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New York Yankee Stadium 1923 - 2009
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New York Yankees Tickets 2008
Season
Tenant: New York Yankees (AL)
Opened: April 18, 1923
Closed: September 30, 1973
Reopened: April 15, 1976
First night game: May 28, 1946
Surface: Merion Bluegrass
Architect: Osborn Engineering (1923);
Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury (1976)
Construction: White Construction
Company (1923).
Owner: New York Yankees (1923-1971);
City of New York (since 1971)
Cost: $2.5 million (1923);
renovation: $48 million, but some estimate
the actual cost with debt service at over
$160 million (1976).
New York Yankees tickets:
Capacity: 58,000 (1923); 62,000 (1926);
82,000 (1927); 67,113 (1928); 62,000 (1929);
71,699 (1937); 70,000 (1942);67,000 (1948);
67,205 (1958); 67,337 (1961); 67,000 (1965);
65,010 (1971); 54,028 (1976); 57,145 (1977);
57,545 (1980).
Location: Left field (NE), East 161st
Street; third base (NW), Doughly Street,
later Ruppert Place; home plate (W), Major
Degan Expressway/Interstate 87 and Harlem
River; first base (SW), East 157th Street;
right field (SE), River Avenue and IRT
elevated tracks; in the southwest Bronx.
Yankee Stadium
Dimensions:
Left field: 280.58 (1923), 301 (1928), 312 (1976),
318 (1988); left side of bullpen gate in short
left-center: 395 (1923), 402 (1928), 387 (1976), 379
(1985); right side of bullpen gate: 415 (1937);
deepest left-center: 500 (1923), 490 (1924), 457
(1937), 430 (1976), 411 (1985), 399 (1988); left
side of cente-field screen: 466 (1937); center
field: 487 (1923), 461 (1937), 463 (1967), 417
(1976), 410 (1985), 408 (1988); deepest
right-center: 429 (1923), 407 (1937), 385 (1976);
left side of bullpen gate in short right-center: 350
(1923), 367 (1937), 353 (1976); right side of
bullpen gate: 344 (1937); right field 294.75 (1923),
295 (1930), 296 (1939), 310 (1976), 314 (1988);
backstop: 82 (1942), 80 (1953), 84 (1976); foul
territory: large for the catcher behind home plate,
but small for fielders down the foul lines.
Fences:
Left-field foul line: 3.92 (3 wire above .92
concrete, 1923), 8 (canvas, 1976); left-center, left
of visitors� bullpen: 3.58 (3 wire above .58
concrete); right of visitors� bullpen: 7.83 (3 wire
above 4.83 concrete), 7 (canvas, 1976); center
field, left screen when up for hitters� background:
20 (1953), 22.25 (1959), 22.42 (1954); screen when
down: 13.83, (canvas, 1976); right-center, right of
screen: 14.5 (3 wire above 11.5 concrete, 1923);
left of home bullpen: 7.83 (3 wire above 4.83
concrete, 1923); right of home bullpen: 3.58 (3 wire
above .58 concrete, 1923), 8 (canvas, 1976), 9
(canvas, 1979); right field foul line: 3.75 (3 wire
above .75 concrete, 1923), 10 (canvas, 1976).
On February
6, 1921, the Yankees announced the purchase of 10
acres of property in the west Bronx. The land,
purchased from the estate of William Waldorf Astor
for $675,000, sat directly across the Harlem River
from the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees' had played
since 1913. On their newly acquired property, the
Yankees would build the most famous ballpark in
history.
As
originally designed, Yankee Stadium was to feature
three decks and a roof which completely encircled
the playing field. However, ownership scaled back
the plan such that the grandstand didn't quite
extend to the foul poles. The left field grandstand
was extended in 1928. In 1937, the right field
grandstand was extended and concrete bleachers
replaced the original wooden ones, bringing the
stadium to its current configuration.
For forty
years, Yankee Stadium was home to a steady stream of
championship teams. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig passed
on their legacy to Joe DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto,
who then passed it on to Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle
and Roger Maris. So mighty were the Yankees, and
such a draw was the team and its stadium, that by
1958 the the Giants and Dodgers, New York's other
Major League Baseball teams, had moved to
California. For four years, from 1958 through 1961,
there was only one place to go to watch Major League
Baseball in New York City.
However, in
the late sixties, an uncharacteristic drought of
Yankee championships befell the team. Meanwhile, the
expansion Mets where playing and winning
championships in the new Shea Stadium in Flushing
Meadow. By the early seventies, Yankee Stadium had
become an old and obsolete stadium in a decaying
neighborhood hosting a mediocre team.
Renovations
were made in 1966 and 1967, but more than that was
needed. In 1972, the team sold their stadium to the
city and signed a thirty year lease. During the 1974
and 1975 seasons, the Yankees played at Shea Stadium
while the city made major renovations to Yankee
Stadium. The many steel columns which supported the
roof and upper decks were removed, and the upper
decks were cantilevered over the lower deck. The
original roof and its famous copper facade were
removed and replaced with a smaller, more modern
roof. The facade was replicated above the new
scoreboard which ran the entire length of the
bleachers.
The
renovated Yankee Stadium opened with much fanfare in
1976, and the Yankees wasted no time living up to
their "new" stadium. The team appeared in the World
Series in each of the next three years, winning the
fall classic twice. Players like Reggie Jackson,
Catfish Hunter and Ron Guidry picked up where Mantle
and Berra left off a decade earlier. Except for
brief period in the early 1990s, the Yankees have
always fielded winning teams since their ballpark
was renovated. In the late 1990s and 2000s, the
Yankees have been the team to beat, appearing in six
World Series while winning four of them. A cavalcade
of stars, including Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens,
have graced Yankee Stadium during these years.
- Left-center field monuments and plaques:
- Yankee Stadium (I): monuments in fair
territory: Lou Gehrig on the left, Miller
Huggins in the middle, Babe Ruth on the
right.
- Yankee Stadium (II): monuments beyond
the fence same as Yankee Stadium I, plus the
addition of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
Plaques beyond the fence of Ed Barrow, Jacob
Ruppert, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Casey
Stengel, Joe McCarthy, Pope Paul VI, Thurman
Munson, Pope John Paul II, Billy Martin,
Whitey Ford, Lefty Gomez, Roger Maris, Allie
Reynolds, Elston Howard, Phil Rizzuto, Bill
Dickey, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Don
Mattingly.
- A ball hitting the foul pole in the 1930s
was in play, not a homer.
- "Death Valley" in left-center.
- Green curtain in center is sometimes raised
and lowered like a window shade to force
visiting batters to face a background of
white-shirted bleacher fans while allowing
Yankees hitters to face a dark green background.
Sometimes removed in World Series play to sell
more seats.
- Hosted the 1977, 1960 (II) and 1939 All-Star
games.
- Bleachers in right-center often called
Ruthville and Gehrigville.
- Warning track made of red cinders, later of
red brick dust.
- Underneath second base in Yankee Stadium (I)
there was a 15-foot-deep brick-lined vault
containing electrical, telephone, and telegraph
connections for boxing events.
- As originally constructed, from May 5, 1922,
to April 18, 1923, three concrete decks extended
from behind home plate to each corner, with a
single deck in left-center and wooden bleachers
around the rest of the outfield.
- In the winter of 1927-1928 second and third
decks were added to left-center and several rows
of box seats were removed in left, extending the
foul pole from 281 to 301 feet.
- During the 1936 season, the winter of
1936-1937, and continuing through the 1937
season, the wooden bleachers were replaced with
concrete ones. During the 1937 season second and
third decks were added in right-center. The
bleacher changes shortened straightaway center
from 490 to 461 feet and reduced seating
capacity from the 80,000s to the 70,000s.
- As the outfield bench seats were gradually
replaced with chair seats in the 1930s and
1940s, the seating capacity gradually dropped
from over 70,000 to about 67,000.
- "Bloody Angle" between bleachers and
right-field foul line in 1923 season was very
asymmetrical and caused crazy bounces.
Eliminating this in 1924 caused the plate to be
moved 13 feet and the deepest left-center corner
to change from 500 to 490 feet.
- Auxiliary scoreboards were built in the late
1940s, which covered up the 367 right-center
sign and the 415 left-center sign.
- On September 25, 1966, only 413 people, the
smallest crowd in Yankee Stadium history,
watched the White Sox beat the Yankees 4-1.
- Minor modifications were made in the winter
of 1966-1967. During this work, a new 463 sign
and a 433 sign appeared in the power alleys, and
the exterior was painted blue and white.
- A 500 pound steel joint fell from the upper
deck in April 1998 prompting the Yankees to play
a home game at Shea Stadium and trade three home
games with the Detroit Tigers.
- Original street address was 800 Ruppert
Place.
