[photo credit: yehwan]

When I finally got there on Friday, piggybacking the journey on a trip to mid-town for a “Bronx Banter Breakdown” taping (three segments coming Monday through Wednesday), I was informed that there were no bleacher seats left. Period. That the only seats to Red Sox games remaining were north of $300 a piece, and that of the six Sunday games my wife and I could both make, none had two available seats together in the grandstand. After playing what amounted to a game of battleship with the amicable young woman on the other side of the glass (“May 16″ “miss” “August 18″ “miss” “July 25″ “miss” . . .), I was finally able to use up the gift certificate on two pairs of nosebleed seats to weeknight games and a single ticket in the grandstand for a Monday night game in May against the Orioles. Remember, tickets had only been on sale to the general public for a week. Frustrated and disappointed, I stuck my tickets in my bag, wheeled around and was greeted by this:

It is a monument to corruption, greed, and the failures of our municipal and state governments to act in the best interests of the people they are supposed to represent, and a vile and disgusting insult to all but the wealthiest of Yankee fans.

. . . what they’ve really done is take affordable seats away from the common fan who can only afford to sit in the upper deck or bleachers of the current Stadium and relocated them to parts of the ballpark only the wealthy can afford. To make matters worse, the new Stadium will hold 4,561 fewer fans, and you can surely guess which seats are being slashed. With a smaller bleacher capacity, a smaller upper deck, and an increase in luxury and outdoor suite seating, the new Stadium will be spitting out fans of modest means to accommodate the organization’s target audience of free-spending fat cats.

That was what I wrote about the new Yankee Stadium back in September 2008, three days before the final game in the real Yankee Stadium, a game Becky and I would watch from the right-field bleacher seats that were ours every Sunday, Opening Day, and Old-Timers’ Day for the old park’s final six years. Yesterday, I felt the harsh reality of those words.

To be honest, my fanaticism has receded in recent years, in part due to professional necessity and in part due to the team’s stadium shenanigans, which have soured me significantly, but I still consider myself a Yankee fan. I inherited it from my grandfathers. I paid my dues as a kid growing up in the ’80s when the Mets were hip and Yankee hats were about as cool as bell bottoms and mutton chops. I indoctrinated my wife in the ’90s, and I’m not about to abandon her or that familial tradition now. I hope to introduce my daughter to the joys of baseball through her inherited Yankee fandom. I just wish the team my family and I root for wanted or even needed us just a little.

This ain’t that:

I spent nearly 12 hours at Yankee Stadium yesterday. What follows, believe it or not, is the short version of that experience.

On Saturday, the Yankees announced that they would allow fans to walk the perimeter of the field between 1:00 and 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Eager to take advantage of that opportunity, Becky and I arrived at the Stadium just before 1:00. As we came over the pedestrian bridge, past the smokestack bat toward Gate 4 behind home plate, we saw a significant, but not overwhelming crowd and decided that we could afford to scoot up 161st street to grab a couple of sandwiches, which would keep us from having nothing to eat but the bleachers’ limited menu of ballpark food for the ten or eleven hours we expected to be inside the Stadium. As we walked by, Gate 4 was opening for the last time on a gameday.

After getting our grub, we queued up at Gate 2 behind left field based on the thought that Gate 2 was closer to Monument Park and thus would put us closer to our eventual destination as the fans were to be let onto the field from the park. The security at Gate 2 was extremely well organized and was allowing fans to enter in large waves so as to control traffic. We entered with the third wave, no later than 1:30, and proceeded to follow the crowd past the entrance to Monument Park and up the series of ramps in the far left-field corner of the Stadium.

After following the line all the way up to the top Tier level, we followed it around the bowl of the Stadium, all the way to the far right-field corner, then down the ramp one level and back several sections before finally turning around and coming to rest at its end. The line we were on stretched all the way back up to the top right-field corner of the Stadium, back around to the left-field corner, back down the ramps to the Main Level, out into the left field stands, into Monument Park, out onto the warning track heading toward right field, and around the perimeter of the field.

By 3:00, we were just to the right-field side of home plate on the Tier level. At a bit before 4:00, we were half-way down the third baseline, still on the Tier level, and word was starting to spread that the field had been closed. Poking my head out into the stands, I confirmed that fact. Uninterested in spending another two and a half hours in line on the off chance that we’d get to see Monument Park one last time, Becky and I took off for the Main Level to walk around the lower deck.

One reason that we, as well as the thousands of others ahead and behind us on line, did not get onto the field is that the fans that did get the privilege were allowed to linger, to meander, to stop for multiple photographs, and to tour the visitors’ dugout. I still can’t decide if I would have preferred Stadium staff to hustle the fans around the field in order to give more of them the opportunity, or if I’m pleased that those that did get there early enough were allowed to soak in the experience at their own pace.

As we circled the Stadium, separated from our original destination on the field by the Main Boxes and the Stadium security which guarded the chains keeping the hoi polloi out of said Boxes, Becky and I took in the beautiful late-summer day and the beloved old ballpark. Near the visitors dugout, Joe Girardi approached the fans on the field to meet, greet and sign autographs. As we passed behind Jane Lang and Laramie, Phil Coke was doing the same in the home-plate corner of the home dugout. Word had it that Mike Mussina had also been out earlier signing for the fortunate few who did set foot on the field. Soon after, Alex Rodriguez approached the meandering fans. As the fans on the field receded, it became clear just how extensive the swarm of media in front of the Yankee dugout was. I snapped a quick photo of the “Baseball Tonight” crew during a commercial break, but otherwise paid the horde little mind.

After breathing the park in from the seating bowl, Becky and I attempted to make our way to our right field bleacher seats. The staff member guarding the right field boxes told us to head back toward Monument Park in left field where we would be led behind the park and into the bleacher section. Once there, we encountered a pair of roadblocks and were told to wait where we were by a female cop directing traffic while standing on a chair and blocking the sun from her face by holding her hat in her hand. After standing in that same sun for a bit too long, a Stadium staffer of higher authority informed us and the other bleacher-ticket holders that had assembled there that we had to go to Gate 6, back in right field, to get to our seats.

As frustrating as all of this was, it gave us an accidental tour of large swaths of the Stadium, sending us to nooks and crannies I’d never seen before, and eventually through the old Yankee bullpen in right field to get to our usual Section 37. Once we were in place, the Yankees were on the field stretching in a circle, which I assume is a formation introduced by Joe Girardi.

Jason Giambi put on the best show in batting practice, littering the upper deck in right field with abused baseballs, though a few came off his bat and others’ into our section, and Zack Hample (seen in the lower left of the above photo) managed to snag several in the nearest corner of the right field box seats, throwing on an Orioles cap and a Cal Ripken t-shirt when the Yankees departed the field and the O’s came out for BP.

After the Orioles cleared the field, the United States Army Field Band emerged from Monument Park to play a pair of John Philip Sousa marches, echoing the band led by Sousa himself before the Stadium’s first game in 1923. That was a particularly rousing beginning to a fine ceremony in which the Stadium’s original 1922 American League Championship banner was unveild on the black batters’ eye in center field, and Yankee greats from Babe Ruth to Bernie Williams were remembered in something of a alternative Old-Timers’ ceremony that first featured actors in vintage uniforms representing the original 1923 Opening Day lineup as well as past greats including Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Bill Dickey, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, then saw the more recent players themselves (or immediate family members of those who have passed) trot out in full uniform to their respective positions, concluding with center field, occupied by Mickey Mantle’s son David, Bobby Murcer’s wife and kids, and Bernie Williams in his first trip back to the Stadium since he was forcibly retired.

Willie Randolph took his position at second base by sliding into the bag, then rubbing extra dirt on his uniform. Don Larsen spent his down time on the pitchers’ mound filling a cup with the Stadium’s dirt. A recent recording made by Bob Sheppard then introduced the Yankees’ starting lineup. The Army Field Band played the National Anthem. Babe Ruth’s 92-year-old daughter threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The game itself demanded more attention than Saturday’s almost non-existent, albeit ulimately stirring, 1-0 win. The Orioles got single runs off Andy Pettitte in the second and third to take an early lead, but Johnny Damon delivered a three-run homer to left field in the bottom of the third to give the Yankees a brief 3-2 lead. That home run would prove to be the last to land in the area once known as Ruthville. Pettitte coughed up another run in the fourth, tying the game at three all, but the Yankees answered right back in the least probable manner when Robinson Cano drew a leadoff walk and Jose Molina homered into the net above the retired numbers in left. Molina’s two-run shot put the Yankees ahead for good and stands as the last home run hit in Yankee Stadium, echoing fellow back-up catcher Duke Sims’ shot in the final game of the original Stadium in 1973.

With his team ahead 5-2, Joe Girardi pulled Andy Pettitte after Adam Jones led off the sixth with a single. Jose Veras, Phil Coke, and Joba Chamberlain kept the O’s from drawing any closer, and the Yankees padded their lead in the bottom of the seventh. Bobby Abreu led off that frame with a single, stole second, and moved to third on Alex Rodriguez’s fly out to the gap in right center. Jason Giambi then singled Abreu home and was pinch-run for by Brett Gardner. On the 2-1 pitch to Xavier Nady, Gardner took off for second base. Nady hit a sharp grounder to shortstop where utility man Brandon Fahey, who had been insterted the previous inning, booted the ball. Gardner, almost without hesitation, broke for third base as the ball rolled away from Fahey and slid safely into third base head-first. Robinson Cano then lifted a fairly shallow fly ball down the left field line, but Gardner still tagged up, easily beating a bad throw from left fielder Jay Payton to set the score at 7-3.

With that, all that was left to do was to get the ball to Mariano Rivera. Chamberlain accomplished that with a seven-pitch eighth inning. Rivera then got a trio of groundouts to earn the save and bring an end to baseball at Yankee Stadium. The last play was a groundball to first base by Brian Roberts that Cody Ransom scooped up and took to the bag himself just ahead of Rivera, who was coming to cover.

The field was immediately swarmed by mounted police in riot gear, who guarded the field from intruding fans. As the Yankees lined up to congratulate each other on the win and on staving off elimination for one more day (the Red Sox won earlier in the day, clinching a tie for the Wild Card), one fan burst through the police line from the right field stands, spooking a horse, but was smothered by police and security in front of the bleachers. As he was led off the field, the Yankees congregated on the pitchers mound and Derek Jeter addressed the crowd, leading his teammates in a salute to the fans, then taking them on a farewell lap around the field.

When the players arrived back at the home dugout, their wives, girlfriends, children, and parents joined them on the field, as did some of the old timers now wearing suits, most prominent among them Bernie Williams, who headed back out toward center field with his family, eliciting repeated chants of his name by the bleacher creatures, each of which Bernie acknowledged enthusiastically. Several players could be seen filling cups or pockets with dirt, typically from their position on the field.

As Frank Sinatra’s version of the theme to “New York, New York” repeated over the public address system, the scene on the field morphed into an after party, as old friends and family, some in uniform, some in suits, some in casual dress, mingled, hugged, and tried to soak in as much as they could before that inevitable moment came when they had to leave the field. The scene in the stands was much the same. While some filed out, many others, including Becky and myself, remained, soaking it in, taking and posing for pictures, and simply enjoying our remaining moments in the old park and with those around us.

It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m never going back. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.

All photographs (c) Cliff Corcoran, 2008

At roughly half past midnight last night, my wife, Becky, and I were standing next to our car in the darkened parking lot near the Harlem River, finishing off the soft-serve ice cream cones we had picked up on our way under the Major Deegan. As Yankee Stadium sat glowing behind us, the blue aura of the stadium lights reaching up toward the half moon set low in the sky over center field, Becky compared the emotions we were feeling to a junior high graduation. We will still see the same people and do the same things next year, she reasoned, it will just be in a different place. I resisted the comparison at first, rattling on about history and landmarks and what will be lost when the Stadium is razed, but upon reflection, and still flush with the emotion of the night as I write this in the wee-morning hours, I’ve found the truth in her comparison.

Becky and I were high school sweethearts, and though our school days have receded deep into our past, they remain with us both through our relationship with each other, through our closest friends, most of whom we can also trace back to high school, and through the many other ways in which those years shaped our lives and set us upon the course we are on today. Becky was sad to leave high school, for reasons I didn’t completely understand. I couldn’t wait to leave it behind. Perhaps that’s why it took me a moment to find the truth in her statement.

As I wrote earlier this week, the strongest of my many mixed emotions leading up to last night’s final game at Yankee Stadium was anger. That anger has expressed it self in criticism of the public expense, abuses, and design flaws of the new Stadium, but ultimately my anger stems from the private hurt of being evicted from a place that I consider home. I imagine that’s how Becky must have felt upon graduation, angry that forces beyond her control were robbing her of a place of comfort and familiarity, a place filled with elemental memories, and place in which she had grown from a timid 14-year-old girl into a confident young woman.

My feelings about Yankee Stadium are similar. Just 12 years old when I attended my first game there, I was a kid caught between childhood and maturity, still searching for my place after the dissolution of my parents’ marriage and amid their subsequent relationships, still searching for an identity of my own, but beginning to sense that baseball might play a part. Last night I left that Stadium for the last time a grown man of 32, a husband hoping to become a father, a man who has found true happiness in his own marriage and who has followed his muse through a variety of rewarding and creative endeavors, not the least of which is the blog you’re reading right now.

Other than my parents, the only constant in my life throughout that journey has been baseball, specifically Yankee baseball, and though I’ve been in locker rooms and press boxes in other ballparks, my relationship with baseball has been no more intimate than when I’ve been in the stands in Yankee Stadium. Now that’s gone, and I’m hurt, and angry, and sad, but I’m also hopeful and excited about what the next twenty years might bring, for both myself and the team, and about the people I’ll be able to share those experiences with. Perhaps most of all, I’m thankful. Thankful that I had the opportunity to see scores of games at the old ballpark. Thankful that I could share those experiences with Becky, both of my parents, and a variety of friends from across twenty years. Thankful that I have this forum to express myself and to share my thoughts and feelings with countless readers, who in turn share theirs with me and each other. Better yet, I’m thankful that I have lived a life privileged and pleasant enough that the closing of a sporting venue could have such a profound impact on me. While I’ll never get to set foot in Yankee Stadium again, this morning I’m going to be thankful for the many wonderful things I do have rather than be bitter about the one thing I just lost.

Two and a half years later, in its place, sat a different Yankee Stadium. A modernized, yet instantly-dated, grey, concrete bowl filled with royal blue seats and orange light bulbs that relayed information from a flat-black scoreboard. The copper frieze had been melted down and replaced with a concrete replica that sat on a lower perch atop the outfield scoreboard, like an artifact on one’s mantle. The roof had been largely removed. The wall in left center was now 27 feet closer to home plate and would come in another 31 feet before I ever got to see it in person. Behind that wall, the three marble-and-bronze monuments that had formed a half circle around the flag pole in the grass of center field sat in concrete and were surrounded by a black chain-link fence that separated the two bullpens.

Still, though the structure had been changed, and the field which had played host to 27 World Series and two All-Star Games had been torn up and replaced, there remained a connection between the remodeled Yankee Stadium, as it would become unofficially known, and the original. Just as the Yankees inaugurated Yankee Stadium with the franchise’s first World Championship in 1923, the team inaugurated the remodeled Stadium in 1976 with their first World Series appearance in 12 years and followed that up with championships in 1977 and 1978. In its 33 years of existence, the remodeled Stadium hosted 10 World Series and two All-Star Games. Unless the Dodgers reach the World Series this year, no other stadium will have hosted more than four Fall Classics over that same span. The remodeled Stadium quickly established itself as a worthy successor to the original not because of its own grandeur, which was lacking, but because of the grandeur of the games which took place there.

When the last out at Yankee Stadium is recorded tonight, baseball won’t be losing a great piece of architecture; the remodeled Stadium is no beauty. What it will lose is the living memory of some of the game’s greatest moments. What makes Yankee Stadium great is not the concrete replica of the frieze in center field or the relocated monuments beyond the wall in left field. It’s not even the great views from the upper deck or the camaraderie and passion of the bleacher creatures. It’s the history that was made there.

One can look around the current park and see where legendary home runs by Aaron Boone and Scott Brosius fell into the left field box seats, Reggie’s moon-shot off Charlie Hough clanged off the black batter’s eye, homers by Tino Martinez, Derek Jeter, and Chris Chambliss made post-season history by clearing the wall in right, with and without help. One can envision Mariano Rivera and Goose Gossage appearing through the bullpen gate in left center, Derek Jeter diving into the stands behind third base, David Wells punching the air and David Cone falling to his knees after the final outs of their perfect games. One can see Dave Righetti, Jim Abbott, and Dwight Gooden celebrating no-hitters, Thurman Munson crouching behind home plate as Ron Guidry strikes out 18 Angels, Don Mattingly bringing down the house with a home run into the right-field bleachers, Dave Winfield ripping bullets down the left field line, Rickey Henderson and Mickey Rivers burning up the bases, Willie Randolph turning two, Tom Seaver, Phil Neikro, and Roger Clemens winning 300, Alex Rodriguez hitting 500, and George Brett storming out of the visitor’s dugout, a victim of Billy Martin’s chicanery. One can also see Paul O’Neill meekly slumping his shoudlers as an entire Stadium chants his name, Reggie doffing his batting helmet to the crowd in front of the home dugout, Charley Hayes squeezing the final out of the 1996 World Series, Wade Boggs riding a police horse around the warning track, and both Jackson and Chambliss plowing their way through the swarms of celebrating fans toward the safety of the clubhouse.

Though the field has been torn up, replaced, moved, and lowered, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision the old park. In fact, that has been one of my favorite things to do when visiting the Stadium. I’d squint at the left-handed batters box and imagine Babe Ruth taking a mighty swing and christening the new park with a home run or Lou Gehrig, hat in hand, addressing the crowd. Looking around, I could see Joe DiMaggio kicking the dirt near second base, Mickey Mantle launching a ball off the frieze, Jackie Robinson breaking for home, Yogi Berra leaping into Don Larson’s arms, the Dodgers celebrating Brooklyn’s first and only championship, Roger Maris circling the bases after number 61, and Bobby Murcer chasing a ball around the monuments in center. Because the Yankees were in the World Series with such regularity, all but a select few of the game’s greats (most of them Cubs) played there, from Ty Cobb, to Ted Williams, to Tony Gwynn, Walter Johnson, to Sandy Koufax, to Pedro Martinez, Jackie Robinson, to Curt Flood, and Roberto Clemente, and so on. In 1928, Knute Rockne implored his team to “win one for the Gipper” there. In 1938, Joe Luis beat Max Schmeling there. In 1958, Johnny Unitas beat the New York Football Giants in the NFL Championship Game there.

That is what will be lost. Not the building, but the place and the tangible connection to what happened there. The Yankees may only be moving a few hundred feet to the north to play on a field of similar dimensions in a ballpark with an identical name, but Yankee Stadium, the real Yankee Stadium, in both its incarnations, will soon be resigned to the page, the screen, and the memory of those who were fortunate enough to have seen a ballgame there, whether they witnessed a great moment, or simply gazed out at the field and imagined all the great moments that had come before.

Afredo Aceves got things started off in style in the first inning. Following a Brian Roberts lead-off double, Adam Jones popped up a bunt in front of the mound. Aceves, who has shown himself to be a solid infielder, caught the ball on a lunge before tumbling forward to his knees. He then spun to double Roberts off of second, but Roberts had been running on the pitch and had actually rounded third base slightly, so rather than throw to Cody Ransom covering second base, Aceves, with a big grin on his face, jogged the ball over to second for an unassisted double play, a play rarely turned by a pitcher (paging Bob Timmermann).

Aceves wouldn’t allow a runner past second base all day, and after six innings and 92 pitches, he was replaced by Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, and Mariano Rivera, who kept that streak intact. The Yankees didn’t do much better against lefty spot-starter Brian Burres. With two outs in the first, Bobby Abreu doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch, but Alex Rodriguez popped out to strand him, and the Yankees didn’t get another man past second until the bottom of the ninth.

Though it would ultimately prove a fitting conclusion to a beautiful day, the bottom of the ninth started off ominously when a 1-1 pitch got away from rookie reliever Jim Miller and hit Derek Jeter on the back of his left hand. Jeter spun to avoid the pitch, but it caught him flush and sent him skipping toward the visiting batting circle in obvious pain. Joe Girardi and trainer Gene Monahan quickly attended to Jeter, who was the DH yesterday to give him a breather before today’s final game at the Stadium, and almost immediately pulled Jeter from the game. Jeter didn’t make a fist with the hand when Monahan was checking him out on the field, and as he headed into the tunnel toward the clubhouse, Jeter slammed his batting helmet on the dugout floor. Fortunately, post-game x-rays were negative and Jeter is expected to be in the lineup for the Stadium’s finale . . . of course.

Brett Gardner ran for Jeter at first base and stole second base easily on Miller’s first pitch to Abreu. After Miller fell behind Abreu 3-0, Orioles manager Dave Trembley decided to make use of that empty base and pass the buck to Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez took two strikes then hit into a near double play, but managed to beat out the relay to put runners on the corners with one out for Jason Giambi. Trembley called on veteran lefty reliever Jamie Walker to pitch to Giambi, and Walker responded by striking Giambi out on six pitches. Rodriguez stole second on strike three, so Trembley had Walker put Xavier Nady on base and pitch to fellow lefty Robinson Cano. Cano, who still holds the distinction of having hit the last home run at Yankee Stadium, jumped on Walker’s first pitch, delivering a line-drive single just to the right of second base, plating Gardner with the winning run.

So in the final day game at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees beat the Orioles 1-0 on a walk-off single by Robison Cano. Mariano Rivera got the win, and the Yankees staved off elimination for at least one more day. The day was so close to perfect that, in some peverse way, I almost wish yesterday’s game was the last ever at the Stadium. The only way tonight’s game could be better would be for a Yankee to hit a home run and for Jeter to be somewhere other than the trainers’ room when the game ends.

I have to give tremendous props to the YES Network for their broadcast of yesterday’s game. In general, YES does a fantastic job on the Yankee broadcasts, save for Michael Kay’s voice and histrionics, and the only exception in yesterday’s broadcast was that Kay was appropriately humbled by the significance of the day. YES’s original plan was to have native New Yorkers Kay and Ken Singleton broadcast the game with Bobby Murcer. Murcer was obviously missed, but having just the two New Yorkers in the booth recounting not just their memories of broadcasting or playing in the ballpark, but of attending games as fans, set just the right tone. Singleton confessed that he had gone out to the left field bleachers before the gates opened to reflect on his childhood trips to the Stadium in the days of Mantle and Maris. Kay said he had done the same, climbing to the last row of the upper deck behind home plate, where he often sat as a kid in the 1970s.

What really made the broadcast exceptional, however, was the photography and direction of the YES crew. Putting cameras in various nooks and crannies, YES reveled in the details of the old park, from the back of the frieze in center field, to Pete Sheehy‘s plaque in the Yankee dugout, to Bob Sheppard’s microphone. With the sun making the colors of the park almost hyper real, the high-definition transmission was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen.

YES also succeeded with a variety of flashbacks and film clips, their very tastful, wordless opening montage of images of the Stadium (in place of Kay’s usual hyperbole), and this closing montage set to Frank Sinatra’s “There Used To Be A Ballpark,” which was recorded in 1973, the final season of the original Stadium. I only wish YES had tonight’s game as well.

April 18, 1923 – the first game at Yankee Stadium, Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1 behind Bob Shawkey, who scored the first run at the new park on a single by third baseman Joe Dugan in the fourth inning. Ruth followed Dugan with a three-run homer, the Stadium’s first. Second baseman Aaron Ward had picked up the park’s first hit in the previous inning.

Sept. 30, 1973 – the final game at the original Stadium, Yankees lost to the Tigers 8-5 as Fritz Peterson and Lindy McDaniel combined to allow six runs in the eighth inning. Backup catcher Duke Sims, in his only start of the year, hits the last home run at the old park in the seventh. Winning pitcher John Hiller gets first baseman Mike Hegan to fly out to center fielder Mickey Stanley to end the game.

April 15, 1976 – the first game at the renovated Stadium, Yankees beat the Twins 11-4 with Dick Tidrow picking up the win with five shoutout innings in relief of Rudy May and Sparky Lyle getting the save. May gave up the first hit and home run in the remodeled Stadium to Disco Dan Ford in the top of the first. Twins second baseman Jerry Terrell, who led of the game with a walk, scored the first run ahead of Ford. The first Yankee hit was delivered by Mickey Rivers in the bottom of the first. The first Yankee home run at the redone park would come off the bat of Thurman Munson two days later.

The relocated St. Louis Browns first played at the Stadium as the Baltimore Orioles on May 5 and 6 of 1954, losing to Eddie Lopat and Allie Reynolds by scores of 4-2 and 9-0. The O’s first visit to the renovated stadium came in a three-game weekend series starting on May 14, 1976. The O’s took two of three in that series, beating Catfish Hunter in the opener. The first batter in that game was Ken Singleton, who struck out looking, but the next six Orioles delivered hits off Hunter, among them a two-run homer by O’s center fielder Reggie Jackson (!) as the O’s cruised to a 6-2 win behind Ross Grimsley.

For the curious, the action depicted in the Merv Rettenmund card pictured here occurred on August 9, 1970 in the seventh inning of the first game of a Sunday doubleheader. With the O’s leading 1-0 behind Jim Palmer, Rettenmund led off the seventh with a double off Fritz Peterson. Andy Etchebarren then hit a hot shot to third base that Jerry Kenney either booted or bobbled, allowing Etchebarren to reach and Rettenmund to advance. The photo on the card freezes the action as Kenney, ball in hand, checks Rettenmund at third base. The O’s would go on to score three unearned runs in that inning, but the Yanks got two in the eighth and two in the ninth to tie it, the latter two on a single by Roy White after Earl Weaver had replaced Palmer with Pete Richert. White would later end the game in the 11th with one out and Horace Clarke on first base by homering off Dick Hall to give the Yankees a 6-4 win.

Finally, here’s an account of the last game at the original Stadium from Glenn Stout’s outstanding Yankees Century:

The Yankees ended the season on September 30, closing down old Yankee Stadium to accommodate the scheduled renovation. In the final week of the season, the Hall of Fame hauled away a ticket booth, a turnstile, and other memorabilia. Anticipating souvenir takers, the club had already removed the center-field monuments and a hoard of equipment scheduled to follow the Yankees to Queens.

The club hired extra security to head off bad behavior, but the crowd of 32,328 arrived at the Stadium in an ugly mood and packing wrecking tools. Disappointed at the late season collapse, banners urging the Yankees to fire [manager Ralph] Houk ringed the park.

The game was only a few innings old when it became clear that souvenir hunters weren’t going to wait. In the outfield and the bleachers fans turned their backs on the game and started demolishing the park. The Yankees took the lead over Detroit but lost it in the fifth [sic]. When Houk came to the mound to change pitchers, exuberant fans waived parts of seats over their heads like the angry they had become.

As soon as Mike Hegan flied out to end the 8-5 loss, 20,000 fans swamped security forces and stormed the field. The Yanks had plans for objects like the bases, but the mob had other ideas. First-base coach Elston Howard scooped up the bag for a scheduled presentation to Mrs. Lou Gehrig, but he had to fight his way off the field, clutching the base like a fullback plowing through the line. Cops stood guard at home plate to make sure it went to Claire Ruth, but a fan stole second base, and third was nabbed by Detroit third baseman Ike Brown. Some 10,000 seats ended up being pulled loose.

Baltimore Orioles

2008 Record: 67-84 (.444)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 70-81 (.463)

Manager: Dave Trembley
General Manager: Andy MacPhail

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Oriole Park at Camden Yards (101/102)

Who’s Replaced Whom:

Adam Jones (DL) has replaced Jim Johnson (DL)
Oscar Salazar (minors) has replaced Dennis Sarfate (DL)
Brian Bass has replaced Jeremy Guthrie (DL)
George Sherrill (DL) has replaced Fernando Cabrera

Major League Roster:

1B – Kevin Millar (R)
2B – Brian Roberts (S)
SS – Juan Castro (R)
3B – Melvin Mora (R)
C – Ramon Hernandez (R)
RF – Nick Markakis (L)
CF – Adam Jones (R)
LF – Luke Scott (L)
DH – Aubrey Huff (L)

Bench:

R – Luis Montanez (OF)
R – Jay Payton (OF)
S – Alex Cintron (IF)
R – Oscar Salazar (IF)
R – Guillermo Quiroz (C)
L – Brandon Fahey (IF)*
R – Omir Santos (C)*

Rotation:

R – Daniel Cabrera
L – Garrett Olson*
L – Radhames Liz
L – Chris Waters
R – Brian Bass

Bullpen:

L – George Sherrill
L – Jamie Walker
R – Lance Cormier
R – Randor Bierd
L – Alberto Castillo
R – Rocky Cherry
L – Brian Burres
R – Kam Mickolio*
R – Jim Miller*
R – Bob McCrory*
R – Alfredo Simon*

*September call-up

15-day DL: R – Jeremy Guthrie, R – Jim Johnson, R – Dennis Sarfate
60-day DL: R – Chris Ray, R- Danys Baez, L – Troy Patton, L – Adam Loewen, R – Matt Albers, R – Jim Hoey

Typical Lineup:

S – Brian Roberts (2B)
L – Nick Markakis (RF)
R – Melvin Mora (3B)
L – Aubrey Huff (DH)
R – Ramon Hernandez (C)
L – Luke Scott (LF)
R – Kevin Millar (1B)
R – Adam Jones (CF)
R – Juan Castro (SS)

Over the last 14 years, Jeter has helped fill those empty seats behind him.

As early as tomorrow this game will be remembered for just one reason. In the bottom of the first inning, Derek Jeter hit a hard grounder to third base on the first pitch he saw from White Sox starter Gavin Floyd. Sox third baseman Juan Uribe was playing in and dropped to one knee in an attempt to backhand the ball. Instead it shot through his legs. Jeter was awarded a hit, which pushed him past Lou Gehrig as the man with the most hits in the history of Yankee Stadium. It looked like an error to me, but Jeter made that irrelevant with a single in the fifth.

I mocked the attention lavished on Jeter for passing Babe Ruth for second on the Yankees’ all-time hit list, and YES’s coverage of last night’s hit and the hits leading up to it–particularly Michael Kay’s call of the hit (“Hit or error? Error or history?”)–was every bit as over-the-top if not moreso, but I actually think this record is pretty nifty. For one thing, it’s an actual record. For another, as Kay histrionically pointed out on the broadcast, it’s a record that can’t be broken. Sure, Gehrig had far fewer at-bats at the old Yankee Stadium than Jeter has had in the remodeled one, but there’s a purity and an absoluteness to “the most ever” that even applies to Barry Bonds.

Best of all, this is a record that honors not just the man who broke it, but the Stadium in which it was achieved. Yankee Stadium will go dark for good six days from now, but though there will never again be a meaningful game played in the old yard, and the Yankees as an organization have completely punted the opportunity to do something special for the final season of baseball’s most significant ballpark, Jeter was able to give us one last piece of history, and a private kind of history at that. For all of the great performances, accomplishments, and players who have graced the field on the southwest corner of 161st and River Ave over the past 86 years, the player who got more hits on that piece of real estate than anyone else ever has or ever will is Derek Jeter. I think that’s pretty cool.

Twenty years ago almost exactly, I saw my first game at Yankee Stadium from a seat in the front row of the upper deck in right field. The Yankees won that night on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth by Claudell Washington. Yesterday afternoon, I was a few rows higher behind home plate and the Yankees won on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth by Jason Giambi. I’ll save my reminiscences of the games in between for another time, but I wanted to share a few of the photographs I took of yesterday’s game.

(Above) “Boston Today” for the last time, as the dust from the construction of a new parking deck rises in the foreground.

“Bad Sign”: You know things are bad when this is the best Freddy can come up with, but the fact that the Yankees’ playoff hopes are all but officially dead actually increased my sense of closure.

The Yankees put the shift on against David Ortiz in the first inning, but the alignment wouldn’t come into play until the eighth as Ortiz walked twice and struck out in his three at-bats against Mike Mussina. In the eighth, Robinson Cano (seen here in shallow right field) would range back toward his regular second base spot and make a strong cross-body throw to retire Ortiz, the only batter Damso Marte faced in the game.

Johnny Damon appears to have one foot out of the batters box, but it didn’t help; he went 0-for-2 with a hit by pitch against Sox starter Jon Lester.

You can’t see the ball in this photo of Mike Mussina pitching to Kevin Youkilis because it’s lodged in Youkilis’s hip. This was the top of the sixth. Damon got plunked in the bottom of the same frame and four batters were hit in total in the game, but nobody seemed to get upset about it.

The Yankees brought Ronan Tynan in to sing “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch, a subtle acknowledgement of the significance of their final home game against the rival Red Sox in the old Stadium. Sadly, they continue to half-ass the remaining-games countdown. Yesterday a quartet of front office employees pulled the magic lever to switch the count from 14 to 13 games left. It’s nice that the Yankees acknowledged the contributions of these four men, but they should have taken a turn earlier in the season when folks such as, I kid you not, “the Yankees’s number-one fan from Rochester, New York” and a quintet of MetLife executives (MetLife sponsors the countdown) did the honors. With 13 games left, the Yankees should be bringing in All-Stars and Hall of Famers, not middle managers. To make matters worse, they didn’t even put the names of the employees on the scoreboard when they were announced.

Incidentally, I looked around the upper deck during “God Bless America” and, though nearly every one was standing still, I saw a handful of fans returning from the concession stands and one vender hauling his wares, none of whom were stopped or harassed by Stadium security.

Speaking of scoreboards, here’s a snapshot of a moment in the career of Cody Ransom from the second inning prior to his third at-bat as a Yankee. He was hit by a pitch in that at bat before finally making an out by striking out in the fifth. In his fifth plate appearance as a Yankee, he delivered a two-out double, driving Lester from the game and setting up Jason Giambi’s game-tying pinch-hit home run off Hideki Okajima and the facing of the batters eye in dead center. Ransom is now hitting a mere .750/.800/2.500 as a Yankee with five RBIs and three runs scored in five plate appearances.

Given that performance from Ransom, it wasn’t a complete no-brainer for Joe Girardi to leave Giambi, who hit for Jose Molina, in the game and replace Ransom, who had started at first base, with Ivan Rodriguez, but it was the right move. Giambi’s next at-bat came in the bottom of the ninth with the bases juiced (the normally impatient Rodriguez had walked in Ransom’s place) and the score still tied. Giambi took two pitches from Jonathan Papelbon, then singled up the middle to win the game. Being a bit of a superstitious fan, I left my camera in the case until pinch-runner Brett Gardner touched home, but here’s some of the aftermath:

The team surrounding Giambi near first base (G-bombs himself is facing home and fist-bumping Hideki Matsui).

Giambi doing his post-game interview with the YES Network’s Kim Jones.

The conquering hero (2 for 2 with a home run and all three Yankee RBIs, including the game-winner) waves to the crowd as he departs the field.

The last Yankee-Red Sox score this scoreboard will ever show.

All photographs (c) Clifford J. Corcoran, 2008; click on any photo for a larger view.