AMERICAN MOMENT.

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Famed New York Yankees first baseman and slugger Lou Gehrig bids farewell to baseball in Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. Gehrig was known as the "Iron Horse" for his power and endurance--he often played with back pain and broken bones in his hands and feet. In 1938 he began to lose strength and coordination as a result of what would eventually be diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare degenerative disease that now bears Gehrig's name. In front of a crowd of 62,000, the 36-year-old Gehrig began his retirement address with: "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 this earth. I have been in ball parks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans."

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