There are moments in sports which are both sad and special.  And one of these moments happened on July 4th when a dying man uttered an extremely famous line.

It was on this day, July 4th, 1939, that Lou Gerhig told 60,000 fans at Yankees stadium that he considers himself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth.  Gehrig was dying of ALS when he made the memorable speech to an adoring crowd.   To this day, it remains one of the most famous farewell speeches of all time.

Gehrig made reference to the fact that he got a bad break.  But even through it all he talked about how much he has to live for.  Every player and fan in Yankee stadium that day was on their feet, and once his speech was done, he got one of the loudest ovations in the history of New York Yankees baseball.