Yankee Stadium

[dhermann1]

I'm listening to the final game at Yankee Stadium right now. It never occurred to me it wouldn't be on free TV, but that's another gripe.
What's really getting to me right now is the fact that this great monument to American popular culture, more than just baseball or just sports, is slated to be demolished.
26 Yankee championships, a couple of popes, the "greatest football game ever played" (the 1958 game between the Giants and the Colts), PLUS innumerable boxing matches, most notably the legendary second Louis Schmeling fight, they all happened here.
I have my own Yankee memories, in 1965 I caught a double header at the Stadium, Whitey Ford and Al Downing were the winners. And afterward seeing Mantle and Maris come out of the building.
The 1978 Ron Guidry 18 strikeout game (I have my ticket stub!). So many more.
But they have to knock it down. Why? In Europe there are several Roman amphitheaters that are 2,000 years old that have been "adaptively reused".
Why can't they demolish the rest but leave the shell? The silhouette of that building is on a par with the Empire State Building as a New York icon.
The more I think about it the more upset I become.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

I know; it's sad to see it go.
I'm not sure of the details, but I know that it's not being razed to make a parking lot. Parts of it are going to be kept, I believe, as some sort of museum, and Monument Park is being moved.
I agree with the point about Roman amphitheaters, but they were probably built better... I do know that parts of it have fallen off over the past few years, so maybe it's just beyond repair.

 

[dhermann1]

It was the old stadium that was crumbling. The present building was completely renovated in 1973, so structurally, it's thoroughly sound. The decision is entirely economic. The Yankee Stadium that exists today is just a very obsolete, not very good facility, compared to almost every other stadium in the country. Nobody disagrees with this, They definitely needed a new stadium. I just hate the idea of that great structure disappearing. It's always a thrill to drive past it in the Bronx, or see it across the Harlem River, while driving up the east side of Manhattan. It's not super tall, but it still dominates the location. It has sort of a similar effect to the Coliseum in Rome. Sigh.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

This is just a guess but...land values?

I'm going to Shea for the last time on Tuesday.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I may get disfellowshipped from Red Sox Nation for admitting this, but I sorely regret never having been to Yankee Stadium, in either the original or revised versions. I drove past it a few years ago, and was sorely tempted to go have a closer look, but traffic didn't permit, and now I'll never have another chance. One can't understate the importance it had to 20th century popular culture -- baseball, football, boxing, political and religious events, you name it.

This has been a bad year for great ballparks -- earlier this summer they finally rolled the bulldozers on the remains of Tiger Stadium in Detroit, and there are heartbreaking photos online if you look for them. So far, though, there's organized efforts to save the original 1912 portion of that facility, and at the moment the scrappers have been kept away from that part -- it's all that's left, in fact. Fundraising is well underway to ensure it stays standing as a sports museum/community athletic center. Pity they couldn't have done something similar in New York.

The day they give up on Fenway is the day I give up on baseball.

 

[dhermann1]

Shea

My favorite memory at Shea was seeing a game there, also spring of 1965. The Pirates were in town as I recall. The Mets got somebody (I thought it was Don Demeter, but he played for Detroit that year. Whatever.) caught in a rundown between third and home. They kept flubbing the relays, and the runner was forced to go back and forth an inordinate number of times, as the Muts, err, the Mets kept dropping the throws. Finally the poor guy sprained his ankle trying to pivot for the umpteenth time, and slumped to the ground, whereupon the Met fielder finally tagged him out. "They're amazin', amazin', amazin'," as the old perfessor used to say.
Not many people are getting worked up about Shea, but I always enjoyed standing on the subway platform where you could see the field. I saw a scorching home run by Darryl Strawberry once, and Neal Allen pitch a complete game shutout, and I saw the Bills beat the Jets on a cold, wet, miserable January day.
Aloha, Shea, as well.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

I may get disfellowshipped from Red Sox Nation for admitting this, but I sorely regret never having been to Yankee Stadium, in either the original or revised versions.

I'm a Sox fan, die-hard, and went to Yankee stadium a few times. Saw a Sox game there, and realized that, even in Sox hats, my boyfriend and I weren't in danger of getting beat up. That is never true of a Yankee fan at Fenway. lol

 

[Hemingway Jones]

The day they give up on Fenway is the day I give up on baseball.

Here, here. Demolishing Fenway Park is akin to demolishing the Vatican.

As a Sox fan, I am also sad to see Yankee Stadium go. "The House that Ruth Build," need anyone say more?

 

[Miles Borocky]

I'll add to everybody's grief of Yankee Stadium's passing. Fortunately, I was able to catch a game there--and at Shea--on a trip to NYC a couple years ago. It breaks my heart, though, to see the ever-shrinking list of classic American ballparks.

My favorite? Well, I'm a Tiger fan, so old Tiger Stadium. I actually bought a couple seats from the park for my house when they started gutting the place last year. They sit in my sunroom now, for listening to games on XM Radio throughout the summer.

 

[Geesie]

Are there any old ballparks left except Wrigley and Fenway any more? Those are the only ones I can think of.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Other than Fenway and Wrigley, the remnant of Tiger Stadium, the remnant of Braves Field in Boston, and soon-to-be-demolished Yankee Stadium, the oldest major league park still standing is Candlestick in San Francisco, dating to 1960, but that's no longer used for baseball. After that you have RFK in Washington, also no longer used for baseball, and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, both of which opened in 1962. To put that in perspective, Dodger Stadium is now older than Ebbets Field was when the Dodgers abandoned it. For some reason I find that fact terribly depressing.

 

[dhermann1]

Minor League Parks?

How about Minor League Parks? There are precious few of them left that are classics, either. I've mentioned the old stadium in Honolulu before, a big wonderful wooden dump. And the old Rockpile in Buffalo,War Memorial Stadium. It was used in "The Natural", and then they knocked it down. The Bisons (pronounced with a very hard Z) played there.
Stadiums by their nature are outdoor venues, used hard. They take a beating. And they usually don't age gracefully. I've read more than one comment that said that as picturesque as Ebbetts Field may have been, it was a crummy,cramped little dump by the time they pulled it down. But still, they should have found some useful new purpose for "The Stadium".

 

[Nighthawk]

Please don't forget the vintage ballparks in Japan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Jingu_Stadium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koshien_Stadium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Municipal_Stadium (planned to be replaced)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyagi_Baseball_Stadium

NH

 

[dhermann1]

The standard format for Japanese ballparks is just one level all the way around, no multi decks. Kind of neat, it would seem to create more of a mass energy from the spectators, even tho you get fewer seats with good views than you would with multi decks around the infield.

 

[Nighthawk]

^ I guess I never realized how rabid Japanese fans are until I watched that episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain goes to a baseball game and a sports bar....I mean I knew they loved baseball but..

 

[John in Covina]

In all my years living on Long Island I did not make it into Yankee Stadium. I actually went with friends on 2 separate occassions to see a Yankee game there and did not get to the park. Each time something happened to prevent seeing the game. And I feel that is a shame.

Been to Shea Stadium on a number of occasions and had fun seeing the Mets.
Locally I have seen the Dodgers, but the experience was not the best, so I haven't been in a rush to return. Angeles Stadium is pretty nice and the Angels are great to watch but that whole thing with the LA name was pure Bull, heck they aren't even in LA county!

This summer I went to see the Quakes in Rancho Cucamonga (say it out loud--Cucamonga!) Had a marvelous time. Watching baseball live has a magical feel to it! I love seeing the coaches send signals to the runners, my friend Tom describes it as baseball texting.

 

[duggap]

No John, texting is what they are going to start doing next season. Each player will have a cell phone on the side of his hip.lol

 

[Hondo]

Are there any old ballparks left except Wrigley and Fenway any more? Those are the only ones I can think of.

Kezar Stadium in S.F. but rebuilt as smaller size, if that qualifies [huh]

Kezar Stadium history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kezar_Stadium

 

[dhermann1]

When I was discharged from the service in July 1969, I walked up the hill to Golden Gate park, and much to my amazement, there was Kezar Stadium. Lotta history in that old place, too. It was that same yellowed concrete of the era. I love football stadiums that are a natrual bowl like that. Another one like that is the Yale Bowl. It must be close to a century old now. You walk up a relatively small hill, and there is this huge crater, with 60,000 seats and a football field at the bottom.