Introduction: Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America’s First Modern Ballpark

For a franchise with 40 pennants and 27 World Series championships over the course of its 120-year history, the New York Yankees have been woefully underrepresented in book-length SABR publications. This oversight may have been purposeful, but not intentional – to put together an anthology about the Yankees, there have to be editors volunteering for projects, and interested editors often had other passions. SABR’s Yankees books hitherto are limited to a book of biographies on the 1947 Yankees published by University of Nebraska Press in 2013 (a companion to a 2012 book about the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, both edited by Lyle Spatz), and a collection of essays about Babe Ruth published in 2019.1

So when Bill Nowlin approached me about resuming a project about the original Yankee Stadium in time for the 100th anniversary of its opening, the opportunity seemed obvious. The idea had first been conceptualized and preliminarily developed by SABR member Joe Wancho as a compilation of significant game stories at the Stadium, which opened in 1923 and closed in 2008. Although the book still includes 50 memorable major-league games that were played at the Stadium, it also contains 40 essays about the Stadium history.

We titled the book the first “Modern” Ballpark, because baseball had never seen anything like Yankee Stadium before it was built. It was the first ballpark to include three levels of seating, accommodating more fans by far than any other in the country. It was also intended from the outset to be used as a multipurpose venue. So inside this book are not only baseball-related essays, but also accounts of memorable football games, boxing matches, soccer seasons, track and field meets, and wrestling competitions, not to mention rodeos, concerts, and religious and political assemblies. Baseball events at the Stadium also didn’t end with the Yankees – the field also hosted more than 200 Negro Leagues contests, Hearst Sandlot Classics for developing youth stars, and even an AAGPBL exhibition game. Readers will also notice articles on some of the topics they would expect – Stadium construction and renovation, concessions, the first groundskeeper, famous speeches and ceremonies, no-hitters, Monument Park, the Stadium on film, and much more, including reminiscences from some of the personalities who called the Stadium their home for work and play.

Following these essays are the games. As the goal of SABR publications is to encourage new research, 44 of the 50 games were written specifically for this book. But don’t think of this as a list of the “50 Greatest Games”—many other memorable games have already been published with the SABR Games Project, and we have included a list of them, in the Appendix. Instead of the games here all being “Yankee Stadium’s Greatest Hits,” some may be that third-, fourth-, or fifth-best single on an album – also solid songs, but sometimes overlooked in anthologies.

We hope you enjoy these essays as much as we enjoyed putting them together, and that they help you understand what made the House that Ruth Built so special for 85 years.

TARA KRIEGER first fell in love with Yankee Stadium in 1993, in a game that Jim Abbott pitched and Don Mattingly homered, but the home team lost. She had dreams of one day working there, but when that didn’t work out, she figured writing about it was the next best thing. She has been on staff as a sportswriter at Newsday and as an editorial producer for MLB Advanced Media. Her current day job is as an attorney for the City of New York.

• Read more: Find all essays from Yankee Stadium 1923-2008 in the SABR Research Collection online
• Games Project: Find articles from Yankee Stadium 1923-2008 at the SABR Games Project
• E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America’s First Modern Ballpark for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
• Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America’s First Modern Ballpark paperback edition from the SABR Store ($17.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

 

NOTES

1 The two SABR books edited by Lyle Spatz are The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (2012) and Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees (2013). The Babe Ruth book is The Babe, Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks, editors (Phoenix: SABR, 2019).