Lou Gehrig was a professional baseball player with the New York Yankees from 1923 to1939 and delivered one of the most unforgettable speeches. On his introductory speech at the Yankee Stadium, he stated, “for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” (Gehrig). This statement referred to his medical condition as the “bad break”. As a well-admired baseball player with a good standing with his fans, he used the rhetorical device ethos to appeal and persuade the audience that his major accomplishments not to be over shadowed by his minor setback and despite of his health issue, he was well blessed to live a good life. He delivered his speech with feelings and eloquently by convincing the audience that we should not solely focus on the negative side, but on the positive. …show more content…
He reinforced his claim that he was the luckiest man on earth by being optimistic and showed gratitude that he had the opportunity to work and known great people during the highlights of his career and being appreciated of his talent with the support of his fans. Failure to disclose some information about his disease led to assumption that he had difficulty coping with his disease. Focusing on his accomplishments was a diversionary tactic to avoid the audience questioning his health condition. His speech implied that he did not want to be remembered because of his illness but for who he was and his contribution to sports. Gehrig persuaded the audience that he was lucky and fortunate despite having debilitating disease. His emphasis of the positive situation over the negative knowing that he had only few months to live inspired the audience. His message of hope and optimism stand the test of time and resonate with the masses