May 11, 2010 [LINK / comment]

R.I.P. Yankee Stadium (1923-2010)

I knew this sad day was coming, but I was totally occupied with other obligations over the weekend, and didn't even find out about it until late last night: The last remnants of Yankee Stadium came down on Saturday morning, just before 9:00 A.M. The exterior walls were pulled inward, away from the elevated train tracks, as you can see in the following video, which was posted on baseball-fever.com:

Thus ends the painful, awkward period of "limbo," which several fine old ballparks have had to endure. It's been about 18 months since Yankee Stadium closed for business in October 2008. It's probably better to put the grand basilica out of its misery, rather than to neglect it while it crumbles into ruins, as has happened elsewhere.

Memorable moments

To mark this melancholy occasion, I have put together a list of "memorable moments" since Yankee Stadium was built. Entries since 2004 include links to the appropriate blog posts. I will update the Yankee Stadium page over the next few days.

SOURCES: Yankee Stadium 1923-2008, by Gary Hermalyn and Anthony C. Greene (Arcadia Publishing, 2009); Yankee Stadium, USA Today Sports Weekly Keepsake Edition (2008); A Tribute to Mickey Mantle (L.F.P., 1995), baseball-almanac.com

Yankee Stadium montage

Yankee Stadium montage, including an upper deck view from the game I saw there in 2004, my tour ticket from Oct. 2008, and the monument to the greatest Yankee of my lifetime: #7, Mickey Mantle.

[UPDATE: It is worth pointing out that the last remaining section of Yankee Stadium was not even part of the original 1923 structure. The grandstand in the right field corner was added in 1938, fifteen years after Yankee Stadium first opened. And just to clarify my own feelings on all this, I'm sure they could have found a way to rebuild and even restore Yankee Stadium to last for through the 21st Century if they really wanted to. This is a tragedy that could have been avoided, and the misguided renovations of 1973-1976 did not necessarily ruin the stadium forever, as some have argued. But I know life goes on, and I will get over it, and will get used to the "Brave New Yankee Stadium" next door.]

[Corrections to two dates, in 1999 and 2001, were made on May 21.]