It is a day that Americans celebrate with a bang - Independence Day or in more layman terms, July 4.Americans love their sports. So much so that it's Americana just like Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolets.
So many great sporting events have occurred on America's Birthday. But nothing - NOTHING - may ever top July 4, 1939. The day Lou Gehrig stepped behind the NBC microphone in front of 60,000 Yankee Stadium fans to announce that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - now known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
"Fans," the Pride of the Yankees began, "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 in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans."
One man who remembers that day 71 years ago is Albert O. Arnold, Jr., a man Kansas Masons have known and loved for 60 years. Brother Al, as we call him, grew up in Kansas City and graduated from Southwest High on the Missouri side. He played baseball as a youth, catcher I might add, and may have termed the old baseball phrase "take two and hit the right."
"This being a national holiday, I was prepared with my sisters and brothers to set off some of the firecrackers purchased for the purpose," Al said. "As the oldest of four children, I was expected to keep an eye on the others particularly for safety reasons. My junior year in high school had just been finished.
"Although just short of my 18th birthday, I was thoroughly and completely interested in baseball. Dad was also interested, but as he had to go to work before me, he had the paper. Perhaps it goes without saying, the Sports part was the first item to receive our attention."
Al, now 87 and living in Topeka, then mentioned it was the radio the family huddled around that historic day.
"A radio was our only means of communication in those days," he said. "We knew there would be a program of sorts and we could listen in. It seemed that we were awaiting an eternity before any word was received. Introductions were made and all appeared to be in readiness, still we waited.
"Then a brief review was given. The Iron Man played a record 2,130 consecutive games, then many more records that still stand today. Finally, the Iron Man revealed his playing days were over and perhaps his life. But, he still had the courage to tell us he was 'the luckiest man in the world.' "
"Look at these grand men," Gehrig continued in his speech as he pointed to those who flanked him. "Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career 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 umpire, Ed Barrow - to have spent the next nine 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 against her own daughter, 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."
Brother Al said Gehrig was not unlike many of that era.
"He was the son of immigrants and had a very difficult time in his early years," Arnold said. "Some of his siblings had been lost and providing a living was indeed difficult.
"He was a gentle person and was not a part of the famous rough house bunch. Crowds were difficult for him to communicate in signing autographs and visiting. This did not stop him from joining with Babe Ruth in making the Yankee baseball team into champions."
Gehrig never played baseball again. Less than two years later, on June 2, 1941, he died in Riverdale, N.Y.
"So I close in saying that I might have had a tough break - but I have an awful lot to live for," Gehrig said as he walked away with pride - Yankee Pride, I might add.
My shout this week: Goes to Al and Marge Arnold, who in September will be blessed with their 70th wedding anniversary. How cool is that, folks! Marge, you should be sainted for putting up with Big Al for that many years! Congratulations to both of you and here's to many more years of marital bliss!
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