In addition to being Big Stein's birthday, July 4th is also the anniversary of Lou Gehrig Day (July 4th, 1939) which is always something that I try to remember. Gehrig would pass away in a little under 2 years from that date but on that date, he made one of the most emotionally charged speeches in baseball history. It's kind of funny that though there were so many microphones at the game, only four sentences of the speech actually were captured on tape and survive. However, the following was pieced together from various newspapers:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

I have been to ballparks for seventeen years and I 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 have considered 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 the white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something. When you have a father and 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 by saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

Read the Wikipedia article about the man and check out some of the external links. If you can't appreciate the type of man Gehrig was through that, well, just look at his stats! He had at least a couple more amazing years in him and the Lord only knows where he would have been on the all-time lists if only he had been given the health to compete.