When Money Gets In the Way of the Game: The Destruction of Yankee Stadium

This season had been an absolute disappointment for the Yankees. In the last year of the greatest baseball stadium ever created, the Yankees won't be playing in October. There will be no new postseason and World Series memories to be made. Once again, us Yankee fans will have to remember the glory days.

For me, being only 16, those glory days were in the beginning of the Joe Torre era. From 1996 to 2000, the Yankees never disappointed me (excluding '97). By the time I was 10, I thought that it was the Yankees' right to play in the World Series.

There were so many memories during my life at Yankee Stadium. Cone's and Wells' perfect games, the 2001 World Series, the 1998 team (greatest baseball team ever), and so many more. There are the greats that have played on that field: Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Mantle, Maris, Ford, Munson...if I keep, going I could fill an entire book.

Baseball will still always be America's pastime, and Yankee Stadium will be America's ballpark. I don't care what you guys say about Fenway Park or Wrigley Field or any other stadium. No place in all of the baseball world has more history and more importance to the game than Yankee Stadium.

Now Yankee Stadium will become a parking lot. The stadium will be torn down to make room for the new Yankee Stadium, and that isn't right.

This isn't like Shea Stadium and Citi Field; Shea is a complete dump of a stadium and has little significance when it comes to the history of baseball. Yankee Stadium has witnessed some of the greatest moments and players in the game's history. The team will sell off pieces of Yankee Stadium and make a large amount of money from the memorabilia. 

I know that there is a necessity for a parking lot in order to accommodate the fans coming to the new Yankee Stadium, but there should have been more of an effort to keep the old Yankee Stadium. People like me will still have memories of past Yankees who played on that magnificent field.

But in the future, what will the legacy of Yankee Stadium be? I believe that Yankee Stadium will become that of the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field. Something that those who experienced could always talk about, but those who were too young to experience won't be able to understand. All the history will be lost to time and just become words on a page. That is much more important than the money it would cost to keep the stadium standing.

However, it could still become something usable. A park, a national landmark, or, even better, keep it a baseball field. Have high schoolers and little leaguers play where the titans of the game once did. Imagine it being the last inning and a kid getting the winning hit like the greats once did.

There is a saying, "If these walls could talk, what stories they would tell?" Well, if those walls at Yankee Stadium could talk, it would take a lifetime to hear all the wonderful and amazing stories they would have to tell.