MEMORIES:
Home to baseball’s most hallowed legends and treasured lore, Yankee Stadium stands as Major League Baseball’s pantheon-- a fitting title, since it was the first sports location to be given the Greek appellation “stadium.” Since its construction in 1923, it has been home to the most successful franchise in modern sports history, the twenty-six-time world champion New York Yankees (a remarkable pace of about one title every three years). Nine of those championships were clinched at the stadium, while eight other teams have celebrated won their rings there.
But Yankee Stadium is more than just the sum of its historical parts. It’s the capital of America’s pastime. It’s the Mecca of sports. It’s not just the home of the Yankees, it’s the home of the Bronx Bombers. It’s the house that Ruth built. And above and beyond all others throughout all sports, it simply is “The Stadium.”
It’s where the Babe belted over forty-nine homers for five consecutive years, including a then-record sixty in 1927. It’s where the Iron Horse – “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” – called home during his 2,130 consecutive game career, which he finished with seventeen broken bones in his hands, a disease named after him, and the most memorable farewell in all of sports history. It’s where the Gooney Bird pitched the only perfect game in the history of the Fall Classic in game five of the ’56 Series. It’s where fans watched Joltin’ Joe bang his way onto base for fifty-six consecutive games (a record that to this day has not even come close to falling). It’s where the M & M boys battled each other to sixty-one in ’61. It’s where Mr. October slapped three homers off of three different pitchers in game 6 of the ’77 Series.
Yankee Stadium is where the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik knocked the Giants’ Frank Gifford out of the game and into the history books with one of the most vicious hits in football history. Yankee Stadium is where The Brown Bomber defended his title and redeemed an earlier loss with a first round knock out Max Schmeling. Yankee Stadium is where Pope Paul VI performed the first ever Papal Mass in North America.
But to those who’ve ever been there, it’s even more. It’s the home of “Death Valley,” “Murderer’s Row,” and “the black.” It’s where the entire country learned the Bronx cheer. It’s got “the short porch” (formerly known as “Ruthville”), Monument Park, and “The Big Bat.” It’s where one goes to hear the voice of Bob Sheppard bringing the batters into the box. It’s where the late, great, Eddie Layton brought “Take Me Out To the Ball Game” to life during every seventh inning stretch on the Hammond Organ.
Yankee Stadium isn’t just baseball history. It’s baseball… period. It’s not famous for any one thing. It’s famous for everything. It’s alive like no other venue, and when it’s finally put it to sleep by a demolitions crew in 2008, it will become immortal like nothing else.
