The Hidden Yankee Stadium

This great pictorial “behind the scenes” at Yankee Stadium comes from Sports Illustrated. Photos include George Steinbrenner’s office, the Yankees clubhouse and more.

Artist travels from Canada to capture Stadium before demolition

People are coming from all over to get one last — or maybe even first — glimpse of Yankee Stadium before it falls to the wrecking ball a few months from now. Among them is Ontario, Canada-based artist Heather Kocsis, who came to to New York to unveil her latest work, a tribute to the House That Ruth Built.

“When I realized this would be the farewell season for Yankee Stadium, I intended to build a piece to commemorate it, not only because of the special place that Yankee Stadium holds in the hearts of New Yorkers and non New Yorkers alike, but it resonates with my artistic style,” Kocsis said.

Pictured above, Kocsis’ piece is created with oil paint on layers of reclaimed plywood in a style she calls “wood assemblages.”

“The older buildings are fundamental in our everyday lives but are often overlooked,” Kocsis said. “We don’t realize how meaningful these buildings are to us until they are gone.”

We could not agree more. Sign our petition and help save Yankee Stadium from demolition. The Stadium is the most famous arena built since the Coliseum and the we will surely regret losing it.

For more information on Heather Kocsis and her unique art, visit her web site at www.heatherkocsis.com.

The Dying of the Light at Yankee Stadium

From the New York Times:

“With the season winding down and the team far from playoff contention, the groups of fans emerging from the subway in Yankees gear were focused resolutely on the past. Many were there for stadium tours, and some stopped at a souvenir store at 161st Street and River Avenue, where Abdul Abbadi, whose family owns the place, stood working on a crossword puzzle in front of a wall of jerseys with players’ numbers.

“This year, it’s the old-timers,” he said, musing about his best-selling shirts. “Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth. It’s all emotional this year. It’s a year of memories.”

Looking into the store’s glass case a few feet away were Arnie Dowdy, 66, from Grover Beach, Calif., and his brother Glenn, from Paducah, Ky. They are Cardinals fans, but it is Arnie Dowdy’s mission to visit every stadium in Major League Baseball, a quest that can require speed, what with the number of stadiums that are being torn down.

“They keep building them faster than I can get to them,” Mr. Dowdy said.”

The full article is here.

NYT: Yankees Have Yet to Honor Ruth

Yesterday’s New York Times featured a story by Richard Sandomir about Babe Ruth’s granddaughter Linda Ruth Tosseti and her dismay over the Yankees’ failure to honor Babe Ruth during the Stadium’s final season.

“Tosetti is a short, feisty, loquacious descendant of Ruth’s; her resemblance to her grandfather is centered in her miniature version of the Babe’s broad, flat nose.

“With this face,” she said with a chuckle, “you’re never low-key in a room.” Her passion to preserve, and even elevate, the memory of her grandfather has been focused on three areas: an Internet campaign to retire Ruth’s No. 3 throughout major league baseball; to persuade the Yankees not to raze Yankee Stadium; and to honor Ruth in a special, exceptional way, as the foundation star of the franchise and the name underlying the stadium’s title, the House That Ruth Built.

Tosetti has not succeeded on any of her missions, but is most puzzled that the Yankees have gone through the first five months of the season without a celebration for Ruth.”

Read the full article here.

Bidder up for Stadium Wrecking Crew

According to today’s NY Post, the city is bidding demolition crews to tear down Yankee Stadium over the course of about a year beginning in March, 2009. According to the article by the Post’s Jeremy Olshan, the demolition contract is valued at about $27 Million.

“Just as fans have watched the new stadium rise across the street this season, the historic ballpark will shrink a little each day during the 2009 and, perhaps, the 2010 seasons… Parts of the Stadium that can be resold to collectors or reused will be yanked out by the end of May. The rest of the demolition will be completed in the spring of 2010. Aside from obvious memorabilia, such as the 57,000 seats, the city has been coy about which pieces of the Stadium will be salvaged.”

And so The House that Ruth Built is officially scheduled to be dissected piece by piece, with portions of the Stadium to be auctioned off to the highest bidder and the remaining bits destined for the scrap heap.

We only have a few short months left! Sign our petition today and help save Yankee Stadium!

Shed a tear for demise of a baseball cathedral

We’re seeing early obituaries for Yankee Stadium everywhere, this one from the Toronto Star. It seems that baseball fans everywhere are mourning the loss of Yankee Stadium, praising its historical significance. Why can’t the powers that be in New York see it?

Here is an excerpt from the Star article and a link to the full story.

“Walk into Yankee Stadium over the years and it was hard not to feel like you were stepping into one of sports’ great cathedrals. Now that it is fading away it is hard not to feel the loss, even if from afar. A good ballpark is like a good golf course or a good book. It should have a personality, facial features, a plot-line, if you will. A great stadium has a history, it has ghosts in its shadows. Fathers should sit with sons, mothers with daughters, and point into the distance and tell stories from their own youth.”

Save Yankee Stadium? Babe’s Granddaughter Says ‘Yes’

There are many fans who want to save Yankee Stadium and Babe Ruth’s granddaughter is among them. Read the New York Sun article here. Below is an excerpt:

“Last month, I said that the “old” Yankee Stadium, slated to be demolished after the current baseball season, should be preserved. I suggested that there are ways that we can not only protect this unique piece of our American heritage, but make it profitable for the city and its residents as well.

That column generated quite a bit of interest, with readers weighing in on both sides of the issue, but mostly in favor of halting the wrecking ball. I was flattered and excited by the support I received from one reader up in Connecticut, Linda Ruth Tosetti, who is the granddaughter of the legendary Babe Ruth.

It is not an exaggeration when the stadium is referred to as the “House that Ruth Built.” Babe Ruth was acquired by the Yankees shortly before the new stadium opened in 1923, and began the first of a remarkable string of baseball dynasties, which continues to this day. His on field heroics restored confidence in a game shattered by the infamous “Black Sox” scandal of 1919.”

City confirms plans to demolish Stadium

As of the end of June, plans are still in place to level Yankee Stadium after the season. Excerpt below and full article here.

“Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe confirmed the city’s plans to level the entire stadium to make way for three community ballfields.

“Preserving the facade would make it difficult to maximize the park space,” said Benepe.

After the city gave about two dozen acres of nearby parkland to the Yankees organization for a new stadium and retail complex, Parks was obligated by law to find the same amount of space in the area to build replacement parks.

In the crowded southwest Bronx, however, Parks has struggled to match the parkland it forfeited to the richest franchise in sports, even resorting to putting new recreation facilities on the roofs of parking garages being built for the stadium.”

A family’s pilgrimage to see Yankee Stadium one last time

Stories like this are everywhere; people coming from all over the country to see the House that Ruth Built one last time before it’s ripped down. And further evidence that people will still come and visit Yankee Stadium for years to come provided that it is not destroyed following the 2008 baseball season. Here’s a link to one Florida family’s story and an exerpt below:

“Yes, I drew a deep breath, this would be one special night. The Yankees. The Red Sox. And Yankee Stadium, baseball’s coliseum-cum-cathedral, in its final, glorious season — standing much like it did on its first Opening Day, April 18, 1923, when a player named George Herman Ruth slammed the game’s only home run, a three-run shot off a 2-2 pitch by Red Sox pitcher Howard Ehmke. (For those keeping score, the Yankees won 4-1.)

It was the prospect of my two baseball-blooded boys never seeing the 85-year-old stadium that prompted our family to make a New York pilgrimage this summer. My husband and I and our two teenage sons were joined by friends from Jacksonville and their 16-year-old.”

The New York Sun column that inspired this site

The response to the NY Sun article has been extremely positive and inspired this site. Click here to read the full article, but below is an except:

“It came as an relief to me that our Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated 30 mostly forgettable buildings along the west side of Manhattan as the “West Chelsea Historic District.” I can now sleep soundly secure in the knowledge that the R.C. Williams and Co. building, the Berlin and Jones Envelope Co. building, the Wolff Building and the Wolff Building Annex, and 26 others will be protected from the wrecking ball.

Meanwhile, several miles to the north, wrecking crews are anticipating the demolition of one of New York’s truly great, historic, and beloved landmarks, Yankee Stadium. Already it is being called the “old” Yankee Stadium much as we recall the “old” Penn Station, a great building destroyed in the name of progress and regretted ever since.”