Yankee Stadium (historic)

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The original Yankee Stadium is the stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It served as the home baseball park of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees from 1923 through 2008. Located at East 161st Street and River Avenue, the stadium has a capacity of 57,545 and hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York Giants football team, as well as the host of twenty of boxing’s most famous fights and three Papal masses. The stadium’s nickname, “The House That Ruth Built” comes from the iconic Babe Ruth, the baseball superstar whose prime years coincided with the beginning of the Yankees’ winning history.

Yankee Stadium is relatively famous in the United States, having hosted a variety of events and many historic moments during its existence. Its primary occupants, the Yankees, have won far more World Series championships (26) than any other major league club and Yankee Stadium has hosted 37 World Series, far more than any other baseball stadium. The Stadium also hosted the major-league All-Star Game four times: 1939, 1960, 1977, and, as part of its curtain call, 2008.

In 2006, the Yankees began construction on a new $1.8 billion stadium in public parkland adjacent to the original Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are expecting to open their new home in 2009. Once the new stadium opens, most of the old stadium, including the above-ground structure, is to be demolished to become parkland.

The first game at the stadium was held on April 18, 1923, with the Yankees beating the Boston Red Sox 4-1. The final game at the stadium was held on September 21, 2008, with the Yankees beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-3.

	Capacity		57,545
	Opened		April 18th 1923
	Owner		City of New York
	Cost		$2.3 million
	Architect		Osborn Engineering (1923); Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury (1976)

You can see our page on the New Yankee Stadium by clicking here.

With Andy Pettitte as the starting pitcher, the Yankees played their final game at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008 against the Baltimore Orioles, recording the final out at 11.43pm EDT with a 7-3 Yankee victory. Among many lasts to be recorded, a long-time standing question was answered. It was first wondered by Babe Ruth after he hit the first home run in Yankee Stadium on its opening day of April 18, 1923:
“ I was glad to have hit the first home run in this park. God only knows who will hit the last. ”

That person turned out to be Jose Molina, as he hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning.

Other lasts were Jason Giambi recording the last hit in Yankee Stadium, driving in Brett Gardner, who scored the last run in Yankee Stadium. Mariano Rivera made the final pitch in the stadium with Cody Ransom recording the final out at first base. In the eighth inning, Derek Jeter became the final Yankee to bat in Yankee Stadium. He ended 0-5 for the night after being hit by a pitch on his hand in the previous day’s game.

The ceremonies for the final game at Yankee Stadium began with the opening of Monument Park many hours before the game started giving life long fans one last chance to honor their favorite Yankee players of all time. For the last time in Old Yankee Stadium, fans were able to see plaques honoring Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and many other legendary players. Many former Yankee greats including Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Bernie Williams, Paul O`Neill, Willie Randolph, Roy White, Chris Chambliss took their positions in the playing field as their names were announced by the legendary Bob Sheppard. Julia Ruth Stevens, daughter of Babe Ruth, threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the final game in “The House That Ruth Built”.

After the game was over, captain Derek Jeter delivered a speech on the field surrounded by his teammates. In the unplanned speech, Jeter thanked and saluted the fans:
“ For all of us up here, it’s a huge honor to put this uniform on every day and come out here and play. And every member of this organization, past and present, has been calling this place home for eighty-five years. There’s a lot of tradition, a lot of history, and a lot of memories.

Now the great thing about memories is you’re able to pass it along from generation to generation. And although things are going to change next year, we’re going to move across the street, there are a few things with the New York Yankees that never change- its pride, its tradition, and most of all, we have the greatest fans in the world.

And we are relying on you to take the memories from this stadium, add them to the new memories that come at the new Yankee Stadium, and continue to pass them on from generation to generation. So on behalf of the entire organization, we just want to take this moment to salute you, the greatest fans in the world.
”
Afterwards, the team circled the stadium on the warning track waving to fans and wishing the stadium goodbye.

An official closing ceremony was reportedly scheduled to occur in November 2008 to celebrate not only the Yankees but also the football Giants, the various boxing matches, Papal visits, concerts and other events that took place at the Stadium over the years. However, that last ceremony, which would had been held on the weekend of November 8-9 for charity, was apparently canceled and perhaps never under serious consideration. Yankee officials said that while the team had contemplated a final ceremony (with any proceeds going to charity), talk of a concert was just media speculation. Although this “grand finale” never took place, public tours of Yankee Stadium (which had resumed in early October) were scheduled to continue until at least November 23, 2008.

On November 8, 2008 former Yankees Scott Brosius, Paul O’Neill, David Cone and Jeff Nelson, all members of the 1998 world championship team, joined 60 children from two Bronx based youth groups Youth Force 2020 and the ACE Mentor Program in ceremoniously digging up home plate, the pitcher’s mound pitching plate (rubber) and the surrounding dirt of both areas and transporting them to comparable areas of the New Yankee stadium. This symbolically and physically linked the two stadiums and the passing on the history and tradition of the old structure to the new.

On November 12, 2008 workmen began removing the memorials from Monument Park beginning with the memorial for Babe Ruth which will be moved to the new Yankee Stadium across the street.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Yankee Stadium wikipedia entry
New York Yankees website
Yankee Stadium 360 degree virtual tour
New Yankee Stadium

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