Believe it or not there was a time in my life when I had no interest in politics. However we are turning the clock back over 50 years in the process when we lived in central New Jersey. At that time my hero’s were not Abe Lincoln or Ronald Reagan. Instead my hero’s in the late 40’s & 50’s were Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. They are each acknowledged in Roger Kahn’s book “The Boys of Summer.”My favorite team, The Brooklyn Dodgers, played at Ebbets Field in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Their arch enemies, which by definition were also mine, were the “Bronx Bombers” (of the American league) and New York “Giants” (of the National league) whose home games you could attend by taking the “D” train from Times Square and getting off at 155th street to go to the Polo Grounds or stay on the train, crossing the Harlem River, and get off at the next exit East 161st Street to the house that Ruth Built called Yankee Stadium.
For years we would debate which team had the best position players starting with center fielders. Willie Mays, Duke Snider or Joe DiMaggio? Or perhaps the debate would be between Yogi Berra or Roy Campanella behind the plate. Who was the better shortstop, Pee Wee Reese or Phil Rizzuto (later of the Money Store).
As part of the 2008 All Star festivities they held the home run competition last night in the House that Ruth built. Watching the power display by Josh Hamilton was awesome. However as we all watched him stroke homer after homer into the right field upper deck we also realize that the last of the three original New York stadiums I remember as a youth are all history. It’s called progress. Others label it redevelopment. You might ask the question why? What’s wrong with retaining the original stadiums that hold all of the records be it baseball, football or any other outdoor team sport?
When we visited the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY we spent the day reading about the teams and individual records that evolved from those three stadiums. On display are the bats, balls and gloves of the combatants whose feats of greatness were from these three New York area houses that will all be history come next year when the last of the group, Yankee Stadium, falls to the wrecking ball.
Yes, there will be a new Yankee Stadium next year, at a cost of $1.3 billion, but it will not be the same field where the Yankees ruled baseball for so many years.
Five words that will always remain in my memory bank of the Brooklyn Dodgers is the walk off home run in the Polo Grounds by Bobby Thompson in 1951 and the announcer screaming “The Giants win the pennant–the Giants win the pennant.” Sadly that stadium, and most of the combatants, where those words were spoken is long gone.
So now we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LA Dodgers in Chavez Ravine where families were removed by “eminent domain” way back in time to be replaced by the current Dodger stadium. Yes, I guess the show will go on regardless of the victims and our memories.
For myself, who will win tonight is less important than the passing of the House that Ruth built. Although a Yankee hater for more than 50 years, I do respect their numerous accomplishments on that nostalgic baseball field.
Larry,
I will be at Yankee Stadium this Friday night to see the Yankees play the A’s. I wanted to make sure I saw one last game in the Bronx before it goes bye-bye.
I was lucky enough to go to the original “House that Ruth built” in 1973 and I have been to the renovated version as well. Last summer I got to tour the stadium and got to visit monument park, the dugout and the locker room. On my desk sits a photo of me sitting in the Yankees dugout.
I am very excited to go to the Bronx and see one final game. As a fan of baseball it will be one that I treasure for years to come.
email response:
Watching Josh Hamilton last night and hearing his story was quite an experience. He did not win the home run derby, but won the “get your life back” contest. It was quite something to witness!!
Email from a friend in local print media.
Larry,
It’s a crime for anyone to tear down that place.
As a life-long Dodger fan and Yankee hater, I cringe and cry at the idea of destroying the house that Ruth built.
In a discussion with another Dodger fan today we reminisced about the plans to replace Yankee stadium. He called the stadium a “national shrine.”
And he is right. I recall seeing the original three monuments in centerfield dedicated to Lou Gehrig, Miller Huggins and Babe Ruth when attending N.Y. Giant football games. Yes, before moving to the Meadowlands of New Jersey, the Giants did play home games at Yankee stadium.
I am so glad that Rome did not replace the Coliseum so we could see that almost 2,000 year old treasure.
When the 2008 season ends we will now have grave diggers moving all of the Yankee monuments to the new stadium when it opens.
Oh come on you guys it just urban renewal!
(ducking to avoid the cabbages and beers about to be tossed)
Thanks for sharing that Sean. Maybe you could take some pics and share when you get back?
I still can’t believe that this chapter of Yankee history is about to end.
Red,
I will definately be taking pictures. I will get some shots of the new stadium as well.
As a baseball fan I view Yankee Stadium as “sacred ground”. I am just so thankful that I will get one last chance to “worship” there come Friday night.
If you don’t listen to Frank Deford, Wednesday morning, NPR, you should. Frank’s writing is perfection and he hits a grand slam every Wednesday morning. I thought this was appropriate to this thread.
Morning Edition, July 9, 2008 · Sometimes the man and the moment seem to come around again. So it is with Bob Feller and this year’s All-Star Game, which will be played Tuesday in Yankee Stadium, in this last season before they tear down that sublime American monument, The House that Ruth Built.
Feller is not older than dirt, but he is older than Yankee Stadium. He was born during World War I and grew up out by the Raccoon River in Iowa, in a farmhouse that lacked indoor plumbing. He is almost 90, still hale and as crusty as ever. He is the last notable living link to our sports past.
Jack Kramer, the great tennis star, is still alive at the age of 86, but Kramer was barely a presence in the late 1930s. Feller, though, was already indisputably the best pitcher in the game before he went off to war.
Good grief, Feller has been in the Hall of Fame for 46 years. He has his own museum, out by the Raccoon River. I dropped in there a while ago, to visit the repository of those glory days when the fabled Rapid Robert could throw a baseball harder than any other human being.
He was only 17 when he came directly off the farm to start for the Cleveland Indians. Feller was the first real … what we call … “a phenom.” He seemed to emerge out of thin air as make-believe as the really make-believe “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.,” in Damn Yankees.
There had never been anybody like Feller, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he is the last of his era, still alive and kicking.
Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 after the New York Giants told the Yankees they wouldn’t share their home, the Polo Grounds, anymore. The Giants intemperate little manager, John McGraw, had grown jealous of the new Yankee slugger, the glamorous Mr. Ruth. When McGraw learned that the Yankees would have to build their new abode outside of Manhattan, he chortled that the Yankees “were going to Goatville, and before long they will be lost sight of.”
This was something of a miscalculation. The Yankees, reincarnated as the Bronx Bombers, became, of course, the golden franchise. Their Yankee Stadium was huge and a marvel.
Before then, baseball had been played in what were pastorally called “parks” and “fields” — ball yards, if you will. Now the national pastime had a certified stadium, its own great lighthouse to shine baseball upon all the land.
In 1939, the stadium hosted its first All-Star Game. Bob Feller, still only 20, pitched 3 2/3 innings, shutting out the best of the National League on one hit and validating his pre-eminence before a national audience.
And now, the All-Star Game is back in the Bronx, a valedictory for the old stadium. A new and improved Yankee Stadium will open next year, of course, and although Bob Feller never wore pinstripes, it would best honor the continuity of the whole game if the ancient phenom were chosen to throw out the first ball when the son of The House that Ruth Built opens next April.
After all, the stadium may hold pews for Yankee fans, but it is the cathedral for the whole sport.
i went to yankee stadium on a 7th grade class trip. i don;t remember anything about that game; i don;t even remember the stadium – i was pouting. i did not want to go to a yankee game, i wanted to see the mets !!
i held little interest in mickey mantle, jim bouton or whitey ford. i wanted to see buddy harrelson, tug mcgraw and tom seaver.
i did like billy martin and george steinbrenner. what characters. but they could not match casey stengel
and i still remember my excitement when the mets took the world series in 1969. “you gotta believe”
Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford!
Billy Martin, Joe Torre and Ralph Houk….The
Greatest of All-Time!
They all got paid the big money, in the big market and all had more fun than should have been allowed!
God bless every brick….of Yankee Stadium! We fought a lot of wars…..defending those bricks!
A few closing comments after the marathon that just ended.
Talent? That was not Jackie Robinson representing the Natioal League at second base tonight. If Carl (the rifle)Furillo was in right field this game would be starting the 16th inning.
These players are “All Stars?”
Pitchers not holding runners on first base making it impossible for the catcher to throw out the runner stealing second.
It was painful to watch this final All Star game being played in Yankee Stadium!
*Partner Lorenzo,
What game were you watching? We picked up the game in the middle of the fourth inning. We have never seen such exciting baseball in our lives!
Cook on the mound with no outs, bases loaded and
two people get cut down at the plate? Whoa…and the tremendous throw right onto the plate for the out in the 10th! The pitching was fabulous…how many strike outs again? 2nd Bases Uggla…had the worst night of his professional career and it
may have sad consequences. But other than that..
it was great, great baseball in “The House that Ruth Built!” The catcher Martin from the Dodgers
is probably as good as any that has ever played the game! “Super Stars!” And Mario Rivera…had
a great outing…even though they got one hit off of him!
Yes Ron there were some great momments late in the game. However if the National League pitchers and catcher were not asleep with men on first we may not have needed to go into extra innings.
Forget his multiple errors and three strikeouts for a minute. Why didn’t Uggla run to second to break up the doubleplay that may have led to another run for the National League which, by itself, would have ended the evening.
If we can overlook all the “uncontested” American League stolen bases, the relief pitching and plays at home plate were awesome.
What a great game of baseball last night, with tons of memorable plays. But I am sure Uggla would prefer to forget his All-Star appearance.
How many times did we think the game was over?
It was a tense game with close plays. In the 15th, Morneau scored the winning run a nano-second ahead of the throw to home. Wow.
ANGELS WILL HAVE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE IN THE FALL !!!!!!!!!!!
*Cath….that’s right….Scoscia vs. Torre!
It will be a great World Series! All LA…all
the time!
Yankees! BOOOOO!
GO SOX!
SMS
We were in New York during the 2000 “subway” series between the Mets and the Yankees.
If it turns out that it will be the Angels and the Dodgers this fall I guess they will call it the “gridlock” series.
you don;t really think that the dodgers will make it to the fall classic ! ha.
the angels have outperformed the dodgers by winning games while the key infielders were on the dl. the angels were even winning games when the big bats went silent. angels were winning games without our star pitchers – lackey and escobar.
for the first half of the season, the angels were still warming up.
no way can the dodgers compete with that.
the dodgers are one game out because the d-backs are struggling.
the angels are 6 games ahead because of the depth of the team.
i don;t think we are going to see a national league western divisional champ in the world series.
but the angels will be there, after they clobber tampa bay and minnesota!!