Yankee Stadium: Oh, What an Experience It Is!

Remember those days when bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium would cost 75 cents, hot dogs would cost 50 cents at the most, and the Subway fare was only 15 cents? Ninety years ago, John Phillip Sousa's band played the National Anthem. The Yankees ended up winning 4-1 to the Boston Red Sox. Now I'm not talking about the Yankee Stadium that the Yankees currently play in; this post is about the original stadium.



Though it was called the "House that Ruth Built," it was actually the second stadium, located at 161st street and River Avenue in the Bronx.  It was in the same location as the first one, which was built in 1923, but was remodeled in 1973.  The seating capacity was extended from 58,000 to 67,000 once the remodel was completed.  The wooden seats and beams that would block many peoples' view were removed for a more updated look.  Yankee Stadium lost a little bit of its charm during that the time of the remodel, but still retained most of its character.

 Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, and Andy Pettitte have all played in the old Yankee Stadium where Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, and Joe DiMaggio both started and finished their amazing careers.  Yankee Stadium has hosted a number of other sporting events including the historic Joe Louis and Max Schmeling boxing match in 1938. "Did you know that underneath second base in Yankee Stadium there was (removed in 1976) once a brick vault fifteen feet wide that contained electrical, telephone and miscellaneous equipment for boxing events?" (Baseball Almanac)


One of the most important features that the old Yankee Stadium had was its own Monument Park in center field.  It was basically like an open museum for everyone to see every time they came to watch a game at the stadium.  Monument Park contained plaques, monuments, and the uniform numbers of the retired, Hall-of-Fame players.  A replica of Monument Park was created in 2009 for the new Yankee Stadium.

As former Yankee Bernie Williams stated about the closing of the old Yankee stadium,"concrete doesn't talk back to you---it's the people in the stands who made this place magical."  The new stadium may not have the same charm and character that the original stadium had, yet history is still being made every game.  After all, it is the people that wear the clothes; the clothes don't wear the people.  Just as it is not the wooden seats, nor the steal beams or concrete walls that make Yankee Stadium magical; It is the thousands of cheering, screaming, die-hard fans that do.