Farewell to baseball address

Public Speaking Strategies For Success, Seventh Edition
David Zarefsky

ISBN-13: 978-0-205-85726-5

Description
In this Lesson, you will analyze the structure of a short speech, Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell to Baseball,”.

Instructions
Please be sure to complete in a single Word document.

You will assess a short speech in terms of its organization and structure.
Part I: Analyze the “Farewell to Baseball” Speech
On July 4, 1939, Yankee First Baseman Lou Gehrig gave a short speech of farewell during retirement ceremonies at Yankee Stadium in New York City. In terms of the rhetorical situation, the speaker produced a fitting response that eliminated the exigence in that situation. In any ceremony, of course, it is customary for the guest of honor to make a few remarks and the speaker eliminates that exigence just by saying something. Lou Gehrig, however, perceived an additional exigence: sadness among baseball fans. He reduced that exigence in giving his speech.

A rhetorical analysis of the speech begins with the historical context: Lou Gehrig had set a record for the number of consecutive games played in U.S. major-league baseball, but he suddenly quit playing for health reasons. The occasion was “Lou Gehrig Day,” a ceremony held at the stadium prior to a game to commemorate the career of the retiring ballplayer. The audience included spectators, other players, team and league officials, workers, and radio listeners. The speaker was a professional athlete who, not as comfortable with sportswriters as his teammate Babe Ruth had been, had not planned to speak until his wife convinced him that he should. The speech was short, extemporaneous, and reflected gratitude. But this only recounts the facts about the speech without accounting for the constraints and opportunities from each element that the speaker was able to use to make the speech a fitting response that reduced the exigence.