The House that Ruth Built-100 years ago today.

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

 

 

Gone but not forgotten: Unveiled 100 years ago TODAY, Yankee Stadium was an American mecca that hosted everyone from Babe Ruth to Pele and the Pope... before being rebuilt in the name of revenue

• Yankee Stadium was opened exactly a century ago today, as Babe Ruth christened the park with a massive HR
• The park would close 85 years later and be replaced with a near-replica of the famous baseball cathedral  

 

Often compared to cathedrals, America's baseball stadiums share many qualities with Europe's holy sites: Devoted followers, ritualized traditions, countless prayers, etc. 

In fact, ballparks have frequently been used for religious services, like the papal masses, Jehovah's Witness assemblies, and Billy Graham sermons that regularly took place at Yankee Stadium throughout the 20th century.

But this well-worn 'cathedral' analogy fails to reconcile the relative permanence of 1,000-year-old shrines like Westminster Abbey with the fleeting existence of ballparks like Yankee Stadium – a 58,000-seat structure that opened a century ago today before closing its doors just 85 years later.

 

 

'Yankee Stadium,' Cleveland's Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller said in 2008, 'it's like everything else in this country. In Europe, they save all their old buildings for history. Here, we just tear them down.'

Located across the street from where its predecessor once stood, the new edition of Yankee Stadium is just 15 years old and offers the kind of modern comforts that typically adorn modern ballparks: Massive, high-definition scoreboards, luxury boxes, and a bevy of food options that would overwhelm Henry VIII.

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New York Yankees batboy, Ray Kelly, left, poses with Babe Ruth when the building was unveiled in 1923

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Composer-conductor John Philip Sousa leads the Seventh Regiment Band at the flag raising on April 18, 1923

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A general view of Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.

 

What it lacks, as fans are quick to remind each other, is the history of old Yankee Stadium.

Known colloquially as the 'House that Ruth Built,' the original Yankee Stadium was actually erected by 500 workers over 185 days at a cost of just $2.4million – equivalent to $42million in 2023

Its construction is often credited to the legendary Babe Ruth's historic popularity, but the team's push for a new home field began years before the Bambino was sold by the Boston Red Sox to the Yankees in 1920.

Since 1913, the Yankees had been playing across the Harlem River at Manhattan's Polo Grounds – a multi-purpose facility owned by the National League's New York Giants.

But years of friction between the tenants and their landlord boiled over when Ruth turned the Yankees into the Polo Grounds' most popular attraction in the early 1920s. Soon the Giants were being outdrawn by the Yankees and responded by trying to evict the American League club.

Before any eviction could take place, Yankees co-owners Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston and Jacob Ruppert bought a lumberyard in the South Bronx for $600,000. Construction began soon after, and within a year, Yankee Stadium was complete.

It was North America's first three-tiered stadium, and boasted walls purportedly made with concrete developed by none other than Thomas Edison.

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Babe Ruth (near left) and teammates walk onto the field on Opening Day in 1923 as Yankee Stadium was unveiled to the public

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Before Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth and the Yankees played on the opposite side of the Harlem River at the Polo Grounds 

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The Yankees shared the Polo Grounds (background) with the Giants before moving to Yankee Stadium (foreground) in 1923 

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Lou Gehrig is shown before the mic delivering his farewell speech on Lou Gehrig Day on July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium

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Referring to himself as the 'luckiest man on the face of the earth,' Lou Gehrig steps away from baseball amid his ALS battle

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Monument Park, which features this shrine to Lou Gehrig, was once in play at Yankee Stadium before the 1970s renovation

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As the body of American baseball player Babe Ruth lies in state in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium, fans numbering in the tens of thousands file past his open casket to pay their last respects

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Fans line up outside of Yankee Stadium to pay their respects to Hall of Famer Babe Ruth who died from cancer in 1948

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Clutching a baseball in his hand, Frank Haggerty's eyes filled with tears as he stood by the coffin as it lay in State

 

At first glance, one quickly noticed the discrepancy between Yankee Stadium's expansive left field, which measured 463 feet away from home at its deepest point, and its short right-field porch – just 314 feet down the line. 

Left-handed pull hitters like Ruth, Roger Maris, and Reggie Jackson benefitted significantly from those dimensions, which were tweaked during the stadium's mid-1970s renovation and replicated, to some degree, in the new Yankee Stadium. 

So too was the famed façade and monument park, the latter of which was actually in the field of play at the old Yankee Stadium before being relocated beyond the outfield wall during the 1970s renovation. 

Of course, monument park did not exist when the stadium opened in 1923, but there was still a sense of history in the new building, nonetheless. 

New York's anti-prohibition governor Alfred Smith threw out the first pitch before the Yankees hosted the rival Red Sox on Opening Day, when 25,000 fans were reportedly turned away with the new stadium already well over capacity.

But the real highlight of the afternoon took place in the third inning, when Ruth pulled a massive home run down the right-field line off of Boston's Howard Ehmke en route to a 4-1 win.

'The ball came in slowly, but it went out quite rapidly, rising on a line and then dipping suddenly from the force behind it,' read the New York Times piece about the game.

'Ruth's circuit,' The Associated Press wrote, 'added the one touch needed to complete the most picturesque drama in diamond annals.' 

'It struck well inside the foul line, eight or ten rows above the low railing in front of the bleachers, and as Ruth circled the bases he received probably the greatest ovation of his career. The biggest crowd in baseball history rose to its feet and let loose the biggest shout in baseball history. Ruth, jogging over the home plate, grinned broadly, lifted his cap at arm's length and waved it at the multitude.'

Fred Lieb of the New York Evening Telegram christened the building, 'The House That Ruth Built,' and an institution was born.

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Baltimore Colts QB Johnny Unitas led a dramatic OT win against the Giants at Yankee Stadium in the 1958 NFL title game

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American boxer Joe Louis hops over Germany's Max Schmeling after knocking him down at Yankee Stadium 

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Pope Benedict XVI waves as he departs Yankee Stadium after saying mass on April 20, 2008

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Both Pele (left) and Derek Jeter (right) played at Yankee Stadium, where the latter suffered a facial laceration while diving into the crowd in a 2004 playoff game. In this picture (right) Jeter is seen being tended to by the Yankees training staff 

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A general view of the exterior of Yankee Stadium circa 1975 - before the two-year renovation that forever changed the park

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A general view of the outside of Yankee Stadium prior to the start of the last game at the ballpark 

The Stadium, as many fans referred to it, would go on to host 6,581 Yankees games over 85 years, including a remarkable 161 postseason games, thanks to the perennial success of the 27-time champs.

Over that time, many of baseball's most famous home runs were hit at Yankee Stadium: Roger Maris' record-breaking 61st homer in 1961, Chris Chambliss' pennant-winning blast in 1976, and current manager Aaron Boone's famed long ball against the hated Red Sox to win the 2003 ALCS.

But the intersection of East 161st Street and River Avenue wasn't always a joyous place for Yankees fans.

On July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium held 'Lou Gehrig Day' and retired the star slugger's No. 4 as he stepped away from the game amid his fatal bout with ALS, but not before delivering his widely celebrated 'luckiest man' speech. 

Gehrig would die two years later, with Ruth following in 1948 at age 53 following a bout with throat cancer.

Yankee Stadium even served as the venue for Ruth's funeral, which was attended by more than 100,000 fans, many of whom waited hours to pay their respects to baseball's greatest star.

The building was also the site of many Negro League games, although players from the New York Black Yankees were forbidden from using the Bombers' clubhouse and were instead relegated to the visitors' dressing room.

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Two of the brothers DiMaggio, Joe, left, of the Yankees, and Dominik, right, of the Red Sox, sit with slugger Ted Williams

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(Left) Aaron Boone celebrates his ALCS-winning HR against the Red Sox in 2003. (Right) Micky Mantle goes tries to snag a HR

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Nobody ever hit a ball out of the massive ballpark, but Mickey Mantle came the closest, sending a home run off the façade 

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Yankees manager Billy Martin (far left) and right fielder Reggie Jackson (near left) talk after winning the 1977 World Series. (Right) Pope John Paul II celebrating Mass at Yankee Stadium during his first visit to the US

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The Yankees were dormant for the first half of the 1970s, before Chris Chambliss' home run won the 1976 ALCS vs. Kanas City

Boxer Joe Louis, Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, and even soccer legend Pele would enjoy some of their most celebrated moments at Yankee Stadium, which hosted everything from NHL games to a wedding in 2006.

But the economic needs of the Yankees proved to be too important, and by 2008, the building would close with New York's 7-3 win over the visiting Baltimore Orioles.

Its successor opened the following year and in 2012, the city opened Heritage Field on site of the old Yankee Stadium.

'It was more the people than the stadium,' Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams told The New York Times in 2008. 'You talk about the magic and the aura, but what really made the Stadium was the fans. Concrete doesn't talk back to you. Chairs don't talk back to you. It's the people that are there, that root for you day in and day out. That's what makes this place magical.'

'A lot of people there, a lot of energy,' former right fielder Dave Winfield told the Associated Press. 'They make their presence known, they don't sit on their hands. If you played there and you played for that team and you played for the pinstripes and played for New York City, that you were part of a long tradition. High expectations.' 

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Retired slugger Joe DiMaggio hitting in Yankee Stadium in the 1970s 

I spent some time in the old stadium watching the Yankees play.  The "good old days".

 

 

 

 

 

[Blackwater 53393]

Hatfield, Schoolmarm, and I spent an afternoon at Yankee Stadium in 1990.  Seats behind the third base dugout for the three of us cost me $50.00 and hotdogs, candy, and beverages for the three of us cost less than $20.00!!  The trip through Monument Park and a walk around the entire stadium was free!

 

No charge for parking and several autographs!!

 

Numerous hall of famers on the field and a beautiful afternoon!!  Good Times!