Perhaps I might be a little biased with my opinion on this, but it’s such a tragedy to see the “old” Yankee Stadium in its current state. The demolition of Yankee Stadium has begun and although “The Stadium” will no longer be a visible part of the New York skyline, the many magical memories will still be retained.

Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) once said, “There was a great, dark mystery about [Yankee Stadium] when I first came here from Oklahoma. I still get goose pimples walking inside it. Now I think this is about the prettiest ball park I ever saw”

Nicknamed “The House that Ruth Built,” Yankee Stadium is arguably the most famous ballpark in the world. Bounded by River Avenue, Babe Ruth Plaza, East 161st and East 157th Streets, and Ruppert Place, Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923 when famed composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa and the Seventh Regiment Marching Band led the Yankees out onto the field and Governor Alfred E. Smith threw out the first pitch. More than 74,000 fans crowded into the 62,000 person capacity stadium to see the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4–1. Baseball legend Babe Ruth (1895-1948) is said to have stepped up to the plate that day, taken one long look at New York’s massive new stadium, and simply uttered “Some ball yard!”

One positive note about the demolition of this magnificent piece of history is that New York City is planning on developing the land into 3 separate ball fields for youth softball, baseball, and a championship caliber playing field for tournament play. These new ball fields and subsequent parks, playground, water features and more will be called Heritage Park. What a fitting name for such a site rich in history for the City and its residents.

From a personal standpoint, I remember taking my family to see the Yankees play the Angels a few years back. This particular day happened to be a back-and-forth struggle for the ballgame. To this day, I can vividly remember when Hideki Matsui stepped up to the plate in the 9th inning with the Yanks behind by one run. With two runners on, Matsui stepped up and hit a triple to the left-center gap to score both runs and win the game for the Yanks. To me, this is a memory – along with many others – which will live on forever once the dust settles on “old” Yankee Stadium.

Source:
Yankee Stadium [NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation]

Photo courtesy of www.stadiumpage.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Baseball, MLB, New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.