This day, 75 years ago...

7 comments

• Club_Goer_Seattle

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  10 years ago

  Indeed! A truly great moment in baseball history.
  
  I'd love to know where the You Tube excerpt came from. I skimmed through all the comments, and no one mentioned its origin. If anyone knows and can determine it, please let me know.
  
  1. I recognize the narrator's voice as David McCullough.
  
  2. He was a long time host and narrator for the PBS series, "The American Experience." I've seen most of its episodes over the past 30 years. But, I don't remember one including the Gehrig farewell speech.
  
  3. See:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Ex…
  and
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ame…
• londonguy

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  10 years ago

  I thought it was shadowcat's birthday again for a minute :-) Sorry SC, I'm only kidding :-)
• mikeya02

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  10 years ago

  lol
• strbk123

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  10 years ago

  CG- I'm not 100% certain, but that sounded a lot like, and had the feel of, Ken Burns' PBS documentary Baseball. I didn't research it, but you might be able to find more about it if interested.
• joker44

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  10 years ago

  @CG: I agree.
  
  Check here:
  http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/106…
  
  "1930s & Earlier / Lou Gehrig Farewell Speech
  From Ken Burns' excellent Baseball documentary series, actual newsreel footage of Lou Gehrig's 'lucky guy' farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939."
  
  on PBS site: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/sha…
  Summary of Episode 5 of Ken Burns series with link to buy on DVD
  
  
  
• snowtime

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  10 years ago

  My father, who is 96, was raised in NYC and an avid baseball fan. He was 21 at the time and attended that game. Several years ago while working in a mall, I met an elderly lady who had also attended that game. I suspect there are very few people alive today who actually went to that game. I, myself was lucky enough to have attended the Braves opening night game when Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth's record. Kind of neat that we both were lucky enough to have attended such memorable baseball games.
• Club_Goer_Seattle

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  10 years ago

  Strbk and Joker, Thanks for your research. That confirms it. The excerpt IS from Ken Burns' *Baseball* which aired in 1994 (I can't believe that series is twenty years old now!)
  
  However, I was mistaken on the narrator. It was John Chancellor (not David McCullough). Chancellor was best known for his 1970-82 stint as anchor of the *NBC Nightly News.*
  
  See first paragraph under "Format" in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_burns_b…
  for the mention of Chancellor as narrator.
  
  David McCullough was the narrator for the *American Experience* for twelve seasons (1988-99), so he would have been available for the Baseball series in 1994. That's what may have thrown me.
  
  BTW, the link that Joker provided is much clearer to view than the You Tube link (sorry Mikeya). And, last night's (7/4/2014) ABC World News had a segment on Gehrig's speech.