bears Gehrig's name.

Throughout baseball, players will wear ?4ALS? patches on their uniforms, all first bases used will be auctioned off, and during the seventh inning stretch of every game Gehrig?s speech will be read to the crowd.

ESPN's Outside The Lines has uncovered personal letters from Gehrig's final days and months. Here's the video they posted about the letters and the site where you can read the letters yourself.

While his death was terribly sad, his career was one of the most impressive the game of baseball has ever seen. If it wasn't for Babe Ruth and that stupid disease, we might look at Gehrig as the greatest slugger who ever lived. If you don't believe me, just look at the stats.

He was a lifetime .340/.447/.632 hitter. That's a lifetime OPS of 1.080, which is third all-time behind Ruth and Ted Williams. In 17 seasons he racked up 493 homers, 2721 hits, 1995 RBI, and 1888 runs. Had he stayed healthy the Iron Horse those numbers probably would have increased to 500+ homers, 3000+ hits, and over 2000 RBI and runs scored. The man won two MVPs, and was the Yankees captain from 1935 until his death in 1941. Also, from what I've read, he was a hell of defensive first baseman.And I say all that without mentioning his famous consecutive games streak.

Sadly, I don't think most people realize how great a baseball player this man truly was. Hopefully this anniversary will get people talking about him and open some eyes. Think of Gehrig this weekend, and remember how great he was, because a lot of that Yankee Pride everyone talks about actually came from him.