The Pinstriped Morningside Heights

今天是 Lou Gehrig 的著名告別演說的 65 週年，我把那一段錄音的一部份放在網頁上一天，作為對他的紀念。根據他的傳記 "Iron Horse" 的作者 Ray Robinson 的說法，Gehrig 那一天本來沒有要發表演說，他甚至要求當天儀式主持人 Sid Mercer 替他謝謝大家，他太感動而講不出話來。最後他在全場球迷 "We want Gehrig, we want Gehrig" 的呼聲中出來面對滿場 62,000 個球迷。他沒有演講稿，這些話都是他在沒有準備下對所有人說的真心話，這使得這篇演講更為動人。

這段演說全文是

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 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 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 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.

在歷史上當然有很多不下於這篇演說的文章，Martin Luther King Jr. 的那篇 "I have a dream." 的歷史價值和動人程度就在 Gehrig 這篇之上，毫無疑問。但是對於棒球界來講，過去一百年中沒有比這篇更讓人動容的演說，我相信再過一百、兩百年恐怕也不會有。