The Grand Old Ballpark in the Bronx turns 75 this year, but it's not the same Stadium that debuted on April 18, 1923.
As the original ballpark had opened with a championship in 1923, so too did the renovated one in 1976.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Yankee Stadium!"
Is there a better way to open a 75th anniversary salute to America's most cherished sports facility than feeling the presence of Bob Sheppard's greeting? This is a year of celebration, and nothing captures the genuine warmth of this cathedral to baseball than those words.
It wasn't always Bob Sheppard, of course, it just seems like it. The first Yankee Stadium public address announcer, Jack Lenz, stood behind home plate and used a megaphone. It was in that manner that fans would have first heard the name of Lou Gehrig, playing first base instead of Wally Pipp back in 1925. And it was in that manner that a heralded rookie, Joe DiMaggio, would be introduced in 1936.
Yankee Stadium stands with the Roman Coliseum as the world's most renown sports arenas. Of course, to even mention it in the same breath as the Coliseum requires accepting that lions eating Christians was somehow sport. In truth, the political correctness of that went out of fashion sometime ago. But the majesty of both remains unquestioned.
Even the selection of the word "Stadium" seems historically brilliant, for it was the first ballpark to carry that word, which brought greater awe to the nation's first three-tiered structure. The Yankees had been tenants of the Giants at the Polo Grounds, and before that, played in the wooden single-deck structure called Hilltop Park, where Columbia Presbyterian Hospital now sits.
"The" Yankee Stadium, (newspapers continued to use the word "The" until the early 1960s), built between May 5, 1922 and Opening Day, April 18, 1923 (yes, 348 days), erased at long last any lingering second-class status the team had felt. The Giants had told the Yankees they were not interested in having them back as tenants. This was fine with Col. Jacob Ruppert, the second-generation brewery owner and former four-term U.S. Congressman (1899-1907), who had purchased the team in 1915 with Col. Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston. They had been quietly looking for a site for their own ballpark for several years. Babe Ruth had made the Yanks the most storied franchise in the land, and it was time for their own place. They selected a former lumber yard on the Bronx side of the Harlem River, in eyesight of the Polo Grounds, to construct their palace. Osborn Engineering of Cleveland drew up the plans, and White Construction put the men to work with concrete, steel, wood and copper.
The original plans called for it to be fully encircled with three-decks, but by the 1923 opener, the three decks did not reach the foul poles, leaving a massive bleacher area of wooden boards for seating. So deep was dead center field - 490 feet - that it was a wonder the ballpark managed to capture "The House that Ruth Built" as a nickname. (There were 20 inside-the-park homers hit in that first season). Ruth may have loved the short right field porch (294; later remeasured at 296), but center field was clearly designed with pitchers in mind, not the Bambino.
Opening Day in 1923 drew 74,200 people, and 69-year-old John Philip Sousa led his band through stirring performances of his classic marches and the National Anthem. Not only was this the highest attendance ever recorded in baseball history to that point, but the previous record, set in the 1916 World Series, was only 42,000. But total attendance for that pennant winning season was just over a million - actually down from the last two years in the Polo Grounds. If you subtract the 74,200 from the season attendance, the average crowd was only about 13,500. It would take a while for the Wall Street and Broadway crowds to find their ways to the Bronx.
For the record, the Yankees, behind the pitching and home run hitting of Bob Shawkey, their senior player, won that first game 4-1 over Boston, and Mr. Ruth did in fact hit the Stadium's first home run. Derby hats flew in the air, a quaint custom we have let slip away from us along the way.
In the beginning, the Yankee clubhouse and dugout was on the third base side, and the Yankees would climb a metal staircase beneath the third base stands to reach their quarters with metal lockers, tile floors, and, beginning in 1927, Pete Sheehy passing out towels. Over the years, change came to the ballpark. Second and third decks were added in leftfield after the great 1927 season, (when the leftfield foul pole went from 280 to 301), and a matching rightfield extension came about in 1937. It was also in 1937 that centerfield was moved in to a more cozy 461 feet. "Death Valley," the deep area in left-center that made it so hard for right hand hitters to homer, was always part of the real estate. The first grave-like monument under which no one is buried, was dedicated to the late manager Miller Huggins on Memorial Day, 1932.
Nineteen forty-six was a key year for the ballpark. Larry MacPhail, with Dan Topping and Del Webb, had bought the team from Ruppert's heirs the year before, and although MacPhail would be there for only three years, the great showman brought a lot of sparkle to the structure. Lights were installed and the first night game was played on May 28. A new Yankee clubhouse was built below the first base stands, and the team moved to the first base dugout. MacPhail added a press lounge and a Stadium Club for season ticket holders. The team became the first in baseball history to draw two million, having earlier been the first to scale a million.
Curiously, the team's offices were not in Yankee Stadium until 1967. If you wanted to do business with Ruppert, you visited his brewery at 1639 Third Avenue, (which stood at 92nd Street, until 1965, as the last brewery in Manhattan) or at his downtown Times Square office at 226 W. 42nd Street. After the Colonel's death in 1939, the team's offices moved to 55 W. 42nd Street, and then MacPhail moved them to the Squibb Building at 745 Fifth Avenue (across the street from The Plaza Hotel). Only the ticket office was at Yankee Stadium until, under CBS ownership in 1967, the place got a major face lift with white paint coating the concrete exterior, and all new blue seats replacing the pale green. Then, the team's offices moved uptown, and the growing executive staff no longer commuted between Manhattan and the Bronx on game days.
The 1960s also saw the end of the tradition of fans exiting through the field - leaving by way of the running track and out through the distant bullpens. Gone as well was the unhealthy practice of timing the grounds crew, "the fastest in baseball" in covering the infield on rainy days. Better to just get the diamond covered than cause coronaries among Jimmy Esposito's skilled landscapers.
Talk of renovation began in the early 1970s, when Bat Day crowds would pound their bats and chunks of concrete would fall. Fortunately, no one was ever injured, but it was a warning sign that as the stadium approached its 50th birthday, a complete overhaul was needed.
There was talk of the team moving - even to New Orleans, where the Superdome was being planned - but Yankee President Michael Burke found a willing listener in Mayor John Lindsay, and the two finally agreed on a plan for the city to assume ownership of the stadium, and to go through a complete renovation. Lindsay knew nothing about baseball, but he knew what the loss of the Yankees would mean. The final game in the old park saw the handing of home plate to Mrs. Babe Ruth, and first base to Mrs. Lou Gehrig. A ticket kiosk went to the Smithsonian; the foul poles were sold to Japanese interests. The last remaining item that dated back to the Highlanders, the clubhouse safe, vanished in the demolition that followed.
In 1974 and '75, the Yankees played at Shea Stadium while the old structure was redone,complete with escalators, new scoreboards and a smokestack which looked so much like a baseball bat that Louisville Slugger turned it into a Babe Ruth model.
Gone was the copper facade that encircled the old park, but thankfully, the design was brilliantly preserved to span the outfield billboard section. The inside was gutted; the poles which created obstructed view seating were removed, and as an engineering marvel, the new place had no poles, three decks, better lighting and sound, and a cozier feel. It wasn't long before George Steinbrenner ordered Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" to be played after each game, and few things in town would come to match the feel-good effect that provided after a Yankee victory.
Gone to, of course, were the football Giants, who had played there from 1956-73, but the Stadium would still play host to a variety of other events from time to time.
The renovation also saw the removal of signs stating "No women allowed beyond this point" at various places near the Yankee clubhouse. The Stadium was catching up with society.
As the original ballpark had opened with a championship in 1923, so too did the renovated one in 1976. Opening Day in '76 saw a host of special guests from great Yankee Stadium moments, with four granted the special honor of standing on the mound for the first pitch ceremony. They were Toots Shor, the saloonkeeper who entertained New York sports society ("crumb bums") for years; James Farley, the old Democratic leader and Postmaster General who was the team's longest standing season ticket holder; Pete Sheehy, who still stood guard over the Yankee clubhouse, and Mel Allen, the one and only "Voice of the Yankees" from 1939-1964. Shawkey threw out the ceremonial first ball, and Whitey Witt, the Yankees' first batter in '23, stood at the plate.
Farley had been there long enough to have had his season box be a moveable high back chair, before the style that bolts to the ground we are now accustomed to. All of the original box seats were moveable, so that a box could accommodate an extra guest if necessary.
To many, Yankee Stadium remains a holy temple, a place of worship. At each home game, there are many first-time fans who have waited a lifetime to make the pilgrimage.
There are statues outside various ballparks today honoring Phil Niekro, Stan Musial, Roberto Clemente, Ty Cobb and others. Would a cluster of statuary honoring Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle outside Gate 4 look awfully good to visitors?
Perhaps just a nice thought to kick off the anniversary year.
"Thank you for coming, and please arrive home safely."
Captions
Is there anything prettier than a full house on a beautifully sunny day at Yankee Stadium? (PHOTO A, RUN AS COLOR SPREAD, SHOT SENT ON DISK)
The House As It Was Being Built: By October 3, 1922 the Stadium was well on it's way to being "The House That Ruth Built." (PHOTO B, RUN AS 4/C)
The Stadium wasn't only the home of the Yankees. It was also the home of the New York football Giants, who hosted the Baltimore Colts in "The Greatest Football Game Ever," the NFL Championship Game played on December 28, 1958. (PHOTO C, B/W OR CEPIA BOB'S CALL)
The papal visit of Pope John Paul II on October 2, 1979 is one of the highlights of the non-sporting events that have been held at Yankee Stadium. (PHOTO D, B/W OR CEPIA BOB'S CALL)
Following stints at Hilltop Park and the Polo Grounds, the Yankees moved into their own ballpark just in time for their first World Championship season in 1923. (PHOTO E, RUN AS 4/C)
