In 1923, Babe Ruth hit the first home run in the newly opened Yankee Stadium. He famously wondered afterwards who would hit the last one out of the stadium (turns out it was José Molina, the Yankees’ current backup catcher).
But Ruth said something else in 1923 about Yankee Stadium, too. “Some ballpark,” he commented, in what we now know to be the understatement of the century.
Sure, in 1923, it might have been “some ballpark,” but 85 years later, it’s a lot more than just a baseball diamond. Let me enumerate the ways that the home of the Bronx Bombers is more than just the grass and dirt and fences and stands it’s made of.
Yankee Stadium is a museum. A walk through its fabled Monument Park, a section of the park with plaques and statues honoring some of the greatest baseball players of all time, is more educational than a day watching the Discovery Channel and more inspiring than a Dale Carnegie book. With their 26 World Series titles, the Yankees have seen some of the most legendary athletes ever to play the great American pastime.
Yankee Stadium is a cathedral. Sports are a secondary form of religion in this country, full of rituals and superstition and spiritual leaders. The stadiums and arenas are the churches, and there is no greater place to play sports than on the corner of East 161st Street and River Avenue. Like St. Patrick’s Cathedral less than seven miles away, Yankee Stadium is a beautiful piece of architecture and a solemn place of meditation for the residents of the largest city in the United States. The stadium has even seen its share of real religion take place — three popes have said Mass on the grounds.
But Yankee Stadium is also a battleground. You think that when the Brooklyn Dodgers toppled the Yanks in the 1955 World Series that it was just fun and games? Blood, tears and sweat have been shed out there, all in the name of victory. In all, 16 hard-fought World Series have ended at the stadium, and that’s just baseball. From 1936, when Max Schmeling beat down Joe Louis, to 1962 when Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants for the NFL Championship, and beyond, the stadium has seen plenty of war.
Yankee Stadium is a place of mourning. After thousands lost their lives in the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, and New York lost one of its great symbols in the World Trade Center, for some, every other great New York symbol became a memorial and reminder of the tragedy. Every sporting event became a way to purge the pain. The Yankees in their stadium were both.
That memorial is also a home to thousands across the nation and world. Just ask second-year College student Anthony Conty, the self-proclaimed biggest Yankees fan at the University. He’s seen two games from the stands of Yankee Stadium, both of them victories for the Bombers, but the stadium might as well be his second home since he watches every Yankees game on TV.
“It’s not like any other stadium,” Conty said. “I mean, Babe Ruth used to play there. Babe Ruth! He’s the icon of baseball.”
Conty said his favorite thing about Yankee Stadium is how many great players have accomplished legendary feats there, from Lou Gehrig, whose “Luckiest Man” retirement speech is arguably the defining moment of Yankee Stadium, to Aaron Boone. Aaron Who? Just the guy whose 11th inning walk-off homer in the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series is Conty’s favorite Yankees moment of his lifetime. He even remembers what he was doing as he watched it: helping his family replace flooring.
“We were all sitting on the new hardwood floors watching the one TV we had in there ... It was pretty sweet,” he recalled.
Yankee Stadium is a witness to revolution. In 1923, sports were small talk. Since then, they’ve transformed from a niche to a bustling industry and microcosm of humanity. Yankee Stadium has seen the best and worst of the changes firsthand. Babe Ruth was the first modern athlete, a personality and an icon. Knute Rockne, who gave his “win one for the Gipper” speech at Yankee Stadium in a match, was among the first to romanticize and sentimentalize the sport of football. In 1923, sports were little more than leisure. Now it’s a show business.
Yankee Stadium is a magnet for heroes. The Yankees have had so many great leaders and hard-working contributors it’s almost comedic how many numbers have been retired. The only single digit uniforms available are Nos. 2 and 6, but they won’t be around for long. Former Yankees manager Joe Torre wore 6, and his bust and number will probably be added to Memorial Walk before long. No. 2 is currently worn by Derek Jeter, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and stone-cold lock for having his jersey retired by the boys in pinstripes.
Yankee Stadium is a mainstay in the otherwise tumultuous world of sports. Its history and simplicity remind us sports at its best is about so much more than flashiness and nine-digit salaries. It’s about people of all types coming together on a regular basis from the scary New York landscape surrounding the stadium to enjoy an afternoon of guiltless, red-blooded competition between some of the greatest athletes in the world. When Yankee Stadium crumbles this November and the New Yankee Stadium across the street opens its doors, A small piece of the already scarred soul of baseball will die. What the Yankees may gain in bigger attendance and increased ads revenue, they will lose in the muted emptiness of the giant hunk of grass, steel and concrete trying to replace the greatest stadium in the history of American sports.
After all, inspectors said Yankee Stadium could maintain structural integrity for several more decades. Maybe the resources and effort put into it would have been better placed somewhere else, rather than into trying improve upon perfection. Do you think New York’s public education system, which graduates less than 40 percent of its Hispanic and black males from high school, could have used that $400 million in tax money spent to built New Yankee Stadium?
Ultimately, though, Yankee Stadium is a piece of history. Even after it’s demolished this November, nothing can take away the thousands of contributions the facility and its users have made to the world of sports. Some ballpark, indeed.
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