The Pride of the Yankees
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The Pride of the Yankees is a 1942 biographical film directed by Sam Wood about the New York Yankees' star baseball player, first baseman Lou Gehrig, who had his Hall-of-Fame career tragically cut short at 36 years of age when he was stricken with the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, more commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). The movie was released one year after Gehrig's death.
It starred Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig. Co-starring were Teresa Wright as his wife Eleanor and Walter Brennan as a sportswriter friend. Real-life Yankee teammates Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Bill Dickey played themselves, as did sportscaster Bill Stern.
The movie was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jo Swerling, and an uncredited Casey Robinson from a story by Paul Gallico.
The Pride of the Yankees was critically and publicly acclaimed at the time of its release and is considered a classic.
This film is widely known for the reenactment of Gehrig's farewell speech in Yankee stadium. The famous line "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" was voted #38 in the American Film Institute (AFI) list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time.
In another memorable scene, Gehrig visits a crippled boy named Billy (Gene Collins) in a hospital and promises to hit two home runs for him in a single World Series game; Gehrig fulfills his promise, and an older Billy (played by David Holt) attends Lou Gehrig Day and shows Gehrig that he can walk, having made a full recovery inspired by his hero's determination. This event, a takeoff on something that happened to Babe Ruth, was parodied on a 1995 episode of Seinfeld ("The Wink," in which the promise was made by Kramer on behalf of Paul O'Neill) and in the movie BASEketball.
