Many people remember Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech that he gave on July 4th in 1939. Not as famous is the speech Lou Merloni gave Friday at Framingham's American Legion Post #74.
"Fans, since the beginning of spring training you have been reading about the bad break I got in not being picked up by a major or minor league team. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I have been in ballparks for fifteen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
"Look at the great players I got to watch. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Nomar Garciaparra when he was a god in Boston? Also, the builder of baseball's best strip club guide, Mo Vaughn? To have spent five years with that wonderful little fellow, Pedro Martinez? Then to have spent three of the next four years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Eric Wedge? Sure, I'm lucky.
"When the Syracuse SkyChiefs, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and peanut vendors remember you with requests for Nomar's autograph - that's something. When you have a wonderful friend like Mia Hamm who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own husband - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
"So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."
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