Tomorrow Will Mark the Beginning of the End for House That Ruth Built
15th August 2006
Depending on your point of view, tomorrow will be a day that Ruth rolls in his grave, or smiles from Heaven.
58 years to the date of Ruth’s death, groundbreaking for New Yankee Stadium will occur across the street from the stadium called The House That Ruth Built. The ground will be broken at 10am EST followed by a groundbreaking ceremony at Macombs Dam Park.
The new facility, with all the trimmings, will total $1.3 billion with public financing coming in at $422 million and the Yankees kicking in $492 million (see Neil deMause’s break down of the figures here).
Unsurprisingly, Ryan Mink on MLB.com has a differing take on matters. As Mink reports:
While the park will add more luxury suites and wider concourses, it also will keep some of the most-sacred aspects of current Yankee Stadium. Monument Park will be relocated, and artist renderings showed the familiar white façade will still be part of the design.
The new stadium will have the same field dimensions and bullpen placement. It also will include some of the original features from before extensive renovations from 1973-75.
“We lost many of the great characteristics of the original house,” Yankees president Randy Levine said when the plans were released. “The new stadium will take us back to our origins. This isn’t the end of the legacy, but a continuation.”
At the Babe’s funeral on a hot and sticky August day 48 years ago, former teammate Joe Dugan said, “I’d give a hundred dollars for a cold beer right now.” Waite Hoyt responded, “So would the Babe.” Somehow, I think that tomorrow will be much the same.
There will be no victory such as in Boston with Save Fenway Park. When Yankee Stadium comes down it will mark a closing chapter in New York’s historic baseball past. Think about it: No more Polo Grounds. No more Ebbets Field. No more Yankee Stadium. The last vestiges of New York’s original holy trinity of ballparks will be gone. Ballparks no longer seem to have the shelf life that they once did. The odds that we’ll see another ballpark with the history of Yankee Stadium, or Fenway, or Wrigley, pessimistically seems remote. Maybe Camden Yards will become the next of these historic green cathedrals, but it I have little doubt that it will never have the historic implications that Yankee Stadium has given all the monumental events, players, and championships that have transpired there.
Its swan song is looking like the All-Star game, and no doubt many tears will be shed on that day. So, get a game in while you can. The clock is ticking on the House that Ruth.