It was on July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, when the longtime Yankee first baseman uttered the famous words at a home plate ceremony at Yankee Stadium: “Fans, 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.”

And, in his final sentence, he returned to his opening, saying: “So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for”‘

I’ll keep trying to ‘Live Like Lou’ everyday. I truly share the sentiment of those words and will try to channel his strength till the end. Very hard thing to do from a man so larger than life.

Happy birthday America!