“F AREWELL TO B ASEBALL ” Lou Gehrig

C LASSWORK : Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell to Baseball” speech Recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) ALS causes loss of muscle strength and movement Retired from baseball as a result Speech delivered July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium Day declared “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day” Read the speech Answer the questions on the back You do not have to write in complete sentences.

E THOS Lou Gehrig establishes ethos simply by being a good sport, a regular guy who shares the audience’s love of baseball and family, and like them, he has known good luck and bad breaks. Lou Gehrig knows his audience and who he is speaking to, this making himself sound like one of them. Ethos can be established by expertise and knowledge, experience, training, sincerity, or a combination of all of these.

L OGOS Lou Gehrig established logos by stating that he is “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The two points he uses to rationalize his point is that he has played major league baseball for seventeen years and enjoyed the kindness and encouragement he has received from his fans all these years. The two contrasting ideas that he talks about to help him prove his point is that his bad break is not a cause for discouragement because he has so much to live for. The underlying belief that links these two contrasting ideas is that even though he has been dealt a bad break, he is a very lucky man.

P ATHOS Words that carry a positive connotation are greatest, wonderful, honored, grand, and blessing. He delivers his speech from a first-person point of view. His careful choice of words resonates well with the crowd, which makes his speech seem more passionate and heartfelt. The visual “Tower of Strength” is an image, although not original, one that the audience understands. This use of imagery demonstrates how much Lou Gehrig really understood his audience.