Wide World of Sports Venues-April 21

The time has come for another fresh edition of the Wide World of Sports Venues!

Old Yankee Stadium

The Bronx, New York City, NY

Opened: April 18, 1923, reopened April 15, 1976

Closed: September 30, 1973 (renovations), September 21, 2008 (final game)

Demolished: 2009-2010 (estimated)

Surface: Grass

Construction Cost: $2.4 Million (1923), $167 Million (1976)

Capacity: 58,000 (1923), 82,000 (1927), 62,000 (1929), 71,699 (1937), 70,000 (1942), 67,000 (1948), 67,205 (1958), 67,337 (1961), 67,000 (1965), 65,010 (1971), 54,028 (1976), 57,145 (1977), 57,545 (1980), 56,936 (2008)

Field Dimensions: Left Field-318 feet, Left Center-399 feet, Center Field-408 feet, Right Center-385 feet, Right Field-314 feet, Backstop-84 feet

Home Teams: New York Yankees (MLB) 1923-1973, 1976-2008, New York Yankees (AFL I) 1926, New York Yankees (NFL) 1927-1928, New York Yankees (AFL II) 1936-1937, New York Yankees (AFL III) 1940, New York Americans (AFL III) 1941, New York Yankees (AAFC) 1946-1949, New York Yanks (NFL) 1950-1051, New York Giants (NFL) 1956-1973, New York Generals (USA/NASL) 1967-1968, New York Cosmos (NASL) 1971, 1978

Events Attended: August 2007 Yankee game against the Detroit Tigers.  The Yankees won 9 to 3.  It was the best, and I mean the BEST, overall baseball I've had in my young life so far. 

In my ongoing journey to visits all 30 MLB stadiums, I'm glad I got to see this one before it was closed down.  Like my dad has said before, say what you want about the Steinbrenners, but they know what it takes to put a quality product on the field as well as off the field in the stadium atmosphere.  The employees are very friendly and the fans are the best in baseball.  That's right.  I said it. 

The one thing I'll always remember was when Joba Chamberlain, who was a rookie at the time, came out of the bullpen late in the game, there was such a rousing ovation that it felt like the whole stadium shook.  To this day, I have never heard a crowd as loud as it was on that day.  I have a feeling that is a nightly occurrence in New York that has continued across the street.  That is what made Yankee Stadium the great cathedral of baseball.

Photo Courtesy:
Wikimedia Commons and Kjetil Ree under CC-BY-SA 2.0 License