Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium, baseball stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City that was home to the New York Yankees from 1923 to 2008. It is famous not only as the site of legendary baseball feats but also as the venue for a host of other notable events, such as memorable boxing matches, American football games, and papal visits. It was replaced by a new stadium with the same name in 2009.

“The House That Ruth Built”

In the 1910s and early ’20s, the Yankees, who played in the American League, were tenants of the National League’s New York (now San Francisco) Giants at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. But the Yankees wore out their welcome when Babe Ruth joined the team, and fans flocked to see the young superstar, causing the Yankees to outdraw their landlords. Forced to find a new home after the Giants evicted them, the Yankees considered sites on Long Island and the West Side of Manhattan before settling on a 10-acre (4-hectare) plot in the South Bronx, across the Harlem River from their old ballpark. Giants manager John McGraw predicted that the Yankees would soon become irrelevant by playing in a part of the city still considered the hinterlands:

They are going up to Goatville. And before long they will be lost sight of. A New York team should be based on Manhattan Island.

The Yankees’ new ballpark was designed by Osborn Engineering of Cleveland, which was also responsible for the designs of Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field (1909), Chicago’s Comiskey Park (1910), and Boston’s Fenway Park (1912). Originally it was planned to be enclosed so that the action on the field would be “impenetrable to all human eyes, save those of aviators,” according to a team press release. But the triple-decked grandstand ultimately did not wrap all the way around, and people could view the action both from nearby buildings and the elevated trains that traveled past the outfield. It took construction workers less than a year to build the stadium, which debuted on April 18, 1923, for an opening day matchup against the rival Boston Red Sox.

Before the game, Ruth declared, “I’d give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in the first game in this new park.” The stadium’s dimensions took advantage of Ruth’s left-handed power stroke, with a short 295 feet (90 meters) down the right field line, and in the third inning the “Sultan of Swat” got his wish, hitting a three-run homer into the right-field bleachers, helping the home team to a 4–1 victory. That blast and Ruth’s star power prompted sportswriter Fred Lieb to brand Yankee Stadium “the house that Ruth built.” As The New York Times observed in a front-page story the next day, “Governors, generals, colonels, politicians and baseball officials gathered together solemnly yesterday to dedicate the biggest stadium in baseball, but it was a ball player who did the real dedicating.” The Yankees cruised to a third consecutive American League pennant that season, and in the World Series they defeated the Giants to win their first championship.

Yankee Stadium, home to the most successful franchise in baseball history, would be the setting of many other notable baseball moments over the next 85 years—including Lou Gehrig’s July 4, 1939, goodbye speech, Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game, and Reggie Jackson’s three home runs in the Yankees’ clinching game of the 1977 World Series. A sign in the tunnel had a famous quote from star center fielder “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio: “I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee.”

More than a ballpark: prizefights, papal visits, and political moments

The stadium hosted many famous boxing matches, including the 1938 bout in which American Joe Louis knocked out German boxer Max Schmeling in the first round, two years after losing to Schmeling. In 1975 Muhammad Ali beat Ken Norton. In addition, the National Football League’s New York Giants played their home games at Yankee Stadium before moving to New Jersey in the 1970s.

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It was also home to religious events, including the largest crowd ever at the ballpark, when 123,707 people attended a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention in 1958. Pope Paul VI celebrated a mass there in 1965, and Pope Benedict XVI ended a 2008 U.S. visit with a mass at the stadium. In 1990 South African activist and later president Nelson Mandela told a crowd at the ballpark, “You now know who I am. I am a Yankee.” In response, the crowd yelled, “Amandla,” the Zulu word for power.

Renovation and demolition: “Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away”

In the mid-1970s the stadium underwent a major renovation, and the Yankees played two seasons at Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets. New York City had bought Yankee Stadium and agreed to make the renovations, which ultimately cost $110 million. However, the city’s choice to refurbish the ballpark in a blighted section of the city led to some blowback.

The Yankees played their final game at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008, defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 7–3. Players compared the atmosphere to that of a playoff game, and the team opened its gates seven hours early, allowing fans to walk along the warning track. Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The stadium was demolished over the following two years, with the last standing piece coming down in May 2010. The team moved into a new Yankee Stadium one block north of the original at the beginning of the 2009 season.