ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY – AT 12:26 P.M. ET:  Yes, it's July 4th, Independence Day, but it's also the anniversary of one of the great moments in American sports, and American humanity.  I actually didn't realize that the event occurred on July 4th. 

Today is the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball, in Yankee Stadium.  He had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, today called Lou Gehrig's disease, and he was saying goodbye on a day devoted to him.  His playing days were over, his muscles incapable of the strength and agility they once had.  He would be dead within two years. 

Gehrig's brief speech to his fans, played over and over in the years since, reflected the true heart of a champion.  They also reflected the eloquence of one of the few players of his era to have been educated.  He'd gone to Columbia and played for its baseball team. 

It was a time when baseball was still a game.  Yes, it's always been a business as well, but the game had not yet been swallowed by the corporate mentality, and outsized salaries, that have destroyed its spirit.  We had, in New York, Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, and the great shrine, Ebbets Field.  We didn't have Citi field.  A family could spend a Sunday at the ball park inexpensively.  Gehrig himself, in the last two years of his life, worked as a parole official in New York City's government. 

Today, kids still visit Lou Gehrig's grave at Kensico Cemetery, not far from where this is written.  I've been there, and have seen the baseball caps, the baseballs, the bats, that the kids still leave, some 75 years after Lou Gehrig said goodbye.

Read the story of the anniversary, and see a Lou Gehrig tribute at ESPN, here.

July 4, 2014