NEW YORK --- Derek Jeter helped Major League Baseball commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's luckiest man speech Saturday, reading the famous line from the icon's stirring words during a video tribute before the New York Yankees' game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Yankees also placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers by Gehrig's plaque in Monument Park and made a $25,000 donation to Major League Baseball's "4 (diamond) ALS" initiative, an effort to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -- the disease that forced Gehrig out of baseball in 1939 and took his life two years later.

"It's one thing to me to have the game taken away from you before it should be but when you start talking about taking your life before it should, the way he handled it was incredible," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who has an uncle with ALS.

"I think any time you can pay tribute to this man I think you should do it because of just the legacy he left and the type of life that he lived."

ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord and robs from people who have it the ability to move and speak. The majority of patients die from respiratory failure within five years of the progress of symptoms, though there are exceptions.

All major league players, coaches and on-field personnel wore patches Saturday to honor Gehrig's legacy and a "4 (diamond) ALS" logo was displayed on first base in each ballpark as part of the awareness initiative.

Gehrig played first base for the Yankees for 17 years, hitting .340 with 493 homers and 1,995 RBI. He hit a record 23 grand slams, had 13 consecutive seasons of at least 100 RBI and 100 runs and helped New York win six World Series titles.

Two months after Gehrig's last game, the Yankees retired the Iron Horse's No. 4 in between games of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators. He was the first player in all of sports to receive such an honor.

In front of about 62,000 fans at the old Yankee Stadium, Gehrig delivered one of the most memorable speeches in sports history. He called his disease a "bad break," praised his teammates and manager Joe McCarthy and called his wife "a tower of strength."

The Yankees recreated the speech in a tribute shown on the videoboard of their new $1.5 billion ballpark Saturday.

"Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," cut in Jeter, the current Yankees captain.