Jump to content

The Demolition of Yankee Stadium


DrLev

Recommended Posts

Sure, we hate the team, but any baseball fan has to be at least a little dismayed at the fact that "Old" Yankee Stadium will be facing the wrecking ball big-time within the next few weeks. The outfield frieze has already been removed, the escalator pods are being disassembled and they began removing the "YANKEE STADIUM" lettering from the exterior this morning. A real shame that the Yankees abandoned a perfectly usable stadium that could no doubt have been renovated. An even bigger shame that they've priced people out of their stadium to the point that they didn't even manage to sell out their World Series games. Add on to that the fact that they destroyed a very popular park and are replacing it with nothing close to what was lost, and you've got a sad situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought I read that they were going to keep part of the field and some reminders of the stadium in place, for kids. Not keep part of the actual stadium, but a recreation of it.

It is sad tho. I'm glad I got to see one game there, remain sad I never saw Tiger Stadium, and still hope to see a game at Fenway and Wrigley Field someday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought I read that they were going to keep part of the field and some reminders of the stadium in place, for kids. Not keep part of the actual stadium, but a recreation of it.

That's pretty much correct. Only the field will remain, and it's actually not really the field itself, more like they're going to put in a new diamond with the same placement and orientation. There will also be two other diamonds on the field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's pretty much correct. Only the field will remain, and it's actually not really the field itself, more like they're going to put in a new diamond with the same placement and orientation. There will also be two other diamonds on the field.

This is hardly what was in the original site plan, which called for keeping the lower bowl from 1st base to 3rd base and the original field. As it is, yes, there will be a field installed in the same orientation but home plate in the park will not be where home plate was in Yankee Stadium (though before 1976, the diamond was about 10-15 feet further back toward the backstop).

The one ray of hope for preservation right now (which I fully support) is the Save Gate 2 movement, who want to keep Gate 2 (in the left field corner), which is the only one which was not altered from its original 1923 condition during the 1970s renovation. Its pretty ornate, with balconies and terra cotta tiles with baseball motifs. The Save Gate 2 plan is to reinforce and maintain the gate as the "grand entrance" to the new park. Though the city opposes the plan and maintains that the cost of preservation will be prohibitively expensive, an independent architect put the cost of preservation at approximately $1 million (a drop in the bucket compared to the full demolition cost). (savetheyankeegate2.com)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is hardly what was in the original site plan, which called for keeping the lower bowl from 1st base to 3rd base and the original field. As it is, yes, there will be a field installed in the same orientation but home plate in the park will not be where home plate was in Yankee Stadium (though before 1976, the diamond was about 10-15 feet further back toward the backstop).

The one ray of hope for preservation right now (which I fully support) is the Save Gate 2 movement, who want to keep Gate 2 (in the left field corner), which is the only one which was not altered from its original 1923 condition during the 1970s renovation. Its pretty ornate, with balconies and terra cotta tiles with baseball motifs. The Save Gate 2 plan is to reinforce and maintain the gate as the "grand entrance" to the new park. Though the city opposes the plan and maintains that the cost of preservation will be prohibitively expensive, an independent architect put the cost of preservation at approximately $1 million (a drop in the bucket compared to the full demolition cost). (savetheyankeegate2.com)

If it can be done for Essex Elementary School...

<img src="http://images.citysearch.net/assets/imgdb/d0/97/78/c2/c1/1c/db/40/4c/dd/fc/71/e6/ea/9e/7e/3/4/9/9/5493499.JPG"></img>

...it can be done for Yankee frickin' Stadium.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope it burns to the ground.

Wait, what? Seriously? You hope Yankee Stadium burns to the ground? Look, as I said, say what you will about the team, but there's no doubt that that stadium is an important piece of baseball history. Your post screams ignorance of the historical value of maintaining the one remaining original piece of that ballpark. I take it you hope Fenway Park burns to the ground too?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yankee Stadium was already destroyed in 1974. I heard that one was pretty nice, pretty unique. The stadium I visited in 2001 was completely forgettable.

I never had the pleasure of visiting the pre-1974 version of Yankee Stadium, but I always felt like I was entering a church (albeit of a different faith or denonomination) when I entered the version of the park used through last year.

Only made it to the new park once, but I can say in all sincerity that I was not impressed. Seemed "new and improved" in ways that had nothing to do with the game itself, while cheapening the actual competition on the field. That's coming from someone who remembers watching long drives to left-center die in that 440-foot death valley as a kid.

The demolition makes me sad, and I'll always be grateful for the times I spent in the old park.

GREAT TIMES

http://urbanshocker.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/the-baltimore-orioles-9-biggest-blowout-victories-at-yankee-stadium/

MY TIMES

http://urbanshocker.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/you-can-love-yankee-stadium-still-hate-the-yankees/

MY LAST TIME

http://urbanshocker.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/if-his-last-name-was-chamberlain-instead-of-cabrera-daniel-wouldnt-have-been-suspended/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yankee Stadium was already destroyed in 1974. I heard that one was pretty nice, pretty unique. The stadium I visited in 2001 was completely forgettable.

Agree completely. I thought it was a dump.......so maybe not forgettable. Yeah, alot of great players played there, but even more played at Fenway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's always tough to watch these great old stadims go. The baseball fan in me wants them to carry on forever, but the citizen and realist in me knows that's not possible and hopes they use the space and land wisely, sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn't. I really wish they could have done something more positive with the Tiger Stadium site, but the fact the field dimensions are still there is a miracle considering all the in-fighting that went on with it. They managed to do something positive with the Memorial Stadium site, although I wish there was something there to mark what once stood. Feel free to correct me if that is in fact the case.

As much as I despise the Yankees one of the great joys of my baseball life was going to Yankee Stadium last year mere games before it closed. There are certain stadiums, regardless of whether they meet your expectations, that you have to go to at least once: Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, & Yankee Stadium. The history of these parks trumps any of the problems within the stadium or the deficiencies in amenities, as both Fenway and Yankee had and have their problems and limitations. I've done two out of three, and one day I'll hopefully get to Wrigley. Just watching the game the other night they showed an overhead shot of a darkened and black Yankee Stadium, and it just felt strange. During the entire postseason I felt like the New Yankee Stadium felt disconnected and the fans weren't the same as the ones I'd always heard on tv and saw in person last year at the old stadium. Some things were, and will never change, but some of it still felt different.

Whatever you may think of the Yankees, Yankee Stadium, both the original and remodeled version, saw everything and lived everything. But the memories, good and bad, will live on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yankee Stadium was already destroyed in 1974. I heard that one was pretty nice, pretty unique. The stadium I visited in 2001 was completely forgettable.

Yep. It had more in common with Three Rivers and Riverfront than Ebbets, Wrigley or Fenway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait, what? Seriously? You hope Yankee Stadium burns to the ground? Look, as I said, say what you will about the team, but there's no doubt that that stadium is an important piece of baseball history. Your post screams ignorance of the historical value of maintaining the one remaining original piece of that ballpark. I take it you hope Fenway Park burns to the ground too?

Historical value means nothing to me. Out with the old in with the new. Preservation is a waste of space.

And yes I hope Fenway burns to the ground too. Once it's been replaced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...