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Click photo to enlarge.
Photo courtesy of John Brubaker.
For most die-hard baseball fans, Yankee Stadium is the
ball park that defines big league baseball. It really doesn't
matter which team you "root for" or whether you prefer the National
League over the American League. "The House That Ruth Built"
has played host to literally thousands of baseball games since the
New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox in its inaugural game on April 18,
1923, and the Yankees continue to play before sellout crowds on a
regular basis 83 years later.
The unmatched love and respect that we Americans hold for the New
York Yankees was built home run by home run with the mighty hands of one George
Herman Ruth - "The Babe". In what is widely regarded as the most bone-headed
trade ever made by a major league team, in 1918 the Red Sox traded
Babe Ruth to the Yankees, a team that had never won a pennant - much
less the World Series. The Babe's mighty bat played the primary role
in quickly turning the franchise around, and the Yankees have been
perennial favorites season after season ever since.
Many of the game's biggest stars played their home games at Yankee
Stadium. In addition to Ruth - arguably the biggest star ever to put
on a uniform, at various times Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Reggie Jackson all wore Yankee pinstripes while playing
the game at a level that seemed to be miles above the average big
league ballplayer. And today, the Yankees still field some of the
most popular and effective players in the Majors.
There is so much history and mystique associated with Yankee Stadium
that many people - myself included - equate Yankee Stadium with
Major League Baseball itself. In short, Yankee Stadium IS Major
League Baseball in the minds of many. That's why it pains me to no end that beginning
with the 2009 season the Yankees will leave "The House That Ruth
Built" behind forever when they move into a brand new ball park.
That will be the end of a golden era when the crack of the mighty
Babe's bat echoed through the park with every home run. For me, that
will be a very sad day.
About the photo: Photographer John Brubaker took this
beautiful photo of Yankee Stadium on July 15. It turned out to be a
great day for the Yankees as they defeated the Chicago White Sox
14-3. The picture was taken from the third row from the top - hence
the great view of the stadium!
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