This awesome black and
white photo is from the first baseball game played at Yankee Stadium in
1923. Yankee Stadium is often referred to as "The House That
Ruth Built".
Babe Ruth joined the
Yankees baseball team in 1920, after his contract was sold to the
New York Yankees by the Boston Red Sox. Babe Ruth's popularity drew huge
crowds to the Polo Grounds, the field that the Yankee's had
shared with the New York Giants since 1913. Facing eviction by
the Giants, the owners of the Yankees decided to build a
spectacular ballpark of their own. In 1921, ten acres of land in
the Bronx that had been part of the Astor estate, was purchased,
and after a year of construction costing $2.5 million, Yankee
Stadium opened on April 18, 1923. Officially, 74,200 baseball fans packed
Yankee Stadium for a first glimpse of baseball's grandest
facility. Thousands more milled around outside after the fire
department finally ordered the gates closed. Babe Ruth
christened his new home with the first home run in the stadium.
Because it was widely recognized that Ruth's tremendous drawing
power made the new stadium possible, it would immediately become
known as "The House That Ruth Built." Later in that season, the
Stadium hosted the first of 33 World Series and the Yankees won
their first World Championship over their former landlord, the
Giants.
Yankee Stadium was home to
a steady stream of championship baseball teams for forty years. From Babe
Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Joe DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto, who then
passed it on to Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
Following the 1973
baseball season,
the aging Yankee Stadium was closed and virtually demolished and
then rebuilt. The newly modernized stadium reopened on April 15,
1976.
Yankee Stadium has also
been the home of scores of other sports, entertainment and
cultural events. While the Yankees were on the road or out of
season, Yankee Stadium opened its gates to college and pro
football, soccer, political assemblies, religious conventions,
concerts and even the circus.
