History of the stadium

Opened: April 18th, 1923
First Regular Season Game: April 18th, 1923 (4-1 victory against the Boston Red Sox)
Construction Began: May 5th, 1922
Capacity (2006): 57,478
Field Surface: Merion Bluegrass
Cost: $2.5 million ($48 million for 1975 reconstruction)
Dimensions (Original): Dimensions (2006):
Left Field: 280 1/2 feet Left Field: 318 feet
Left Field Power Alley: 460 feet Left Field Power Alley: 399 feet
Center Field: 490 feet Center Field: 408 feet
Right Field Power Alley: 429 feet Right Field Power Alley: 385 feet
Right Field: 295 feet Right Field: 314 feet

Babe Ruth's Bat Babe Ruth was making a name for himself by setting both homerun and pitching records, and he also brought the Boston Red Sox two World Series victories during his 5-year tenure in Beantown. Those World Series championships included the Sox last World Series victory of the 20th century in 1918. The 1919 season, however, saw the Red Sox sitting in 6th place in the American League with a disappointing 66-71 record even as Babe Ruth was smacking 29 homeruns to set a new major league record. The Red Sox were sold after the 1919 season to Harry Frazee, and in December of that year he sold the budding superstar Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 in cash as well as a $350,000 loan intended to fund Frazee's passion for Broadway production. This would become one of the most lopsided deals in sports, and help fuel one of baseball's most bitter rivalries.

Babe Ruth made an immediate impact for the Yankees in his new role as a full-time outfielder, and he would continue to slug homers at a record-setting pace. His slugging did much to improve the Yankees' home game attendance as they became the first professional baseball team to draw more than one million fans in a single season. They did this to the consternation of their current ballpark's tenants, the New York Giants. The Giants were annoyed that the Yankees were outdrawing them in their own park, the Polo Grounds, so they notified the Yankees that they must find a new home field as soon as possible.

On February 6th, 1921 the Yankees announced the purchase of ten acres of property belonging to the estate of famous capitalist and author William Waldorf Astor. The land was situated in the west Bronx directly across the Harlem River from the Yankees' current home in the Manhattan Polo Grounds, and cost the team $675,000. The owners wanted the new field to be a behemoth capable of holding 70,000 screaming fans, and it was already determined that the park would be the first ballpark to be referred to as a "stadium." The exact look of the park, though, had yet to be finalized. An early design had the stadium triple-decked with a roof totally covering the seats so that only passing airplanes could catch a glimpse inside. The grand structure would feature towering embattlements, and would be a marvel of modern architecture. This bold scheme was scaled back, however, and, to the chagrin of the Yankees' owners, the field could actually be seen from the passing elevated train as well as from buildings located across the street. One of the few elements that did survive from the initial draft was a scalloped frieze that would cap the roof of the first triple-decker grandstand in baseball, and it would become a well-known feature of the Stadium.

Monument Park On April 18th, 1923 Yankee Stadium opened its doors to 60,000 baseball fans. Although a higher number of 74,200 was exaggeratedly reported to be at the game it is clear that many thousands of fans had to be turned away after the game was sold out. Those who did have the privilege of seeing the game saw Babe Ruth hit the first homerun in the Stadium; a shot that was described by The New York Times as "the real baptism of Yankee Stadium." Yankee Stadium truly was the "House That Ruth Built," and a few months after the Stadium opened its doors the Yankees won their first World Series title by defeating the rival New York Giants in six games.

The new stadium greatly favored left-handed hitters as the right-field foul pole was a mere 295 feet from home plate. However, Yankee Stadium was far from a hitter's ballpark for the righties with the left-field pole 395 feet from the plate, and left-center a staggering 460 feet away. Left-center field became known as Death Valley for hitters, and the term "Death Valley" would be generically used for the outfield areas of baseball parks where it was difficult to hit a homerun. Monuments to past Yankee greats were placed deep in Death Valley. The first monument honoring manager Miller Huggins was unveiled in 1932, and Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth followed with plaques in 1941 and 1949, respectively. Another monument was dedicated for Joe DiMaggio in 1999, and other plaques celebrate Yankee greats such as Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Lefty Gomez, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Phil Rizzuto, and Casey Stengel.

Mark Mulder Mowed Down The Yankees Most Of The Night A great amount of history could been seen at Yankee Stadium even before the Stadium's reconstruction in the mid-70s. Record-breaking homeruns were seen often at the Stadium. Babe Ruth hit his 60th homerun in front of Yankee fans in 1927, and Roger Maris hit his record-breaking 61st homerun on the same field in 1961. In 1939 Lou Gehrig gave an emotional good-bye speech to the hometown crowd on the 4th of July after it was determined he had ALS, or what would later be known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. On May 15th, 1941 Joe DiMaggio hit an RBI single off White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith at the Stadium that would begin his amazing 56-game hitting streak. In 1946 the Yankees became the first team to draw over two million fans in attendance in one season even though they ultimately fell short of making the postseason. Finally, in the 1956 World Series Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game ever in World Series history when he blanked the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5. The only time Larsen threw more than two pitches out of the zone was when he reached a third ball against Pee Wee Reese in the first inning. After that the 64,000 fans in attendance got to witness one of the most dominating performances in World Series history. After the Yankee's 50th anniversary in the Stadium in 1973 the Yankees had played in 29 World Series, and they had won 20 titles from those trips.

During the first 50 years of Yankee Stadium the only major changes to the park were the addition of lights in 1946 and a major paint-job in 1966, but in the 70s the park really began to show its age. After years of debate the Yankees signed a 30-year lease with the City of New York in 1972 that called for the Stadium to be completely modernized in time for the 1976 season. After the 1973 season the Yankees moved to Shea Stadium for the next two seasons while a major reconstruction effort took place.

The Stadium was completely demolished following the 1973 season, and a major effort began to make Yankee Stadium the most modern home park in baseball. The steel support columns from the old stadium were done away with and replaced by horizontal support brackets underneath the upper decks that made for better sight lines for the fans. This new design, however, did away with the famous scalloped facade that topped the original Yankee Stadium roof. This problem was resolved with an exact replica of the facade being created to fit atop the new 560-foot-long scoreboard that stretched behind the bleachers in the outfield. The new scoreboard featured the first telescreen in baseball, and could display an amazing nine shades of gray. The revamped Yankee Stadium opened on April 15th, 1976 in a game the Yankees won against Minnesota 11-4. The Yankees made the World Series in their first year at the new stadium, and overall the Yankees would make the World Series 10 times in the new stadium through 2003, winning it 6 times. The Yankees continued success would lead to terms such as "Damn Yankees" and "The Evil Empire," but the favorite term of Yankees fans is the nickname of the Stadium, "The Home of Champions."