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).

The headline in the March 13, 1903, edition of the New York Times read “Baseball Grounds Fixed.” The nonbylined article described an agreement, announced by American League President Ban Johnson, that a plot of rocky land was leased for the construction of a ballpark to be occupied by the newly minted New York American League Baseball Club. It was in an elevated section of upper Manhattan, at 168th Street and 11th Avenue, with a spectacular view of the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades when looking west. On it, Hilltop Park was built, becoming the home to the American League Baseball Club of New York, nicknamed the Highlanders (soon to be renamed the Yankees), for the next 10 years.

In this same article, Ban Johnson described how “legal issues” always seemed to rise as individuals with a vested interest against the establishment of a new club in New York somehow managed to convince the city to cut a street through the middle of a desired American League property. It was a veiled reference to the National League’s New York Giants and their owners, primarily the former owner Andrew Freedman, whose Tammany Hall connections often enabled them to successfully block the progress of the Americans.1 The negotiations for the hilltop were completed in secrecy and a successful lease arrangement was made, but, according to Johnson, an ace-in-the-hole always had to be at the ready, in case the agreement fell through at the last minute. Johnson described his contingency plan as such:

“Had there been a slip up on this property, we had everything shaped to the minute to sign a lease for the Astor estate at One Hundred and Sixty-first Street and Jerome Avenue (in the Bronx), in which event the American League would have conducted the club.”2

In an irony of all ironies, this location in the Bronx was destined to become baseball’s most famous address in 1923 as the site of the original Yankee Stadium.

As early as autumn 1902, before the Highlanders ever played a game, the Bronx was being mentioned as a possible home for the new club.3 Proponents felt it was a fertile ground with an untapped fan base for baseball. However, the new interborough elevated and underground rail systems to the Bronx were still in the planning stages, raising a concern about the ability of Manhattan fans to reach the Bronx easily.

Highlanders owners Frank Farrell and Bill Devery were partial to a Manhattan location, but events quickly conspired to make Hilltop Park obsolete. First, before the beginning of the 1911 season, the wooden Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan burned to the ground, leaving the Giants without a home. In a grand gesture, Farrell offered the use of Hilltop Park to the Giants while the new concrete-and-steel Polo Grounds was being built. Concurrently, the Yankees’ 10-year lease on the Hilltop Park property expired after the 1912 season, not to be renewed. Before his death, Giants owner John T. Brush offered the use of the new Polo Grounds to Farrell, returning the favor of the year before. It provided the Yankees a temporary home in Manhattan, but the Bronx still beckoned.

In 1911 Farrell turned his attention to a plot of land in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, at 221st Street and Broadway, for a new park for the Yankees. The site was just north of where the Harlem River bends and becomes the Spuyten Duyvill Creek. Farrell had plans for a 32,000-seat concrete-and-steel stadium, whose entrance on Broadway would be a short walking distance from the 225th Street subway station. He announced his plans with great fanfare, yet some problems still had to be resolved. Legal issues involving the existing owners of the property arose regarding the future transfer of ownership of the grounds. Additionally, the proximity to the river rendered the plot of land a swamp, causing Farrell to arrange for the digging of drainage tunnels and the grading of the land by importing considerable rock and gravel from the excavation site for Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.4 The dual legal and excavation expenses would be a blow from which Farrell’s ownership would not survive, and by the end of the 1914 season, the Yankees were up for sale, still without a new ballpark of their own.

A Manhattan brewery magnate, Colonel Jacob Ruppert Jr., along with Captain T.L. Huston, expressed interest in the club, but a review of the Yankees’ finances almost derailed the deal. In a 1931 article, Ruppert said, “I never saw such a mixed-up business in my life – liabilities, contracts, notes, obligations of all sorts. We went through it thoroughly, my lawyer and I. There were times when it looked so bad no sane man would put a penny into it.”5 A deal was struck, however, and it was immediately revealed that Ruppert and Huston had plans for a new ballpark … again, in the Bronx! The rumor had ground being prepared for a new stadium on Astor property along Westchester Avenue and Clason Point Road, east of the Bronx River.6 This, too, was not to be. The next rumor had Ruppert interested in land in Long Island City, Queens, at the foot of the 59th Street Bridge,7 as well as other sites in Manhattan. Ruppert then decided to focus on a long-term lease at the Polo Grounds,8 as the gathering storm clouds of World War I served as a deterrent to any firm investment plans.

After the war’s end, Ruppert set out in earnest to build his ballclub. In late 1919 he acquired pitcher Carl Mays from the Boston Red Sox. Mays was having disagreements with the Red Sox management, yet the purchase of Mays was viewed as “a serious breach of something or other,” according to Ruppert. Ban Johnson suspended Mays, and Ruppert applied for a court injunction, which was allowed.9 Johnson, who rarely had an associate with whom he didn’t feud, turned his animosity toward Ruppert by plotting to revoke the club’s charter if it did not have a stadium to play in. Johnson proceeded to pressure Charles Stoneham and John McGraw to evict the Yankees from the Polo Grounds, which the Giants were more amenable to do at this point. The Giants outdrew the Yankees by approximately 90,000 in 1919. In December the Yankees had purchased Babe Ruth and by mid-May they were outdrawing their landlords considerably, much to the Giants’ chagrin. On May 14, 1920, Giants treasurer Francis X. McQuade announced that the Yankees would no longer be welcomed at the Polo Grounds after the 1920 season.10

This drew an immediate and well-planned response from Ruppert. Knowing that his team needed a place to play, Ruppert informed Johnson that he owned a parcel of land at Madison Avenue and 102nd Street, a single city block, much too small to accommodate a major-league ball field. Ruppert promised to build a small grandstand and field, playing games at a park where every fly ball would result in a home run, causing great embarrassment to Johnson. Johnson backtracked, intervened with the Giants ownership, and the eviction was called off.11

Ruppert later revealed that this situation, as well as the enormous popularity of the aforementioned Babe Ruth, convinced him that it was time to no longer be “a tenant ballclub.” Although he said that he and the Giants’ Charles Stoneham had a good relationship and there was no danger of any further eviction action,12 Ruppert decided it was his time to build a triple-decked mega-structure to house not only the Bambino, but also the new legion of fans who followed Ruth and the suddenly competitive Yankees. The long-standing view of the Giants evicting the Yankees because of Babe Ruth’s popularity, while perhaps plausible, was not the main reason for Ruppert’s decision to leave the Polo Grounds and build his own ballpark. It was primarily a shrewd business move on the part of Ruppert, one of many successful decisions he made during his ownership. He had a hot product, and he sought to capitalize on it.

Ruppert’s choice of land was that Astor property originally mentioned by Johnson as his fallback position in case the Hilltop Park deal fell through in 1903 – 161st Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx on the east bank of the Harlem River, directly opposite the Polo Grounds. The Bronx beckoning came full circle. What Ruppert built was an edifice described by writer F.C. Lane in the April 29, 1923, issue of Baseball Magazine the following way: “From the plain of the Harlem River it looms up like the great pyramid of Cheops from the sands of Egypt.”13 Or, less dramatically but far more popular, it was “The House That Ruth Built,” the original version of which endured for the next 50 years. Yankee Stadium was not referred to in that way until Opening Day, April 18, 1923, when New York Evening Telegram writer Fred Lieb surveyed the scene after the Babe’s dramatic home run into the right-field stands. Lieb considered both the Ruth-friendly dimensions in right field, as well as the Babe’s already proven ability to put people into the seats, and christened the ballpark as “The House That Ruth Built” in his game column.14 Yet, according to Ruth, it was that Opening Day home run that gave Lieb’s phrase its staying power.15 Claire Ruth, Babe’s wife, was quoted as saying, “I think that was the proudest moment of his life, and I think he believed that it would never have been ‘The House That Ruth Built’ if he hadn’t hit that home run that day.”16

After the City of New York renovated the original Yankee Stadium in 1974-75, many continued to refer to the new building as “The House That Ruth Built.” Though it wasn’t the same exact stadium, it was on the same footprint in the Bronx, the land that had beckoned since 1903. New challenges to the Bronx would emerge in the late 1980s when George Steinbrenner had serious discussions with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority about moving the Yankees to the Meadowlands Sports Complex, adjacent to Giants Stadium.17 The Bronx eventually won this challenge, too, and the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009, sits directly across East 161st Street from the original site. The Yankees are synonymous with the Bronx, and will remain so for the distant future.

BOB GOLON is a retired manuscript librarian and archivist at Princeton Theological Seminary library. He also spent three years as labor archivist at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives. Bob is past president of the New Jersey Library Association History and Preservation section and a member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. Prior to getting his MLIS from Rutgers University in 2004, Bob worked 18 years in sales and marketing for the Hewlett-Packard Company, working with the group that established the successful dealer distribution channel for HP printers and personal computers. A baseball historian and SABR member, Bob has been a contributor to various publications, can be seen prominently on the YES Network’s Yankeeography – Casey Stengel, and is the author of No Minor Accomplishment: The Revival of New Jersey Professional Baseball (Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press, 2008).

NOTES

1 Ray Robinson and Christopher Jennison, Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Drama, Glamor, and Glory (New York: Penguin Group, 1998), 2.

2 “Baseball Grounds Fixed,” New York Times, March 13, 1903.

3 “American League Here,” New York Times, September 7, 1902.

4 “Farrell’s New Ball Park,” New York Times, November 12, 1911.

5 Jacob Ruppert, “The Ten-Million-Dollar Toy,” Saturday Evening Post, March 28, 1931.

6 “Yankees in the Bronx,” New York Times, May 13, 1915.

7 “Yanks New Home Will Be in Queens,” New York Times, October 3, 1915.

8 “Yankees Seek Lease,” New York Times, December 14, 1915.

9 Ruppert, “The Ten-Million Dollar Toy.”

10 “Yanks Lose Home at Polo Grounds,” New York Times, May 15, 1920.

11 Steve Treder, Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021), 28-29.

12 Ruppert, “The Ten-Million-Dollar Toy.”

13 Robinson and Jennison, Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Drama, Glamor, and Glory, 2.

14 Robert Weintraub, The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011), 22.

15 “The House That Ruth Built,” www.​baber​uthce​ntral​.com/​babes​impac​t/bab​e-rut​hs-le​gacy/​the-h​ouse-​that-​ruth-​built/, accessed August 22, 2022.

16 “The House That Ruth Built.”

17 Bob Golon, No Minor Accomplishment: The Revival of New Jersey Professional Baseball (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press/Rivergate Books, 2008), 41.

White Construction Company signed on as general contractor on April 18, 1922, a year to the day before Yankee Stadium would open in New York. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Wednesday, April 18, 1923, represents an important milestone in the history of the New York Yankees. When the Yankees opened the doors to their eponymous colosseum in the Bronx, the club achieved a level of permanence and stability previously lacking. From this ground of their own, the Yankees embarked on an unrivaled half-century of dominance over the American League and excellence in the World Series.

Original co-owners Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery – a gambler/pool-hall owner and a former police superintendent – lacked the resources to equip the then-Highlanders for a sustainable pennant challenge. They managed to parlay political connections to secure a property lease in Upper Manhattan from the Institute for the Blind on Broadway between 165th and 168th Streets, but could do no better than build a no-frills wooden facility known as Hilltop Park for the team’s arrival in 1903. The club was left homeless when its lease expired at the end of the 1912 season, and the newly christened Yankees became tenants of the National League’s New York Giants at the Polo Grounds starting in 1913.

Farrell and Devery lacked the finances to convert the Yankees into challengers to the Giants for the affections of fans in Manhattan. Farrell examined potential sites in the Bronx before and after accepting tenancy with the Giants, but never consummated a deal. The deeper-pocketed partnership of Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston acquired the Yankees in 1915. Ruppert had taken over the family business from his father, and Jacob Ruppert Brewery was one of the most successful beer makers in the pre-Prohibition era. Huston was an engineer by training and a successful businessman.

A ballpark of the Yankees’ own was intrinsic to turning around their fortunes. With his background, Huston took a particular interest in the ballpark project and even visited several potential sites before he and his partner assumed formal control.1 They inspected several more sites in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx in the coming years. One site under consideration was near 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, and another was located at 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Upper Manhattan. Next, Huston scouted a site in Queens easily accessible by railway, but Ruppert nixed the idea in favor of remaining in Manhattan.2 Ruppert’s brewery was located on the Upper East Side, and there was some thought to acquiring nearby land.

World War I paused efforts to build a new ballpark. In the meantime, Ruppert and Huston initiated building a team capable of challenging for the club’s first pennant. With AL President Ban Johnson’s support, Miller Huggins was hired from the St. Louis Cardinals as manager for the 1918 season. The acquisition of Babe Ruth before the 1920 season proved to be just one in a series of transactions with the Red Sox that provided the foundation for eventual pennant and World Series winners. The improvement of the Yankees began to grate on the Giants, in particular their pugnacious manager, John McGraw. During the 1920 season, the Giants served notice that the Yankees would be evicted after the campaign. Eventually, the Giants and Yankees agreed on a lease for the 1921 season, with an option for 1922. The Giants hiked the rent from $65,000 to $100,000, adding to the urgency to find a new home.

Ruppert and Huston, sometimes known collectively as “the Colonels” given their prior military experience, focused on a 10-acre plot of land just a short walk from the Polo Grounds across the Macombs Dam Bridge that linked Manhattan and the Bronx across the Harlem River near the Polo Grounds. Bounded by 157th and 161st Streets north to south, and Doughty Street and River Avenue west to east, the former lumberyard site was owned by the estate of William Waldorf Astor, who died in 1919.

Ruppert and Huston confirmed on February 5, 1921, that they planned to build their new arena at the Bronx location. They Colonels retained Osborn Engineering Company to design their stadium for a fee of $223,000.3 The Cleveland-based firm had experience in stadium design as major-league clubs transitioned to steel and concrete structures with Navin Field and the Polo Grounds among their handiwork. Braves Field, which opened in 1916 and remained the most recent ballpark, was also an Osborn product. Artists’ renderings depicted a fully enclosed stadium that included three levels with a middle mezzanine.4 The mezzanine became a feature when the city’s refusal to sanction a stadium taller than 108 feet required a more modest middle tier.5 Another striking feature was the arched frieze that extended downward approximately 16 feet across the top of the grandstand. Originally planned to be made of a copper-iron alloy, the actual frieze was pure copper supplied by the U.T. Hungerford Brass and Copper Company.6 The stadium was intended to seat 75,000, which would make it the largest ballpark in the country by tens of thousands.

Preparatory work hastened after the February announcement, although it took several months to close the real estate deal. Engineers arrived to begin filling and grading the land, and also studying drainage, the latter an important feature given the site’s proximity to the Harlem River. Osborn engineers were “sinking test pits” in order to determine the type of foundation that could be supported by the soil.7 Workers also cleared the land of boulders and the remnants of Astor’s lumberyard. The Colonels handed over an initial deposit of $100,000 in March while attorneys conducted research to ensure a free and clear title. On May 16 Ruppert and Huston took formal possession when they paid an additional $500,000 in Liberty Bonds to Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, the Astor estate trustee.8

Some issues had to be resolved before actual construction could begin. First, clearing and preparation of the site needed to be completed. The process involved excavating 25,000 cubic yards of soil for the foundation and using 45,000 cubic yards of soil to fill and level the site.9 Second, postwar supply shortages had created price inflation, and the Yankees opted to wait for costs to decline before awarding contracts for structural steel, concrete, and lumber. Finally, city authorities had to approve the closing of 158th Street and Cromwell Avenue, both of which ran through the proposed stadium footprint. The process had been expected to be a formality given Ruppert’s connections with Tammany Hall. The powerful Board of Estimate took an initial favorable view of the proposal at a December public hearing. Osborn submitted plans to the Bronx Bureau of Buildings on January 15, 1922, and Huston was optimistic about breaking ground by March 1.10 That date slipped, and the Board of Estimate deferred final approval of the application when Mayor John Francis Hylan unexpectedly requested additional information to ensure compliance with the terms of the street closure agreement. On March 31 Hylan provided his assent and the Board of Estimate’s Sinking Fund Committee issued its formal approval.

While waiting for official word of the street closings, the Yankees began actively soliciting construction bids. Bids for steelwork were received in December 1921; reflecting inflated costs, they were higher than hoped.11 On January 3, 1922, the Yankees issued a broader call for bids on all or part of the construction. The club’s press statement read, “Tenders will be received on the following subdivision of work, but any one can bid on the work as a whole.”12 Through advertising in New York area newspapers and engineering publications, firms were invited to bid on a range of projects, including excavation, grading, reinforced concrete, tile work, painting, wooden bleachers, and toilets. The Yankees placed a priority on fan comfort, especially for female patrons. Designed with “potty parity” in mind years before sports venues considered such things in earnest, plans called for 16 “toilet rooms” with eight each for men and women.13

White Construction Company was selected on April 18, 1922, as the general contractor under Osborn’s oversight. The parties executed the contracts on May 5 with an initial cost of $1.25 million, although the total price tag seemed likely to approach $3 million when the land, legal fees, and other work were factored in. White employed dozens of subcontractors, and its president, Charles Escher, committed to completing the job by November.14 It was initially anticipated that enough construction could be complete to allow the Yankees to host the World Series at the new ballpark if they won the AL pennant. Lead engineer Bernard Green stated that “[T]he contractors will do their best to see that the park is ready for the big series. That’s a fair enough proposition.”15 Such plans seem particularly aggressive given that twenty-first-century stadium construction often takes years rather than months, but White planned to utilize double shifts and as many as 500 workers on a daily basis to meet the deadline. Huston maintained a regular presence at the building site and also deputized his friend, Col. Thomas H. Birmingham, to work with Green in overseeing the construction. Huston and Birmingham’s close involvement even extended to the selection of chairs to be used in the grandstand, a process that took two weeks before Huston found a seat to his satisfaction.16

From the outset, Ruppert insisted that the stadium would be named after the team rather than bear his moniker. “Yankee Field” had been one suggestion, but the grandness of the structure led the club to gravitate toward “stadium” in the name. For years, “the Yankee Stadium” (or even “the Yankees’ stadium”) was the convention before the article was later dropped in favor of simply “Yankee Stadium.” Further, Ruppert and Huston had no intention of using the Stadium strictly for baseball. A colosseum so grandiose as to be named a “stadium” would be a playground for sports like boxing, football, track and field, and ice skating. For boxing, the ring would be placed over second base, under which a vault was constructed to store electronic communications equipment. Boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who later built the third Madison Square Garden and founded the New York Rangers, sought control of the venue’s nonbaseball events.17 For athletics, a running track was installed that ran through center and right fields approximately 30 feet from the bleachers and curved in such a way as to become an antecedent warning track in left field. The track included a feature by which it could be raised to add a curb for running and cycling events and then lowered to field level during ballgames. The track was the standard 400 yards in circumference and 24 feet in width, but the layout of the field led to an oblong shape with a 120-yard straightaway down the left-field foul line.

The ambition of the plans to have a functioning venue by fall 1922 came up against certain realities. Work commenced within weeks of contracts being signed, but strikes and supply shortages led to delays in the shipment and delivery of materials. White hired the American Bridge Company and Taylor-Fischer Steel Construction to erect the steel skeleton, and Edison Portland Cement Company (owned by Thomas Edison) to handle the concrete work. However, a railroad strike delayed arrival of the steel until July. In total, 2,500 tons of structural steel and 1,000 tons of reinforced steel created the skeleton with 30,000 cubic yards (or 140,000 bags) of concrete18 forming the body.

The bleachers were the first part of the Stadium to be built, and were also the subject of one of the major changes to the original design. Various work orders and change orders contributed to increased costs and scheduling delays, and the bleachers were a significant contributor to that. Out of concern that the planned movable wooden bleachers would contrast negatively with the concrete grandstand, Ruppert and Huston invested another $136,000 to establish concrete footings and ensure that the exterior walls matched the rest of the stadium.19 The left-field and right-field bleachers were built at right angles to each other, but they were positioned differently in relation to the playing field. The right-field bleachers rested at the top of an upward slope from the running track. Right-field bleacher patrons would enjoy a closer view of the field, as the left-field bleachers were about 100 feet farther from home.

By mid-September the stadium was 30 percent complete. The bleachers and concrete lower deck were in place and cranes were onsite to begin building the mezzanine and upper tier. Hosting the World Series was out of the question, and the Yankees and Giants squared off for the second straight postseason at the Polo Grounds. After the Giants took the Series in five games (with four wins and a draw), one commentator suggested that the Yankees had given the “most stupid exhibition ever furnished in a World’s Series,” potentially dampening fan enthusiasm.20 “[S]ince New York will always be with a winner and never endure a loser, it seems that there will be a great many vacant seats in the new stadium next season.”21 The Colonels focused on completion in time for the 1923 season and received some help from the schedulers. With the Giants planning to expand the Polo Grounds to 55,000 seats, the AL and NL announced that the 1923 season would start one week later than would have been expected. The NL would open on Tuesday, April 17, and after some wrangling to appease Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee’s desire to share in a weekend gate at the monstrous stadium, the AL would start on Wednesday, April 18, with Yankees-Red Sox headlining the day.

One aspect of the Stadium that was complete in 1922 was the installation of the grass field. Groundskeeper Phil Schenck, who also tended to the field at Hilltop Park, traveled through New England, New York, and Pennsylvania to find sod to his liking. He eventually settled on turf found from a Long Island location he refused to reveal, with 116,000 square feet shipped to the Bronx. Schenck’s attention to detail included sifting the soil and dirt through a silk cloth to remove any rocks or pebbles.22 On November 27, with Huston in attendance, the final piece of turf was placed into the field and snowflakes began falling within minutes. Schenck declared to Huston, “Sir, I have the honor to inform you that the playing field of this here place is absolutely finished and complete. …”23 Beneath the surface existed an extended network of pipes to ensure adequate drainage. A “weblike” arrangement of 16 pipes under the infield and 11 large pipes under the outfield, plus a concrete gutter in the front of the grandstand were employed to keep the field as dry as possible.24

In December, as Huston continued to oversee construction, he also announced his intention to sell out. Huston announced, “I’m old and tired. The Yankees are a good team and the stadium is nearly finished. It looks as if my work is about done.”25 The expectation was that Ruppert would buy out his partner’s interest, but Huston made clear that other offers had been tabled. The new stadium factored into negotiations, both by enhancing the value of the franchise and by incurring debt and other liabilities associated with construction. When a stalemate was reached over such liabilities, and Huston balked at Ruppert’s insistence on a condition that his partner not buy another team, the deal fell through in early January. The two put on brave faces with Huston declaring his plan to remain co-owner “for several years to come,” and Ruppert offering that the two were “just as good friends as ever.”26 The matter was revisited within months.

Progress continued through a cold and snowy winter. On February 14 Ruth visited the stadium that Fred Lieb would credit him with “building.” Wearing a tailored suit with a brisk wind around him, Ruth took some practice swings over a slush-covered home plate. Although the foul lines at Yankee Stadium were roughly the same distance as the Polo Grounds, the right-field bleachers were a more inviting target. The configuration of the bleachers was such that they were 20 feet closer to home plate (about 300 feet at right-center) than the concrete wall that formed the inside of the Polo Grounds horseshoe; fortunately, Ruth was not right-handed, as the distance to left-center was much farther at the new stadium.27

In fact, the playing field was intimate in some ways but expansive in others. Initially, first base and third base were only 36 feet from the lower grandstand box seats, 10 feet closer than the Polo Grounds.28 Home plate was only 60 feet in front of the backstop, a distance considered too close by sportswriter Joe Vila.29 While they would be adjusted after the inaugural season, the foul lines were 257 feet to left and 258 to right. Unlike right field, the left-field grandstand continued into left field with a sweeping curve that made for an expansive outfield in left and center. Dead center field was approximately 500 feet from home plate with a flagpole inside the bleachers that was considered in play. Also, the configuration of the left-field bleachers was such that there was an alley or gap, also considered in play, between the bleachers and grandstand.

The scoreboard erected on top of the right-field bleachers provided fans with more information than they received at most major-league ballparks. Thirty feet high, 66 feet wide, and topped by a large clock, the scoreboard displayed the batting order of the Yankees and their opponents horizontally across the top. Across the bottom, the number of the batter as well as the numbers of balls, strikes, outs, and even the umpires were present. The bulk of the scoreboard was devoted to line scores for all major-league games, with AL games on the left and the NL on the right. The amount of information the Yankees sought to convey required three operators on days with a full slate of big-league games.

For fans attending games, Yankee Stadium could accommodate most preferred modes of transportation. The Yankees promoted the various subway lines from Manhattan to the ground, and the station at 161st Street and River Avenue was enlarged to handle expected large game-day crowds. For those choosing to travel by car, several thousand parking spaces were made out of the remainder of the land around the Stadium. Once fans arrived, there were several access points around the exterior, which was almost a half-mile in circumference. The main entrance was located at the southwest corner of the Stadium, at 157th and Doughty Street, with another major access point at the southeast corner near 157th and River Avenue. Other grandstand entrances dotted 161st Street. Ticket booths, 36 in all, featured at each entrance. To manage crowd flow, the Stadium had a system of scissor ramps behind the center and at the right end of the grandstand. Bleachers could be reached via entrances and exits along River Avenue, at 157th and 161st Streets.

In the final weeks before Opening Day, the finishing touches were applied. The final grandstand and bleacher seats were installed and painted green, and the sections and seats were assigned numbers. The club intended to move its offices from Midtown to the Stadium, but that was one part of the project that was not ready for the start of the season. Underneath the grandstand were the clubhouses and various storage rooms. The Yankees occupied the dugout on the third-base side, a difference from the Polo Grounds. Their clubhouse was located under the grandstand at street level, accessible from the dugout by a passageway and flight of stairs. The visitors clubhouse was also on the third-base side, which required opponents to walk across the field and through the Yankees dugout in order to reach it. Ruth opined that the arrangement might lead to tussles between opposing players.30

The Yankees received applications for Opening Day tickets throughout the winter, but tickets were not made available for public purchase until April 11. Even then, fans could buy tickets only at one of three Manhattan locations: the Yankees offices and the Winchester store, both in Midtown, and Spalding’s sporting goods store on Nassau Street downtown. Most of the tickets, however, were held over for sale on game day. That is, approximately 50,000 tickets (30,000 in the grandstand and 20,000 in the bleachers) were held back until noon on April 18, just 3½ hours prior to first pitch.

On Opening Day, fans swarmed the area surrounding Yankee Stadium. Demand for tickets proved so great that an estimated 25,000 were turned away. Before the game, the Yankees and Red Sox players paraded to the center-field flagpole, where the American flag and AL pennant were raised. Governor Al Smith received the honor of throwing the first pitch, which he delivered cleanly into catcher Wally Schang’s glove. The pitching matchup featured New York’s Bob Shawkey against Boston’s Howard Ehmke. Shawkey delivered the first official pitch to Chick Fewster at 3:31 P.M., one minute later than scheduled. The highlight of the game was provided by The Babe himself. In the third inning, Ruth delivered the moment the occasion required with a line-drive shot into the right-field bleachers, a three-run homer that provided the winning margin in the Yankees’ 4-1 victory. The time of game was two hours and five minutes, and the attendance was officially stated as 74,200, a mark that bested by a considerable margin the former record of 42,620 who attended Game Five of the 1916 World Series between the Red Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers at Braves Field.

Other milestones occurred at Yankee Stadium in 1923. The Yankees hosted their first Sunday game on April 22 against Washington. With the legalization of Sunday baseball in New York in 1919, the Giants and Yankees recognized the potential for large gates, and jostling for Sabbath dates contributed to the conflict between the clubs. The Yankees could grab more of this market now, and the crowd of 65,000 against the Senators proved the concept. Days later, President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to grace the Stadium. An avid baseball fan, Harding chatted up Ruth before the game and kept score of the Yankees’ first shutout in their new home. Tex Rickard indeed promoted the first boxing event at the Stadium on May 12 for the Milk Fund charity. The gates opened five hours before the opening bout of this boxing festival with the feature fight involving Jack McAuliffe against Luis Angel Firpo.31 When the Milk Fund attendance was announced as 62,000, Yankees business manager Ed Barrow was forced to admit that the Stadium’s capacity was not as large as advertised on Opening Day. College football debuted with a contest between Syracuse and Pittsburgh on October 20 with more games scheduled for that fall.

In February 1924 the Yankees announced several changes to the Stadium for the coming season. The most significant concerned the playing field and its effect on foul-line distances. The infield diamond was pushed out by 10 feet and tilted slightly to the right. In doing so, this move added foul territory but also extended the foul lines. Right fielders would have been pleased by the elimination of the so-called “bloody angle.” In the 1923 season, the foul line met the right-field grandstand almost at its terminus. This feature created a pocket between the end of the grandstand and the start of the bleachers where balls took strange and challenging caroms and bounces. With the change, the right-field foul line connected with the bleacher wall, extending the length from 258 feet to 295 feet. In left field, the sweep of the grandstand with the reconfigured infield created an additional 24 feet of distance, from 257 feet to 281 feet.

The Stadium never became the fully-enclosed three-tier colosseum of its original designs, but later projects expanded the upper decks beyond the foul poles and into the outfield. In 1928, Ruppert hired L.M. Neckermann to add seven sections to the mezzanine and upper deck on the left-field side at a cost of $400,000. The same firm was retained to do similar work on the right-field side during the 1936-1937 offseason at a cost of $850,000.32 This latest project also included the replacement of wooden areas in the Stadium – with particular attention to the bleachers – with concrete and steel, addition of curves to the fences to eliminate some of the sharper angles, and reconfiguration of the right-center-field bleachers to bring them almost 30 feet closer to the center-field flagpole.33 With that project complete, Yankee Stadium achieved its familiar structural shape and reached a capacity of 72,000.

In addition to the milestones noted above, two additional events set the Yankees on the road to becoming the most successful franchise in major-league history. In May 1923 Ruppert bought out his partner for approximately $1.5 million. The deal was complete with Huston being relieved of any debt or other liabilities on the Stadium and Ruppert dropping his demand that Huston stay out of baseball; however, Huston never re-entered the game in any significant capacity. In October the Yankees finally hosted a World Series in a ground of their own; Game One went against them when future Yankee manager Casey Stengel’s ninth-inning inside-the-park home run decided the game in favor of the Giants. The Yankees recovered to win the first of 20 World Series at pre-renovation (1923-1973) Yankee Stadium. Their tenure at the original Stadium included the eventual departure from New York of the Giants, whom the Yankees more than eclipsed in a reversal of fortunes. Ruppert may not have foreseen California baseball at the time, but his words proved prescient in many ways: “Yankee Stadium was a mistake – not mine, but the Giants’.”34

JOHN BAUER resides with his wife and two children in Bedford, New Hampshire. By day, he is an attorney specializing in insurance regulatory law and corporate law. By night, he spends many spring and summer evenings cheering for the San Francisco Giants, and many fall and winter evenings reading history. He is a past and ongoing contributor to other SABR projects.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author reviewed b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.​com, r​etros​heet.​org, and several New York-area newspapers accessible through n​ewspa​pers.​com.

NOTES

1 Ron Amore, A Franchise on the Rise: The First Twenty Years of The New York Yankees (New York: Sports Publishing, 2018), 269.

2 Amore, 271.

3 Amore, 272.

4 “Yankees to Build Stadium in Bronx,” New York Times, February 6, 1921: 20.

5 Amore, 273.

6 Amore, 274; Robert Weintraub, The House That Ruth Built (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2011), 46.

7 “Yanks Make First Payment for Land,” New York Times, March 19, 1921: 16.

8 “Deal for Yankees’ Home Completed,” New York Times, May 17, 1921: 14.

9 “Size of Stadium Impresses Crowd,” New York Times, April 19, 1921: 15.

10 James Crusinberry, “Yankee Owners Devoting Attention to New Stadium,” New York Daily News, January 4, 1922: 20.

11 “Yankees Call For Bid On Stadium,” New York Times, January 4, 1922: 15.

12 “Construction of New Yankee Stadium May Start Soon,” New York Evening World, January 4, 1922: 23.

13 “Sizable Job, Making Last Word in Modern Ball Parks,” New York Daily News, April 1, 1923: 51.

14 Amore, 276.

15 “Work Begins Today on Yankee Stadium,” New York Times, May 6, 1922: Sports 8.

16 W.O. McGeehan,”Yankees Start to Build Big Park,” New York Herald, April 1, 1922: 10.

17 “Yankee Ball Park Big Sports Arena,” New York Times, August 30, 1922: Sports 11.

18 Weintraub, 54.

19 Weintraub, 55.

20 “Where the Real Blow Comes,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1922: 2.

21 “Where the Real Blow Comes.”

22 John Kieran, “Infield at Yankee Stadium Completed as Per Schedule,” New York Tribune, November 28, 1922: 14.

23 Kieran.

24 “Sizable Job, Making Last Word in Modern Ball Parks.”

25 “Huston to Sell Out His Yankee Interest,” New York Times, December 12, 1922: 1.

26 “Ruppert Declares Huston Will Stay,” New York Times, January 6, 1923: Sports 10.

27 “Yankees Announce Changes at Stadium,” New York Times, February 3, 1924: Sec. 1, Part 2: 1.

28 “Yankees’ New Park Almost Completed,” New York Times, March 11, 1923: 1.

29 Joe Vila, “Faults Are Found With New Ball Park of the Yankees,” The Sporting News, March 15, 1923: 1.

30 Marshall Hunt, “No Homers, Despite Low Grade Hurling,” New York Daily News, February 15, 1923: 24.

31 “Rickard Inspects Yankee Stadium,” New York Times, May 8, 1923: 13.

32 Weintraub, 368.

33 Marty Appel, Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before The Babe to After The Boss (New York: Bloomsbury, 2012), 54.

34 Amore, 282.

Babe Ruth pitches in to help the grounds crew in The House That Ruth Built. (Getty Images)

November 27, 1922, was an overcast and chilly day, but the grounds crew finished laying the last pieces of outfield sod, pleasing the head groundskeeper. Phil Schenck stood with New York Yankees co-owner Colonel Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston admiring the view. Five months earlier, the jovial groundskeeper had promised to have the playing field finished before the first snow fell:

“Sir, I have the honor to inform you that the playing field of this here place is absolutely finished and complete. I herewith hand you the keys to the diamond.”1

Schenck’s handiwork stood out among the remaining unfinished construction at the new Yankee Stadium that was emerging on the banks of the Harlem River. Ten minutes later, it started to snow. By the time Huston and Schenck left the stadium, the turf was covered in a blanket of white powder.2

Phil Schenck had been employed by the franchise dating back to 1903, when they were known as the New York Highlanders. Schenck was hired to build and maintain the new playing field at Hilltop Park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He worked tirelessly, maintaining and improving the ballfield for the next nine years, earning him the nickname of the Demon Groundskeeper.3 The local baseball writers featured stories about his magical maintenance methods just as often as they wrote about Highlanders stars Wee Willie Keeler and Jack Chesbro. Schenck’s outgoing personality and portly stature made good copy.

The team outgrew Hilltop Park and signed a 10-year lease to play at the Polo Grounds starting in 1913. On October 5, 1912, the Highlanders played their last game on a Phil Schenck-prepared field, outscoring the Washington Senators, 8-6.4 The ballpark was demolished the following spring. Phil Schenck no longer had a field to maintain.

The New York baseball beat writers now jokingly referred to Schenck as the Groundless Groundskeeper and wrote that he was “the only major league groundkeeper without a ground to keep.”5 He went to work for Henry Fabian, who maintained the Polo Grounds. Schenck was very familiar with the ballpark, having worked there as a kid helping Old Johnny Murphy, Fabian’s predecessor, maintain the place.6 Schenck was now relegated to being a common crew member, but his good nature and strong work ethic were much appreciated.

Schenck was too valuable and too well-liked to be let go outright by the team now known as the Yankees. He remained with the organization and was kept busy as an equipment manager, handyman, and office gofer. When winter came around, Schenck was sent south to prepare the Yankees’ spring-training sites every year, including fields in New Orleans, Shreveport, Brunswick (Georgia), and Jacksonville.7 He faithfully served the team for the 10 years, and welcomed any work the Yankees gave him.8

Schenck’s loyalty paid off in 1922, when he signed a contract to oversee the construction of the playing field for the new Yankee Stadium.9 The groundless groundskeeper would soon have a brand-new baseball field to maintain that he could call his own. “I used to play around this very place when I was a kid,” Schenck reminisced. “I used to swim right where the diamond is now. I was born in the Bronx, only six blocks from here.”10

The construction of the new Yankee Stadium commenced on May 5, 1922,11 and Schenck’s first job was to assist the White Construction Company with installing the internal drainage of the playing field. Properly installed drainage would make the future playing field much easier for Schenck to maintain.12 Some 2,200 lineal feet of four-inch terra cotta tiles radiated in 24 lines from the pitcher’s mound. The tiles connected to the main drain lines leaving the stadium, ensuring a dry playing surface after a hard rain.13 After completing the state-of-the-art drainage, it was Schenck’s turn to fashion the remaining pile of rubble into a verdant, emerald green ballfield like the one his past reputation was built on.

Every detail that would ensure that the playing surface of the new Yankee Stadium was the best in the major leagues was overseen by Schenck. A dedicated staff of laborers whom Schenck would train to become his grounds crew was assembled. Their first task was to install the subsoil to cover the drainage system and create the base for the playing field. The quality of the soil on hand was not up to Schenck’s standards. The crew labored for weeks to sift the piles to remove the large rocks, tree roots, and grass clumps before spreading it evenly across the future stadium floor. A two-ton roller firmed the hand-graded soil before a nine-inch layer of topsoil was spread on top of the base. Horse manure and limestone were tilled into the topsoil to enrich the growing medium. Fertilizer was carefully applied after hand grading and rolling was completed.14 The field was now ready to transition from a flat, dirt construction site to a glorious baseball diamond.

The infield was built on Schenck’s perfectly graded field. It was designed by the engineers of the Osborn Engineering Company.15 Schenck called it the “turtleback mound” because it looked like a shell of a large tortoise. He didn’t like the height of the mound, and he didn’t like the turf beyond the track that ramped up to the outfield fence, either. He vowed to replace them both, but the big pimple would remain for now.16

Schenck visited five neighboring states searching for the perfect turf to cover his diamond. He chose the 160,000 square feet of sod for the infield and outfield from a secret source on Long Island.17 The green squares were laid out, rolled for smoothness, and carefully watered daily to prevent desiccation until all the truckloads were unloaded and laid. Fresh grass seed was spread over the sod, raked in, and rolled again to ensure a thick, healthy playing surface.18

The final details were checked off the punch list one at a time. The infield skin was raked repeatedly until no stone bigger than a “mosquito’s eye” remained.19 The pitcher’s rubber and home plate were set in concrete. A 1,000-pound gas-powered Coldwell Model H lawn mower that both cut and rolled the grass to help maintain a firm and true playing surface was purchased.20

The stadium also included a 400-yard, 24-foot-wide running track with red cinders that encircled the playing field and was an added feature for Schenck’s crew to maintain. Designed by Frederick W. Rubien of the Amateur Athletic Union, it was the venue for track and field meets sometimes held when the Yankees were on road trips.21 By late fall, Schenck’s installation was complete. “I’ve worked night and day on it. I’m glad it’s over,” he said. “I’m going home to bed now and leave a call for February 4.”22

The grand opening of the stadium was set for April 18, 1923, and Phil Schenck’s reputation as the top groundskeeper in the major leagues was once again on full display. The tarp that covered Schenck’s masterpiece over the winter was removed to reveal an emerald green turf, just as expected. The warmth from the tarp duped the grass into an early spring green-up, one of the many tricks the Demon Groundskeeper kept up his sleeve. The Yankees and the visiting Boston Red Sox both held brief workouts on the pristine sod the day before the grand opening. “So far, no spikes have dented the new turf carefully laid by Phil Schenck last fall,” wrote Fred Lieb in the New York Evening Telegram.23 Schenck would soon find out he would need all the tricks he could muster and learn a few more new ones to help in the maintenance of the new ballpark.

Wear and tear were Phil Schenck’s greatest adversary, and it commenced on Opening Day. Participants in pregame festivities including John Philip Sousa and the Seventh “Silk Stocking” Regiment Band, local politicians, baseball dignitaries, the Yankees and Red Sox players, cameramen, and sportswriters all herded across the manicured turf.24 The sellout crowd of 74,200 exited across the field after the Yankees handed the Red Sox a 4-1 loss featuring a three-run Babe Ruth stadium-christening clout.25 The extra foot traffic was a cost of doing business for the opening of the grandest stadium ever built, and it was a welcome sight to Schenck, who was more than happy to make any repairs.

Maintenance of the new stadium wasn’t going to be about preparing for just baseball games. Yankee Stadium was designed as a multipurpose stadium with the ability to generate revenue when the Yankees were away and during the offseason as well.26 This greatly added to Schenck’s workload. During the 1923 season, the assault on Schenck’s masterpiece included 76 regular-season Yankees home games, three World Series home games, Tex Austin’s Rodeo, championship boxing matches, AAU track and field events, and college and local football games. “I figure that a million and a half people scruff across this lot every year,” Schenck said.27

The rodeo came to town on August 15 for a 10-day engagement and proved to be a huge headache for Schenck during the stadium’s maiden season. “Matting at a cost of $25,000 was laid over the infield grass at the behest of the stadium management but at the rodeo’s expense. When the matting was removed at the end of the rodeo, the all-important infield grass was seen to be a dried-out yellow swatch.”28 Schenck had five days to work his magic on repairing the field. The Yankees returned to the stadium after an extended 17-day, 12-game road trip to find Schenck applying a special tobacco-based fertilizer that he sourced from Scranton, Pennsylvania.29 The “secret blend” jump started the greening-up process of the yellow turf. The rodeo never returned to the stadium during Schenck’s tenure.

The 1923 World Series between the Yankees and the New York Giants provided Schenck the opportunity to showcase his field against his cross-river rival Henry Fabian of the Polo Grounds. Schenck had Yankee Stadium in as good shape as was humanly possible for Game One after seven months of baseball games and extracurricular wear and tear. Photos of the day show a well-worn but manicured field.30 The Yankees won the deciding Game Six at the Polo Grounds, sparing Schenck’s field the abuse of a championship celebration. For all his hard work, the players voted Phil Schenck a $750 share of the World Series winnings.31

Proactive maintenance was the benchmark of Schenck’s program: “After every baseball game and between periods of a football game my men hunt out every new scar and sprinkle it with a mixture of seed, humus, bone meal and sheep manure.”32 By the end of the grass-growing season, the continued use of the field took its toll, regardless of how much care was given. Schenck said, “During the fall, professional football teams practice here most every day, rain or shine, and they sure tear up the turf.”33 In spite of the grounds crew’s herculean efforts, by the end of every football season, the field was always in need of new sod the following spring.

The spring of 1924 found Schenck eliminating what he felt was poor design. “Phil Schenck, the rotund Stadium ground keeper, has been busy all winter working on his new field,” a sportswriter commented. “The open winter has been a big help to him. The diamond has been completely remodeled and rebuilt. The new diamond will not be the turtle-back in as far as of last season.”34 Schenck flattened the infield diamond and lowered the pitcher’s mound. He installed red clay around home plate to keep the players from “digging in,” a practice that left holes and created constant maintenance issues. After finishing the repairs to his field, Schenck’s second task was to oil up and clean the large Seth Thomas clock on the stadium scoreboard. It sat dormant all winter until Schenck climbed up the bleachers and performed the annual winding. The Yankees didn’t “officially” start their season until the clock was running.35

Everyone had a Babe Ruth story to tell, and Schenck was no different. He had plenty of them, but the one he liked to recount was the day The Babe hit an inside-the-park home run against the Cleveland Indians in 1924. Schenck and his friend Henry Fabian watched Ruth crush a Dewey Metivier pitch a claimed 592 feet to dead center field.36 Fabian laughed, not at the ball that came up short of the fence, but at the divot that the ball sent flying. Ruth raced around the bases for the unlikely home run. Schenck gladly repaired the divot after the game.

Football games at the stadium were played in all weather, rain or shine. The concentrated wear of football cleats tearing up dormant turf put a yearly end to anything being associated with the field looking manicured. The 1926 season opener of the New York Yankees of the old American Football League became a nightmare for Schenck. The field had received 24 hours of rain the previous day and it continued throughout most of the game. Star Red Grange and the Yankees hosted the Los Angeles Wildcats. The Galloping Ghost was hampered by the soft field, mustering only two 15-yard runs as the field was reduced to a miniature swamp. “After a few minutes of scrambling around in the muck and mire of Phil Schenck’s beloved ballfield, everyone was covered in mud and you couldn’t read the numbers from one another,” a sportswriter reported.37 The football Yankees won 6-0.

The Jack Dempsey-Jack Sharkey boxing match held on July 21, 1927, in midseason, would prove to be Schenck’s greatest challenge to repair. The Yankees were set to return for a doubleheader with the St. Louis Browns on July 26, giving Schenck five days to work his magic. “See the square where the border is a little light colored?” Schenck mentioned to a writer after the season. “That’s where the ring was for the Dempsey-Sharkey fight. The reporters and excited fans in the ringside seats scraped their feet and wore off the grass. Wherever there were seats on the ground we found bare patches the next day.”38 To the delight of Schenck, the Yankees wore out only the basepaths, scoring 27 runs in the doubleheader.39

Twelve days before the 1928 home opener, the beloved Phil Schenck died suddenly at home.40 The Yankees were in a pinch but had to look no farther than across the Harlem River and hired Walter Owens, the assistant groundskeeper of the Polo Grounds.41 Owens had trained under the watchful eye of Schenck’s good friend Henry Fabian and was more than qualified to fill Schenck’s big shoes. His first task was to prepare Schenck’s ballfield for the home opener against the Philadelphia Athletics. His preparations for his first game as a head groundskeeper included extra pregame grooming for the ring ceremony and championship banner raising of the 1927 World Series winners.42 Owens labored with great success as the Yankees’ head groundskeeper for the next 24 years. The Demon Groundskeeper’s legacy was in good hands.

DOUG VOGEL is a lifelong baseball and golf fan. He has made a living as a golf-course superintendent for the past 32 years. Doug is a credentialed press member of the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, and the United States Golf Association and covers major golf tournaments with an emphasis on golf course tournament preparation. He is a past editor of The Greenerside, an award-winning newsletter published by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New Jersey. Doug is well known for writing articles that have combined golf and baseball story lines. He recently published his first book, Babe Ruth and the Scottish Game – Anecdotes of a Golf Fanatic. The New York Mets and the New Jersey Jackals are his teams.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

The author would like to recognize the importance of reference librarians. The staff of the Wayne Township (New Jersey) library consistently fill obscure requests, provide any and all assistance needed, and do it with a smile. Also, a big thank you to Andy Stamm, librarian at the United States Golf Association Museum. His timely correspondence answered a lot of questions.

The terms groundskeeper and groundkeeper were both used by sportswriters during this period. Dan Cunningham, the current Yankee Stadium turfgrass expert, has the title of head groundskeeper.

Golf course architect William H. Tucker’s obituary noted that he “put in the turf of the original Yankee Stadium.”43 In the book The Architects of Golf the authors wrote, “Tucker was a nationally known turfgrass expert and had been called upon to install the original turf at such sports facilities as Yankee Stadium and the West Side Tennis Club.”44 It is well documented that Phil Schenck installed the sod at the new Yankee Stadium. Tucker’s name never came up connecting him to any phase of the project in any newspaper archives searched. His involvement remains a mystery.

NOTES

1 John Kieran, “Infield at Yankee Stadium Completed as Per Schedule,” New York Tribune, November 28, 1922: 14.

2 James Crusinberry, “Yankee Diamond Tucked in for Winter Sleep,” New York Daily News, November 28, 1922: 28.

3 W.O. McGeehan, “Pinochle Ousts Baseball in Camp of the Yankees,” New York Tribune, April 12, 1919: 21. “Phil Schenck, the Demon Ground Keeper, will precede the team to each burg, by twenty-four hours and iron out the different diamonds.”

4 1912 New York Highlanders Statistics, Baseball-Reference.​com, b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.co​m/tea​m/NYY​/1912​.s​html, Accessed July 17, 2022.

5 “Sure Sign of Spring,” Washington Times, February 18, 1922: 9.

6 Will Wedge, “Yankee Clock Starts Ticking,” Baltimore Sun, March 3, 1924: 33. Johnny Murphy was the groundskeeper before Henry Fabian.

7 W.O. McGeehan, “Hannah and Schneider Join at Jacksonville,” New York Tribune, March 25, 1919: 19. Preparing spring training fields kept Schenck busy for various reasons. The circus wintered on the Southside Ballpark field before the Yankees’ arrival. “Phil Schenck is still telling of the engineering feats he accomplished in filling the elephant tracks.”

8 “Allen Russell Quits Yanks,” Paterson (New Jersey) Evening News, July 18, 1918: 10. Schenck worked for the Yankees in multiple capacities after losing his Hilltop Park groundskeeper position. “Miller Huggins … had left word with Phil Schenck, the clubhouse man, to pack up his belongings and send them to Baltimore where Russell lives.”

9 “Phil Schenck to Make New Diamond for Yanks,” Washington Times, August 3, 1922: 16.

10 Wedge: 33.

11 Different starting dates found include May 6, 1922. Michael P. Wagner, Babe’s Place: The lives of Yankee Stadium (Akron:48HrBooks, 2017), 15. “Limited construction didn’t actually begin until May 6.”

12 Harry C. Butcher, “Good Farm Practice Has Helped the Yankees Win Their Pennants,” Fertilizer Review, October 1927: 10-11. Schenck remarked, “Our drainage system made it possible for us to play the fourth game in the World Series with Pittsburgh.”

13 “Yankee Stadium, New York,” Architecture and Building, May 1923: 49.

14 Butcher, 11.

15 “Fabian Dean in His Line,” Auburn (New York) Citizen, August 15, 1928: 5. The Osborn engineers were simply copying what was a common construction technique of the era. “Henry Fabian, dean of the groundskeepers, constructed the first turtleback baseball field in Dallas in 1889.” Other ballparks that Osborn Engineering built include Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

16 Frederick G. Lieb, “Yankee Diamond Has Been Moved,” New York Evening Telegram, February 3, 1924: 14. “The new diamond will not be the turtleback affair of last season.”

17 Kieran, 14.

18 Butcher, 11.

19 Kieran, 14.

20 “An Effective Power Mower,” American City Magazine, July 1925: 113.

21 Al Copland, “News Marathon Track All Set for New Record,” New York Daily News, April 24, 1923: 23. The Daily News Marathon of May 20, 1923, was the first track event held on the new Yankee Stadium track.

22 Kieran, 14.

23 Frederick G. Lieb, “Shawkey to Pitch Opening Contest,” New York Evening Telegram, April 17,1923: 4.

24 “Biggest Ball Park Opens Gates Today,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1923: 22.

25 1923 New York Yankees Statistics, B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com, b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.co​m/box​es/NY​A/NYA​19230​4180.​shtml. Accessed July 24, 2022. B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com lists the Opening Day crowd as 74,200 while most newspapers used the 75,000 official seating capacity in their reporting.

26 “Yankee Stadium, New York.” “The field is also suitable for other athletic events and there is a cinder running track about it.”

27 Butcher, 10.

28 Tom O’Connell, “Vet Rodeo Mgr. Frank Moore Eschews Tools of the Trade,” Billboard, October 21, 1950: 58, 63.

29 Will Wedge, “Tobacco Fertilizer,” New York Sun, March 3, 1925: 33.

30 1923 World Series Recap, MLB.​com, mlb.​com/n​ews/1​923-w​orld-​serie​s-​recap. Accessed October 1, 2022. Photo of Casey Stengel sliding into home during Game One at Yankee Stadium shows extensive wear to the home plate/baseline area.

31 “26 Yankees Each Receive $6,160.46,” New York Times, October 17, 1923: 16.

32 Butcher, 10.

33 Butcher, 10.

34 Frederick G. Lieb, “Yankee Diamond Has Been Moved,” New York Telegram and Evening Mail, February 3, 1924: 14.

35 Wedge, 33.

36 Will Wedge, “Ruth’s Cruel Homer,” New York Sun, July 21, 1924: 20. Ruth’s blast of 592 feet is either a printing error or yellow journalism. The correct 1924 measurement was 490 feet to dead center. Yankee Stadium, Clem’s Baseball, a​ndrew​clem.​com/B​aseba​ll/Ya​nkeeS​tadiu​m.htm​l#d​iag. Accessed October 25, 2022.

37 Leonard Cohen, “New York Yankees Beat Wildcats, 6-0, on Tyron’s Sprint,” New York Evening Post, October 25, 1926: 15.

38 Butcher, 10.

39 1927 New York Yankees Statistics, B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com, b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.co​m/tea​ms/NY​Y/192​7-sch​edule​s-sco​res.​shtml. Accessed July 24,2022

40 “Yankees First Groundkeeper Dies,” Syracuse Journal, April 10, 1928: 13. The Yankees had initiated a spring-training regimen three years earlier to help the “rotund” Schenck lose weight. Will Wedge, “Phil Schenck in Training,” New York Sun, February 4, 1925. “Phil Schenck, the sod shampooer of the Yankees, has been dispatched to St. Petersburg to prepare for the coming season. Schenck will not only prepare the ball yard for the Ruppert Rifles but he will also prepare himself physically. Doc Woods, Yankee trainer, will supervise Schenck’s course of conditioning exercises.” No formal obituary of Schenck made the papers.

41 Dr. Ken Kurtz, “An Inning From Our Past,” Sports Turf Manager, July/August 2003: 7-14.

42 Frank Wallace, “Cobb’s Ghost Covers Right Field,” New York Daily News, April 21, 1928: 29. “Each Yankee received a blue diamond in a ring as a reward for winning the world series.”

43 Obituary, New York Times, October 8, 1954: 23.

44 Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten, The Architects of Golf (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1993), 419.

Whitey Witt batted .301 as a Yankee, from 1922-1925. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Harry M. Stevens, shown at left with Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, was the Yankees’ official concessionaire through the 1963 season. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

The 12-page official program of the new “Greater New York Base Ball Club of the American League“ at its home opener on April 30, 1903, was published by Harry M. Stevens, who had built a concessions empire since the 1880s that extended from the Midwest to New England. Stevens had made a fortune in New York City the previous decade managing the concessions at the Polo Grounds, home of the National League Giants, the new club’s now immediate rival; Madison Square Garden; and the upstate Saratoga Racecourse. The association of Stevens’ firm with the new American League franchise (at first called the Highlanders) would enable Harry to become a key force in the emergence of the franchise as a dynasty in major-league baseball.1

The advertisements scattered throughout the inaugural program and scorecard, priced at 5 cents, reflected the goal of concessionaires everywhere: to enhance and profit from the fan experience at the ballpark. In addition to player rosters and space to keep score, the card included advertisements for Philip Morris cigarettes, Dewar’s scotch, Coca-Cola, Horton’s ice cream cones, Atlas motor oil and grease, Pommery champagne, and Henry Rahe’s Café across the street. At Rahe’s, fans could order Jac. Ruppert’s Extra Pale, Knickerbocker, and Ruppiner beers. One ad tried another way to pique fan interest: “Any baseball player who will hit the ‘Bull Durham’ cut-out sign on the field with a fairly batted ball during a regularly scheduled league game will receive $50.00 in cash [almost $1,700 in 2022].”2

THE BUSINESS OF CONCESSIONS

But profits for the new franchise from selling scorecards and advertisements alone would be small. By contrast, catering to the fans’ desire for refreshments during the game would provide the Highlanders’ owners, gambler Frank Farrell and former New York City Police Chief Bill Devery, with a vital source of revenue to supplement income from ticket sales. In selling concession rights to an experienced and shrewd entrepreneur like Stevens, the club could avoid the burden of procuring food and beverages, hiring cooks, vendors, and other salespeople, setting prices, and meeting fans’ expectations for superior quality. (Some clubs at the time, such as the Chicago Cubs, sold concessions themselves.)

When the Highlanders opened for business at American League Park – soon after called the Hilltop due to its location on a ridge in northern Manhattan – the question of what food and drink to sell at ballparks already had a long and controversial history. Initially, baseball owners were slow to provide concessions and other entertainment to fans. However, unauthorized bars, liquor booths, rum shops, and “restaurants” – saloons – often popped up near ballparks and siphoned off potential revenue from the teams. Gradually, clubs came to offer items such as cherry pie, cheese, chewing tobacco, tripe, chocolate, and onions, like food sold at fairs, racetracks, circuses, railway stops, and other outdoor venues. In the 1880s, Chris Von der Ahe, a German immigrant and later Stevens’ mentor, bought a team, the St. Louis Browns of the American Association, to increase profits at his bar near Sportsman’s Park, the Browns’ home. He later added an amusement park with a Bavarian-style beer garden, a water flume ride, an artificial lake, and a racetrack near the outfield. The American Association, known as the “Beer and Whiskey League,” prohibited gambling on its grounds and disapproved of the racetrack but permitted beer sales. In contrast, teams in the more established National League sought a more respectable clientele by having higher ticket prices and forbidding the sale of liquor at games.

The controversy over alcohol in ballparks raged well into the twentieth century when the growing temperance movement lobbied baseball clubs to eliminate bars and hard liquor, and to sell beer more discreetly. (Soft drink manufacturers marked their beverages as “temperance drinks” – often soda water sweetened with syrup.) However, it was impossible for the New York American League club to fully board the Prohibition bandwagon after Jacob Ruppert, who inherited a fortune in the family brewing business, purchased the team on January 11, 1915.

Harry M. Stevens set up shop at the Hilltop with a proven business model that improved on Von der Ahe’s approach. Unlike Von der Ahe, Stevens put the fan experience of watching the game above everything else. Stevens may have been the first concessionaire to have his vendors patrol the stands during the games. He placed drinking straws in glass soft-drink bottles so spectators could watch the play as they sipped, and varied product offerings by the city to accommodate local tastes. Eventually, Stevens controlled so many venues that several items on his menu became standard ballpark fare, including peanuts, nonalcoholic beverages, and ice cream.

Later baseball legend credited Stevens with introducing hot dogs to ballparks, but there is no evidence that in 1903 he offered frankfurters on his menus, either at the Hilltop or elsewhere. Hot dogs, initially working-class street food, were first introduced to the United States by German immigrants who settled in the Midwest after the Civil War. Around 1867, Charles Feltman, a German-American restaurateur, began selling sausages in rolls at Coney Island. In the 1880s Von der Ahe introduced a “wiener wurst” in St. Louis, where they became a staple at Browns games. The food also may have grown in popularity in New York City with the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s.

There is no information on the profits Farrell, Devery, and Stevens made from concessions sales in the early years at the Hilltop. However, circumstantial evidence from major-league clubs elsewhere suggests they were substantial. One team reported making more than $2,000 in 1908. Another earned an estimated $1,000 on Coca-Cola sales, with a cut of 40 cents on a case of 24 bottles selling at a nickel apiece. By 1910, Stevens had a son at Yale, rode around in a “swell” automobile, sat in a box at the theater, smoked dollar cigars, dined at swanky Sherry’s restaurant, and lived in a series of fancy Midtown hotels.3

The best indicator that business was good was Harry Stevens’ steady rise as a central player in the business affairs of the Highlanders and other clubs. With the money rolling in, Stevens became a dependable financier to whom owners could turn if they needed to meet a payroll or just the money to paint an outfield fence. Even as he developed his business with the Highlanders, he served on the New York Giants board of directors, with whom he had long been identified. Stevens considered becoming a partner with Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets in 1908 and an owner of the Giants after the death of John T. Brush in 1912. Thus, when Jacob Ruppert and businessman Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston bought the New York American League team in 1915, the new owners awarded Stevens the concessions rights, no doubt partly due to his large bankroll.

HIGHLANDERS TO YANKEES

Stevens’ position with the Yankees was bolstered after the 1920 season, when Ruppert and Huston hired Ed Barrow, Harry’s longtime friend and former business partner, from the Boston Red Sox to become the business manager of the Yankees. Barrow had spent a lifetime in baseball as a minor-league manager, minor-league owner, minor-league president, and major-league manager. Before he joined the Yankees, Barrow had never won a pennant as a general manager. But with Ruppert’s support, Barrow created one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. In his 24 years with the club, the Yankees won 14 American League championships and 10 World Series.4

Barrow and Stevens had been friends since the 1890s, when both men frequented the Pittsburgh sports scene. Barrow landed a job in a hotel that catered to sportsmen. Barrow and Stevens were partners, hawking scorecards, refreshments at the ballpark, and playbills to local theaters.5 The partnership soon broke up amicably after Barrow decided to remain in baseball and not accompany Stevens to New York City to sell food and drink for the Giants. But they remained close.

Stevens came to hate Huston, who wanted to break the concessions contract with the Stevens family and install his son as the concessionaire at the Polo Grounds, which the Yankees shared with the New York Giants. Meanwhile, Barrow was caught in the middle of the squabbling between Huston and Ruppert over how to run the team, especially Huston’s criticism of Miller Huggins’ effectiveness as on-field manager. Huston in any case wanted out, and after negotiations for the sale of the club to a third party fell through, he tried to find a purchaser for his half of the team. Ruppert did not want a new partner, so he bought out Huston himself. After completing the transaction, Ruppert offered Barrow the chance to buy 10 percent of the Yankees for $300,000. Barrow borrowed the money from Harry Stevens, intending to repay the loan with future dividends. Ruppert promoted Barrow to team treasurer and gave him a spot on the Yankees’ board of directors. Stevens’ contract with the Yankees was secure.

At this point in his career, Stevens styled himself as “publisher and caterer … from the Hudson to the Rio Grande” – the latter a reference to his racetrack in Juarez. With the opening of Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923, the financial heart of Stevens’ far-flung concessions empire shifted from the Polo Grounds across the river to the Bronx. The new facility was the largest in baseball and could accommodate about 60,000 hungry customers. (At the height of the Yankees’ popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, about 80,000 fans could be squeezed in.) This size was not daunting to Stevens, who was used to overseeing large crowds. (He catered the famous Dempsey-Carpentier heavyweight championship bout – an early “Fight of the Century” – in Jersey City in 1921, where almost 90,000 people attended.) It was said of his firm that it served up to 250,000 spectators at various ballparks and racetracks on summer afternoons. As Stevens’ ties to the Yankees grew, Harry and his sons – especially Frank – became close friends with national idol Babe Ruth, who conspicuously consumed Stevens’ frankfurters. Ruth gave the elder Stevens a signed picture of himself that read, “To my second dad, Harry M. Stevens.” After he hit 60 home runs in 1927, Ruth presented Harry with a poster showing an image of every ball he hit out of the park. Each had the date of a blast, and they were numbered from 1 to 60.

Concession salesmen worked exclusively on commission, and sales were often dependent on the weather. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

 

THE BUSINESS OF CONCESSIONS

Concessions provided an important part of the Yankees’ profits throughout the following years. In the 1929 season, the last before the great stock-market crash, about one-third of the team’s net income – $271,028 – came from selling food and drink. This was higher than the crosstown Giants (whose concessions were still managed by the Stevens company) and the second highest in the major leagues.6 During the Depression in 1933, the Yankees made $59,000 from concessions sales even though the team lost money overall.

In May 1934 Harry Stevens, 76 years old, died of pneumonia. Two of Harry’s sons, Frank and Joe, who informally ran the company in their father’s final years, formally took over. After that, business at Yankee Stadium remained profitable for the company and the club.7 In the 1940s the Stevens empire operated not only in Yankee Stadium and at the Polo Grounds but at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Braves Field and Fenway Park in Boston, and high-profile racetracks like Churchill Downs, Pimlico, Belmont Park, Saratoga, Hialeah, and Narragansett. Stevens’ venues also included minor-league parks, dog tracks, state fairgrounds, and polo fields. Other concessions networks operated around the country, most notably that of the Jacobs brothers, Sportservice, Inc., which had its headquarters in Buffalo and operated in venues not served by Harry M. Stevens. Several smaller, profitable chains prospered on the West Coast. But while concessions firms came and went, the Stevens empire seemed eternal, like Yankee Stadium itself.8

However, profit margins in the industry remained small. In 1942 a representative of Sportservice provided a cost itemization for each dime hot dog his company sold and from which his firm earned only half a cent.9 Horse racing crowds had the highest average – one reason Harry Stevens controlled prestigious tracks around the country. Fans of track and field spent about 40 cents per capita. Baseball crowds spent 15 cents (22 cents at doubleheaders), and boxing and hockey crowds spent 8 cents. Football fans paid on average 10 cents in mild weather and 25 cents in bad weather. (They were not generally crowds who spent a lot of money, since they sat on their hands during a game and were unwilling to reach into their bulky overcoats for a dime.) Football fans spent more when it was cold: They clamored for hot food, paper rain hats, and unlimited coffee.10

Profits also depended on less predictable factors like fan moods and the weather. Experienced salespeople, who during the Great Depression were frequently older men, varied their sales pitch based on their assessment of crowd psychology. They worked exclusively on commission, getting from 10 to 20 percent of total sales. One veteran salesman at Yankee Stadium, who had refined his sales pitch, claimed he made $26 on a good day but only $3 on his worst. One of his less experienced colleagues usually pulled in $2 to $8. Sudden weather changes could be disastrous. Counting on a sweltering day, a concessionaire might prepare to sell copious quantities of ice cream and cold drinks only to find that unexpectedly cold weather might shift the demand to coffee, hot dogs, and soup.11

Managing an army of vendors at a facility as large as Yankee Stadium was complicated. Forgetting the company founder’s belief in the importance of audience preferences, Stevens company executives came to produce concessions the way Henry Ford manufactured autos: They strictly rationed supplies and insisted on the uniformity of practices – coffee was made the same way every game, and vendors were trained how to put a hot dog in a roll and apply mustard with a minimum of motion. They kept track of coffee sales by counting the number of paper cups issued. Still, there were many opportunities for vendors to cheat. Most bags of peanuts contained 50 to 60 items, but a vendor could pick up empty bags around the ballpark and reapportion his stock to make it look as though he sold more. Harry Stevens did not make his employees sew up their pockets, as did the Jacobs brothers, but the firm carefully monitored the activities of all his employees. It required all vendors to wear the prices of their wares on a printed card in their hat so they could not overcharge customers.12

DECLINE

The Yankees opened the 1964 season without Harry M. Stevens as their concessionaire.13 The team had replaced Stevens with National Concessions Service, a division of Automatic Canteen Company, a firm partly owned by the team’s owners, businessmen Del Webb and Dan Topping. The menu now included novel items such as shrimp rolls, pizza, fish sandwiches, and milkshakes.14

Having the Yankee owners control the team and the Stadium’s food and drink operation made good financial sense for the team. In any case, the formidable grip of the Stevens operation on the industry had long been weakening. The Stevens family continued to be reluctant to adapt to evolving audience tastes. (The Stevens company was the only major concessionaire to boil rather than fry its hot dogs, because the elder Harry insisted on cooking them that way.)15 The reluctance to innovate was reinforced by the large scale of the Stevens holdings, which forced management to standardize its offerings with little variation “from the Hudson to the Rio Grande.”16 Finally, a company like Stevens, with a highly variable level of concessions profits as its core business, almost inevitably would have less resilience than a larger food conglomerate for which concessions were only a sidelight.17

At Yankee Stadium, Automatic Canteen, under various names, managed concessions until the Stadium closed in 2008.18 The Yankees then created a new firm in partnership with the Dallas Cowboys called Legends Hospitality.19 That conglomerate focused on food, beverage, merchandise, retail, stadium operations, and entertainment venues like the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Legends tentacles also stretched beyond food to helping teams operate stadiums and selling naming rights and personal seat licenses.

Harry M. Stevens could not have dreamed of culinary offerings at the new Yankee Stadium today. They include meatball parmesan sandwiches, egg creams, cheesesteaks, garlic fries, and Buffalo chicken quesadillas, along with Nathan’s hot dogs. Nor could he have conceived of the video menu boards scattered throughout the ballpark. But he would be on more familiar ground reading the results of a Yankee Stadium concessions case study conducted by Legends in 2014. The report found that the most effective way of increasing concessions sales per capita was to increase the average number of dollars customers spend per transaction.20 This was sound business practice, indeed, and one Harry Stevens pioneered more than a century ago.

DON JENSEN is a longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research and has written or co-authored many books and articles on the sport. He was the 2015 winner of the Chairman’s Award of the SABR Nineteenth Century Committee. From 2018 to 2021 Jensen was editor of the award-winning annual book series Baseball: New Research on the Early Game (McFarland). He is currently editor of The Inside Game, the newsletter of the SABR Deadball Era Research Committee, and a member of the selection committee for SABR’s Larry Ritter Book Award, which recognizes the best new baseball book primarily set in the Deadball Era that was published during the previous calendar year.

NOTES

1 By 1911 the more headline-friendly “Yanks” or “Yankees” had largely supplanted “Highlanders” as the unofficial nickname of the American League Base Ball Club of Greater New York. But in the writer’s view, a certain clarity is achieved by using “Highlanders” for the club during its tenure at Hilltop Park (1903-1912) and reserving “Yankees” for thereafter.

2 Marty Appel, Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before The Babe to After The Boss (New York: Bloomsbury, 2012), 20-21.

3 David Quentin Voigt, The League that Failed (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press; Illustrated edition (June 1, 1998), 69.

4 Daniel R. Levitt, “The Making of Ed Barrow.” Base Ball, vol. 1, No. 2, (Fall 2007): 67.

5 Levitt, 68.

6 The Chicago Cubs claimed $132,162 in net concessions in 1929, the highest in the major leagues.

7 After Stevens’ wife, Mary, died in 1941, Harry’s estate was valued at $1.2 million. h​ttps:​//vin​dyarc​hives​.com/​news/​2013/​apr/2​1/val​ley-r​elish​es-ha​rry-s​tev​ens/. Accessed November 21, 2022.

8 Howard Whitman, “Selling the Crowds,” Saturday Evening Post, April 11, 1942: 25. Some independent firms worked on a single venue or with one partner only. Fred Kanen supplied $400,000 worth of food, drink, and programs to 2 million fans each year at Madison Square Garden. The Miller brothers, Frank, and Paul, had a “single plum,” the Ringling circus, for which they Millers supplied 6 million fans and the Ringling’s elephants.

9 The breakdown probably was similar for the frankfurters sold by the Stevens company at Yankee Stadium: meat, 3 cents; roll, 1 cent; vendor’s commission, 1½ cent; cost of concession rights, 2½ cents; wastage ¾ cent; and overhead, ¾ cent. There was twice as much profit to be had by selling soft drinks: wholesale price per bottle: 3⅓ cents; breakage and handling costs: ¼ cent; ice: ½ cent; vendors commission: 1½ cents; costs of concessions rights: 2½ cents; overhead: ¾ cent; paper cup: ⅙ cent. These costs totaled 9 cents, leaving a penny profit. Whitman, 62.

10 Whitman, 62.

11 Whitman, 25.

12 Whitman, 25.

13 Appel, 350.

14 Appel, 350.

15 When Bob Lurie purchased the San Francisco in1976, he wanted to introduce wine, but the Stevens Company was aghast, since it went against traditional ballpark fare.

16 That problem popped up in San Francisco as well in 1958 when the Stevens operation set up shop after the Giants move. Some local fans not only were reluctant to embrace their new club, but preferred the concessions their beloved, now-defunct Seals sold for decades.

17 Stevens took a major hit in the 1980s, when many cities forbade beer sales, a major moneymaker, before the end of the game.

18 Aramark acquired the Harry M. Stevens name in 1994.

19 Appel, 350.

20 Yankee Stadium Concessions Case Study: h​ttps:​//www​.lege​nds.n​et/ho​spita​lity/​yanke​e-sta​dium-​conce​ssion​s-cas​e-stu​dy#:~​:text​=Yank​ee%20​Stadi​um%20​Conce​ssion​s%20C​ase%2​0Stud​y%20C​ONCES​SIONS​%20GR​OWTH%​20AT,​growt​h%20f​or%20​its%2​0stan​ds%20​witho​ut%20​raisi​ng%20​food%​20pri​ces. Accessed November 21, 2022.

The White major leagues held their first All-Star Game on July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Taking place in conjunction with the Chicago World’s Fair, the game was the brainchild of Chicago’s Mayor Edward Kelly with help from the Chicago Tribune to hype the Fair and spur interest in baseball, whose fortunes had been declining during the Depression.

Around the same time, Pittsburgh writers Roy Sparrow and Bill Nunn met with Cumberland Posey of the Homestead Grays to discuss holding a Negro League all-star showcase in New York City. After no progress was made, the writers met with Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who helped initiate contact with Chicago American Giants owner Robert Cole to facilitate leasing Comiskey Park in Chicago for an all-star contest.1 The game would be known as the East-West Classic, and its players chosen via fan voting (as was the case with the NL/AL All-Star Game) with ballots provided by prominent African American newspapers.

Some thought that a joint All-Star game might be in the cards, but with segregationist Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in charge of the White major-league game, a contest between the two leagues had no chance of success.2 The East-West All Star Game organizers scheduled a September 10, 1933, matchup of their own Negro League stars in a game that led to nearly 40 contests in one format or another over 30 years.3

The inaugural game was all that had been hoped for – an 11-7 slugfest with the West team led by Mule Suttles’ homer and three RBIs and Willie Foster’s complete game.4 In subsequent years, the game would bring together a who’s who of Negro League greats and remind any follower of baseball of what might have been.

Fast forward to 1939. Black baseball’s national showcase had taken place in six consecutive years (the East and West each winning three), all at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. A June 1939 meeting in Pittsburgh of the boards of the Negro American and National Leagues approved the seventh All-Star Game to be played again in Chicago. No mention at that time was made of a second game. The August 6 contest saw the West (Negro American League) squad come from behind to win dramatically 4-2 over the East (Negro National League). The devastating loss by the East All-Stars prompted its owners to call for a rematch. According to Fay Young in the Chicago Defender:

After the West defeated the East … the owners in the Negro National League were not convinced that the West had a better team, therefore they issued a challenge to the Negro American League for a game to be played in New York on Sunday, August 27, at the Yankee Stadium, home of the New York American League club. … The game in New York will not be a second East versus West Classic but will be a game between stars of the two leagues. Many of the same players who took part in the game in Chicago will be in action. In fact, the East can hardly produce a better lineup than what was on the field on August 6. True, the home run kings of the Eastern circuit fell down – but don’t we all have off days?5

The idea of a second All-Star Game prompted by the intense rivalry of the two leagues was understandable, but why Yankee Stadium? Negro League teams in New York City had never succeeded in the way that teams in other East Coast cities had – Pittsburgh, Newark, and Philadelphia in particular. Perhaps a place like Pittsburgh, home of the Homestead Grays (and until 1938, the Pittsburgh Crawfords), would have been better. But New York was the mecca for the White major leagues and a platform from which to display the talents of Black baseball players and to confirm how deserving they were to play alongside their White peers.

In his work Black Baseball’s National Showcase, Larry Lester wrote that “the last year of the [1930s] decade proved to be a pivotal year for baseball in America, particularly Black baseball. More attention than ever was focused on the integration issue … more and more press coverage, and more campaigns questioning the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ imposed by Major League owners [to exclude Blacks from their game], continued to be front page news.”6 Bringing the best of the Negro Leagues to New York was a palpable way to shine a light on their play. In fact, the game at Yankee Stadium saw eight future Hall of Famers (Oscar Charleston, Andy Cooper, Leon Day, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes, and Willie Wells) either play, manage, or coach. And a case could be made that several others who appeared in the game should be in the Hall as well.

The Negro National League at that time included two teams from New York City – the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans – as well as one from across the Hudson River in Newark, the Eagles. The Black Yankees and Cubans finished third and seventh respectively in the Negro National League that year and three of their players, Bill Holland and Terris McDuffie of the Black Yankees and Cando López from the Cubans, were the only ones from New York teams selected. Each played in one of the two games.

Local newspapers lauded the arrival of the All-Star Game in New York, noting that “for the first time since its conception seven years ago, the East will have the opportunity to witness the Dream Game of Negro baseball, when the All-Star teams of the Negro National and American Leagues clash at Yankee Stadium Sunday, August 27th.”7

If the Negro National League owners were looking for revenge at Yankee Stadium for their earlier loss at Comiskey, they got it. The New York Daily Worker wrote, “Led by Josh Gibson, whom many big leaguers have called the greatest catcher in the game today, the Eastern All-Stars of the Negro National League pounded out a 10-2 victory over the Western All-Stars before 20,000 fans at the Yankee Stadium yesterday.”8 Gibson drove in four runs along with Bill Wright’s and Willie Wells’ two each. Three pitchers for the East split the innings equally: Bill Byrd, Terris McDuffie (in front of his hometown crowd), and Newark’s Leon Day. Although the West squad had seven hits (to the East’s 10), they could muster only single runs off Byrd in the first and McDuffie in the sixth.

Dan Burley of the New Amsterdam News wrote after the game that it “served the purpose of placing two brands of ball played by the Negro leagues on display for the first time in the East. Out West, the boys rely on old time strategy, stolen bases, squeeze plays, bunts, and sacrifices. Out here [the East], it is knock the ball out of the park and be done with it.”9

There was another element to the game at Yankee Stadium that perhaps only New York could bring. Burley wrote:

The crowd was gay and colorful, counting in its bigwigs Elks, politicians, theatrical and nightlife celebrities plus a sprinkling of Alphas [Alpha Phi Alpha], Deltas [Delta Sigma Delta], and others. Henry Armstrong, welterweight titleholder, threw the first ball, John Henry Lewis, undefeated as light-weight champion, making the attempt to catch it but dropping the ball as it crossed the plate.10

Fay Young of the Chicago Defender offered his own postgame commentary on the bigger picture, lamenting the attendance and considering the causes for such poor numbers:

New York had an East versus West game. The official paid attendance was a bit over a reported 20,000. … To have one game on a Sunday afternoon after several four team gala bills [Negro League owners would often schedule doubleheaders at venues like Yankee Stadium showcasing four different teams] naturally left the fans believing they would be paying a price for one half of what they had been getting [the ticket price was the same for one game as it had been for two and this affected attendance]. … The Chicago game taught the promoters a lesson. Of the 32,000 [in the stands at Comiskey], less than 1,500 were White baseball fans paying their way. In other words, the success of the game was made by Negro newspapers and the daily press. Even as liberal as [the White press] were here, it didn’t put people in the gate.11

Young also asserted that Negro League owner Effa Manley of the Newark Eagles did not promote the game to the African American community as well as those in the Chicago area did for their All-Star Game, hence lower attendance from the Black community. The upshot? Grand plans for a showcase event at Yankee Stadium failed to come to fruition.

In 1948, nine years later, the East-West All-Star Game returned to Yankee Stadium. After the 1939 East-West Classic, Negro League owners paired the annual Comiskey Park game with a second contest in Cleveland (1942), Washington (1946), and the Polo Grounds in New York (1947).

The period between the two Yankee Stadium Classics may have been less than a decade, but in other ways, it was an eternity. Dan Burley of the New Amsterdam News wrote in early 1948, “When [Jackie] Robinson went into big league baseball, he took the Negro League attendance at all-Negro contests with him.”12 The long-awaited breaking of the color barrier in the White major leagues had the inevitable impact of lessening interest in the Negro Leagues among its primary customer base, African Americans. And although the talent drain took some time as Black stars and emerging talent began to take roster spots on American and National League teams and in their minor-league systems, the Negro League game itself suffered. Look no further than the number of future Hall of Famers who played or managed in the 1948 game compared with 1939. Eight appeared in 1939 and only two in 1948: Willard Brown and Pop Lloyd (as manager).

Unlike 1939, when the decision to play a second game was spur-of-the-moment, the Chicago Defender reported that in 1948 “the Negro American league club owners have decided on the players who will represent them in the 16th annual East vs. West game to be played at Comiskey Park, Sunday afternoon, August 22nd. … A second game between the East and West teams, called the “Dream game,” will be played in New York that week.”13

At the first game, in Chicago, the West defeated the East 3-0. Two days later, on Tuesday, August 24, substantially the same teams met again in front of an announced attendance of 17,928 at the Stadium. Once again, as in 1939, the East made up for its earlier loss in Chicago, winning easily, 6-1.

Players from the Negro National League’s New York teams this time contributed heavily to the win. Minnie Miñoso of the hometown New York Cubans batted second and went 2-for-2. George Crowe of the Black Yankees played first and batted fifth, going 2-for-4 and scoring twice. Louis Louden (Cubans) and Marvin Barker (Black Yankees) made appearances and Dave Barnhill of the Black Yankees tossed a scoreless middle three innings. John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, who had played and managed much of his career in the New York/New Jersey area, managed the East to victory.

Several compelling storylines emerged during and immediately after the 1948 games that suggested the handwriting was on the wall for the future quality of the All-Star Games and the Negro Leagues as a whole.

The ticket from the August 24 game at Yankee Stadium made it clear which league had superiority in the pecking order between the Negro and White major leagues. On it was written:

“The Colored All-Star Game Dream Game is scheduled to be played on the Night of August 24th. In the event of RAIN, it will be played on the Night of August 25th. In the event the Yankee-Chicago [White Sox] game scheduled for the Night of August 23rd is rained out, the game will be played on August 24th, thereby postponing the All-Star Game to the Night of August 25th.”14

Although not surprising, the notation on the ticket is reminiscent of the stark inequality of an earlier era, or at least those who controlled the pocketbook.

Before the game the New Amsterdam News had written that the game was expected to draw a crowd of about 40,000.15 As it turned out, fewer than 18,000 attended, the lowest All-Star Game attendance outside of two games that had been played in Cleveland and Washington.16

The August 28 edition of the Chicago Defender noted:

Baseball fans and the general public are blaming the slump in the East versus West game attendance to politics and ticket scalping. Last year 48,112 watched the classic. Sunday 42,099 was the attendance although it was reported a few minutes before as 37,099. Leroy “Satchel” Paige drew 51,000 in the same park on Friday night August 13th. On that night fully 15,000 were unable to get inside the park. Sunday, at the East vs. West game there weren’t 15,000 on the outside.17

African Americans had now turned their eyes to the small number of Black ballplayers in the American and National Leagues. Exorbitant ticket prices and ticket scalping also drove away cost-conscious fans.18 As a result, the game’s showcase lost its luster.

The Defender’s Satchel Paige reference spoke to the exodus of its better players to Organized Baseball. In fact, Paige had pitched on Friday, August 20, in Cleveland before 78,383 fans. The Indianapolis Star wrote, “Ageless Satchel Paige shut out the Chicago White Sox with three hits last night. … The fabulous Negro hurler now has won all three of his major league starts and has a season record of five victories and only one loss. A total of 201,829 customers have jammed their way into the stands to watch Paige in his three major league starts.”19 The African American community were voting with their feet. They cared about Black baseball players, following their stars as they now competed head-to-head with their White counterparts.

On September 4, the Defender observed:

[T]he crowd was asked to stand in silent tribute to the late George Herman “Babe” Ruth [Ruth had died on August 16, eight days earlier]. No mention was made of the last Negro baseball men’s death – namely Josh Gibson [January 20, 1947], hero of many an East vs. West game; Candy Jim Taylor, manager of the East nine and of the Chicago American Giants [April 3, 1948]; Cum Posey, Homestead Grays and former secretary of the Negro National League [March 28, 1946]. Maybe they didn’t amount to much in the eyes of the owners and promoters of the game, but baseball fans wondered why.20

The lack of respect accorded to the Negro Leagues in situations like this was at least somewhat mitigated by the slowly increasing number of its players who were afforded an opportunity to help integrate the previously White major and minor leagues. However, the breaking of the color barrier brought about conflicted feelings within the African American community about Negro League baseball, its role, and its future.

In a September 1948 editorial titled “Don’t Let Negro Baseball Die!” a writer for the Pittsburgh Courier wrote:

I pride myself on being a staunch supporter of Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Roy Campanella. I’m praying that Don Newcombe, Dan Bankhead, and Sammy Jethro[e] get major league calls next year, but – for God’s sake, fans, don’t let Negro baseball die! … The way I see it, Negro fans are doing Negro baseball, future Negro stars and potential major leaguers a great injustice by withdrawing their support. For if the Negro teams are forced to curtail their activities due to inability to meet expenses, the hopes of hundreds of Negro aspirants for major league careers will be doomed. How will major league scouts be able to look over Negro material if there are no Negro teams playing?”21

In the twenty-first century, all agree that the national pastime is in a better place than it was before Jackie Robinson’s trailblazing. The 1948 East-West All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium may have helped shine a light on how much was still to be done to repair the fracture of segregation, both for baseball and beyond.

It is worth noting that in Larry Lester’s significant work on the East-West All-Star Game that in 1958 and 1961, the Negro American League, weakened now to independent minor-league status, held All-Star games at Yankee Stadium. The league disbanded after 1962.

THOMAS E. KERN was born and raised in Southwest Pennsylvania. Listening to the mellifluous voices of Bob Prince and Jim Woods in his youth, how could one not become a lifelong Pirates fan? Arriba Roberto! He now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and sees the Nationals and Orioles as often as possible. He is a SABR member dating back to the mid-1980s. With a love and appreciation for Negro League Baseball, he has written SABR bios of Leon Day, John Henry Lloyd, Willie Foster, Judy Johnson, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Louis Santop, Andy Cooper, and Buck Ewing. Tom’s day job is in the field of transportation technology.

SOURCES

Larry Lester’s Black Baseball’s National Showcase serves as the primary source of the All-Star Game statistics, supported by Seamheads.

NOTES

1 Cumberland Posey, “Posey’s Points,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 15, 1942: 16.

2 Chester Washington of the Pittsburgh Courier wrote on June 17, 1933, of a proposed “interracial” All-Star Game between the White and Negro Leagues that would “not only settle a lot of arguments, but would probably draw one of the biggest turnouts of Negro and Nordic fans in the history of the game.” Chester Washington, “Sez Ches,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 17, 1933: 15.

3 Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1962, Expanded Edition (Kansas City: NoirTech Research, Inc., 2020), 400-401.

4 Lester, 33.

5 Fay Young, “The Stuff Is Here … Past-Present-Future,” Chicago Defender, August 19, 1939: 17.

6 Lester, 116.

7 “All Star East West Game at Yank Stadium, August 27,” New Jersey Herald News, August 19, 1939.

8 “Gibson Leads Attack as East beats West, 10-2,” New York Daily Worker, August 28, 1939.

9 Dan Burley, “Power Crushes West 10-2,” New Amsterdam News, September 2, 1939: 17.

10 Burley.

11 Fay Young, “Fay Says,” Chicago Defender, September 9, 1939: 17.

12 Dan Burley, New Amsterdam News, January 3, 1948: 16.

13 “West Selects Players for the Big Game, August 22,” Chicago Defender, July 31, 1948: 24.

14 Lester, 298.

15 Swig Garlington, “40,000 Expected at Dream Game,” New Amsterdam News, August 21, 1948: 16.

16 Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 321. The Cleveland game was the second of two in 1942, two days after the Comiskey Park contest that the East had won with 44,000 fans in attendance. The game at Municipal Stadium drew just under 11,000 with the East winning again. Griffith Stadium in Washington hosted the first of the two All-Star Games in 1946, drawing a little over 16,000 compared with 44,000 at Comiskey. The East and West split the two games with each side winning in its respective region.

17 Morgan Holsey, “Scalpers and Politics Mar East-West Game,” Chicago Defender, August 28, 1948: 24.

18 Holsey.

19 “78,382 Fans See Paige Pitch Another Cleveland Shutout,” Indianapolis Star, August 21, 1948: 16.

20 “Second East versus West Game Draws 17,928,” Chicago Defender, September 4,1948.

21 Don’t Let Negro Baseball Die,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 4, 1948: 10.

In his four appearances at Yankee Stadium with the 1952 St. Louis Browns, Satchel Paige had a 2.55 ERA in 17 2/3 innings. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Yankee Stadium is considered baseball’s biggest stage, a modern marvel of concrete and steel. The fashionable frieze that encircled the top of the exterior walls added regality and panache not seen in other stadiums. Yankee Stadium was expansive enough to host larger-than-life characters like Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and George Steinbrenner, yet be intimate enough for an emotional send-off for the “luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The perpetual success of the New York Yankees between the 1920s and 1960s elevated Yankee Stadium to celebrity status in popular culture and became the place to be seen for fans and players, White and Black.

Yankee Stadium was also an important venue for Black baseball by showcasing elite Black baseball players to larger, mostly White crowds. In 1934 the Negro Leagues began hosting fundraising events, exhibition games, and the Negro League World Series games at the Stadium. Playing there gave credibility, prestige, and financial support to Black baseball players.1 With this new opportunity for Black baseball players in New York, baseball’s showman took advantage of baseball’s biggest stage.

Leroy “Satchel” Paige authored one of the most legendary careers in baseball history. He was born on July 7, 1906, and his journey from abject poverty in Mobile, Alabama, to Cooperstown, New York, is as improbable as it was mythical.2 Beginning in 1926, his professional career spanned four decades in which he traveled across the Americas, pitching for whichever team paid the most. Aside from the longevity of his career, Paige is most often remembered for his showmanship and iconic style. It paired well with his godlike precision and otherworldly speed that dominated professional baseball. Joe DiMaggio called him “the best and fastest pitcher I ever faced.”3

Paige commanded the attention of fans like no other player of his time. During his barnstorming games in the 1930s and 1940s, the reported attendance in games Paige pitched averaged 20,668.4 fans. In comparison, the average attendance in the same time frame for Yankees games was just 15,000.5 Fans were not the only admirers of Paige’s talent and success. It was reported that he singlehandedly grew Negro League ticket sales to 200,000 a season6 and as such grew the salaries of Black baseball players from the increase in gate receipts.7

The legend of Satchel Paige grew through his barnstorming tours and Negro League games, and it was Yankee Stadium that helped to bring his legend to the masses. He made 34 pitching appearances at the ballpark between 1934 and 1953. Paige started 20 of the games as a Negro Leaguer and barnstormer between 1934 and 1937. Scant newspaper accounts indicated that he pitched 107 innings, had 90 strikeouts, gave up 81 hits and 16 walks and was credited with an 11-3 record. As a relief pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns between 1948 and 1953, Paige made 13 relief appearances and one start. He pitched 33 innings, struck out 17 and gave up 22 hits and 11 walks, a WHIP of 1.00. He finished with an 0-3 record and five saves. Chronicling these games offers insight into his lifestyle and career as one of the most dominant and iconic pitchers of all time.

THE NEGRO LEAGUES AND BARNSTORMING AT YANKEE STADIUM

Paige pitched for the first time at Yankee Stadium on September 9, 1934, as a member of the legendary Pittsburgh Crawfords. The game was part of a four-team doubleheader fundraiser for Harlem’s Colonel Charles Young American Legion Post. Over 30,000 people, including hundreds who scaled the bleacher fences, were treated to a pitchers’ duel between Paige and Slim Jones of the Philadelphia Stars. At the time it was the largest crowd to watch Black baseball in New York.8

The story of his first game at Yankee Stadium began in typical Satchel Paige barnstorming fashion. Determined to arrive at the ballpark on time, Paige drove all night from Pittsburgh. He arrived in New York with little time to rent a hotel room, so he parked his car near the Stadium and slept the remainder of the evening. In the morning he was awakened by the batboy, who had been summoned by the Crawfords manager to find Paige. “I got into my uniform just in time to get that first pitch over the plate,” Paige recounted in his autobiography, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever.9

The Stars took an early 1-0 lead and Slim Jones sustained it until the eighth inning, when he fielded a bunt with runners on first and second and made the out at first instead of taking the lead runner, Oscar Charleston, who moved to third base. The next batter, Leroy Morney, drove in Charleston to tie the game. In the ninth inning, with one man on, Paige walked two batters.10 He then proceeded to strike out the final two batters, including Ameal Brooks on three swings and misses. Chester Washington recounted in the Pittsburgh Courier, “It was one of the most momentous occasions in Satchel’s life and fans gave him a real ovation for his never-say-die spirit. …”11 Paige finished the complete game with 12 strikeouts and three walks. The game was called because of darkness, ending in a 1-1 tie.

Three weeks later, on September 30, a crowd of 35,000 was treated to a rematch between Paige and Jones in another Negro League doubleheader. The game remained scoreless through six innings. The Stars scored their only run in the top of the seventh, then the Crawfords capitalized on two fielding errors and won, 3-1. Paige was sensational. He pitched a complete game and struck out seven, gave up five hits and did not issue a walk.12

Paige returned to Yankee Stadium in the fall of 1937 as member of the Paige All-Stars. Originally named the Santo Domingo Stars, this was a team of ex-Negro Leaguers who left the United States at the beginning of 1937 for better pay and societal freedom in the Dominican Republic. Paige was the ringleader of the move and recruited his Crawfords teammates, including Cool Papa Bell, Leroy Matlock, Sam Bankhead, and Josh Gibson. In a hasty response, Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee banned Paige and his team from organized Black baseball,13 only to reinstate the group in 1938.14

The Paige All-Stars traveled across the United States throughout 1937 and made their way to Yankee Stadium on September 26, in a rematch from a game the week before. On September 19 the Paige All-Stars had lost, 2-0, to young Johnny “Schoolboy” Taylor and a team of Negro League All-Stars at the Polo Grounds. Taylor threw a no-hitter; Paige gave up eight hits.

The rematch at Yankee Stadium was important to Paige, as whispers had begun to circulate that he was no longer considered the best pitcher in baseball. So in front of more than 25,000 spectators on September 26, 1937, Paige put on a clinic “with his dazzling fire-ball, baffling the Leaguers all afternoon.”15 He struck out seven over nine innings and went 1-for-4 at the plate, earning the 9-4 win. That was his last game at Yankee Stadium until 1941.

By 1941 Paige had been pitching professionally for 15 years, and the wear and tear on his arm began to show. While barnstorming through Latin America, Paige experienced a “dead arm” that forced him to return to the United States for medical treatment. He thought his career was over until the owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, J.L. Wilkinson, resurrected it.

Wilkinson had been following Paige’s career for several years. He first hired Satchel to pitch for the Kansas City Monarchs when they played against the Chicago American Giants on September 22, 1935, in Chicago. However, Paige was expected to pitch at Yankee Stadium that same day for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the team that held his contract, but chose a bigger payday. This decision, along with several others over the next three years, would further complicate Paige’s relationship with the Crawfords and his future with the team.

In 1938 Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee was forced to sell many of his assets, including Paige, whom he offloaded to the Newark Eagles. Despite the agreement with owners Abe and Effa Manley, Paige did not report to the Eagles.16 He spent the next three years barnstorming in Mexico, the United States, and Puerto Rico, absent from the public eye, but became the center of the latest Negro League controversy upon his return.

When Paige returned to the United States in 1941, Wilkinson hired him to play for his traveling team, the Baby Monarchs, with the ultimate expectation that he would play for the Kansas City team. Not surprisingly, the Manleys were furious over Wilkinson’s move, because Paige was still under contract. The Manleys retaliated by poaching Negro American League players who were under contract. Paige remained with the Monarchs, and the Manleys were allowed to keep the less-talented players they poached as compensation.

Since Paige had been away from Negro League baseball for half a decade, Wilkinson decided that his return to the Negro Leagues required much fanfare and attention. Wilkinson enlisted New York playwrights Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman to craft a momentous return for Paige. They agreed that the stage of Yankee Stadium was befitting for a man of his stature. Thus, Wilkinson loaned Paige to the New York Black Yankees for the Negro National League season opener on May 11, 1941, at Yankee Stadium.17 Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia threw out the first pitch in front of 20,000 mostly Satchel Paige fans. It was estimated that a quarter to half of the crowd was White despite the New York Giants playing at the Polo Grounds, reinforcing Paige’s influence on baseball and his ability to attract fans.18

Paige earned the complete-game victory, 5-3, for the Black Yankees. He struck out eight and gave up five hits, relying on a newly developed curveball rather than his blistering fastball to dismantle the Philadelphia Stars.

Two months later, on July 20, 1941, Paige returned to Yankee Stadium, this time as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs. The matchup was against Dave Barnhill and the New York Cubans in the first game of a Negro League doubleheader. In front of an estimated 27,000 fans, the largest crowd at Yankee Stadium that year to watch Black baseball, Paige and the Monarchs dominated the Cubans both offensively and defensively. He struck out three and went 1-for-2 at the plate but had to exit the game in the eighth inning after being hit by a pitch. The Monarchs won, 7-2.19

Paige’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1941 was on August 24 against the Newark Eagles. The game would have been otherwise a normal outing for the Monarchs and Eagles had it not been for the contentious history between Paige and the Manleys. Paige was exceptional, pitching five scoreless innings and striking out seven. He was 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored as the Monarchs beat the Eagles, 6-1.20

Paige and the Monarchs returned to Yankee Stadium in 1942 for two games, against the New York Cubans and the Homestead Grays. A crowd of 30,000 watched Paige and teammate Hilton Smith shut out the Cubans, 9-0, on August 2; the game was called in the seventh by agreement due to the lopsided score. Paige gave up the only hit in the fourth inning and was replaced by Smith in the fifth.21

Game Three of the Negro League World Series was played at Yankee Stadium on September 13, 1942. Paige and the Monarchs had built a 2-0 series lead against the Homestead Grays, winning convincingly in Washington, 8-0, and Pittsburgh, 8-4. Mayor LaGuardia was in attendance once again among a crowd of 25,000.22 This was Paige’s third pitching appearance in as many games, and it showed. He was in a jam early, giving up a two-run home run to Howard Easterling, and was replaced in third inning by Jack Matchett. The Monarchs amassed 16 hits that propelled them to a 9-3 victory and a commanding 3-0 series lead. Paige and the Monarchs went on to win the Negro League World Series, four games to one.23

In 1943 Paige and the Monarchs faced Dave Barnhill and the New York Cubans on three occasions at Yankee Stadium. On June 27 Paige coasted through five shutout innings, scattered four hits, and struck out five. The game was tied going into the seventh inning when the Monarchs scored three runs. The Monarchs won the game, 6-3, in front of 22,000 fans, the largest crowd to see Black baseball at Yankee Stadium that year.24

As was usual for Black baseball games, the reported attendance varied depending on the source. In game two of a three-game series, an estimated 20,00025 or 34,00026 spectators watched Paige face off against Dave Barnhill on August 8. Paige was not his usual self, giving up eight hits over three innings. Jack Matchett replaced him in the fourth inning, but the Cubans were relentless and won, 8-5.

The rubber match at Yankee Stadium was held on September 12. It was a masterful pitchers’ duel that capped off the Negro National League season. In the second game of the day for New York, the Cubans shut out Kansas City, 2-0. Barnhill and Paige both pitched complete games, which was uncommon for Paige late in his career. Barnhill gave up just two hits and struck out seven; Paige scattered 10 hits and struck out eight in the loss.27

In his only appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1944, Paige pitched in front of 28,000 against the New York Cubans in the second game of a doubleheader on August 26. It was promoted as the rematch between Paige and Johnny “Schoolboy” Taylor from seven years earlier. It was also the first game since Taylor’s return to Negro League baseball after he spent the previous two years working in a defense factory. Paige pitched five solid innings and struck out five to earn the 4-2 win.28

In 1945 Paige pitched twice at Yankee Stadium. On June 17, against the Philadelphia Stars, he threw six scoreless innings and retired 11 men in a row but did not factor in the decision, a 3-1 win.29 Two months later, on August 12, Paige pitched another gem, striking out eight Black Yankees and giving up four hits over six innings to lead the Monarchs to a 4-1 win.30

In 1946, his 20th year pitching professionally, Paige continued to defy Father Time, especially while pitching at Yankee Stadium. At this point in his career, Paige did not pitch complete games, but he was able to put together meaningful and efficient outings with his fastball and pitch location.

“Paige Sparkles, But Mates Lose to N.Y.” read the headline in the Pittsburgh Courier for the July 7, 1946, game between the Black Yankees and Monarchs.31 Paige pitched five innings, held the Black Yankees to two hits, struck out six, and did not give up a run. He was replaced in the sixth by Hilton Smith, who gave up four runs. Kansas City lost the game, 4-3, in 10 innings.

Three weeks later, on August 1, Paige and the Monarchs had their revenge, blanking the Black Yankees, 10-0. It was Yankee Stadium’s first Negro League night baseball game.32 Paige was sensational and efficient; in five scoreless innings, he faced 18 batters, had five strikeouts, and did not issue a walk.33 On September 15, 1946, in the final season game at Yankee Stadium, the Black Yankees won, 3-1. Paige pitched three scoreless innings in front of 11,000 fans.34

At the end of the major-league baseball season, on October 6, 1946, Bob Feller and his All-Stars battled Paige and his All-Stars before a crowd of 27,463 at Yankee Stadium. Paige and Feller each pitched five innings, and it was Paige who triumphed. He struck out four batters to Feller’s none and gave up three hits, blanking the Feller All-Stars, 4-0.35

In 1947 Paige and the Monarchs were walloped, 8-3, by the New York Cubans on August 8. Paige gave up three hits and one unearned run.36 The Monarchs returned to Yankee Stadium on August 24 to take on the New York Black Yankees in the second game of a Black Yankees doubleheader. The teams played to a scoreless tie that was called by agreement in the 10th inning.37

HIS TIME HAS COME

It seemed like a publicity stunt at the time, but when Bill Veeck signed Satchel Paige for the Cleveland Indians on July 7, 1948, on Paige’s 42nd birthday no less, he did it to give his youthful pitching staff veteran experience. Veeck said, “We are convinced he is the best available player who has a chance to help us win the pennant.”38 And that he did. Paige played a pivotal role in the 1948 World Series championship season for Cleveland and was called upon three times to pitch in relief against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

By July 21, the Indians were in first place in the American League, 3½ games ahead of the fourth-place Yankees. New York hosted Cleveland in a doubleheader. In game one, the Yankees won, 7-3, on Eddie Lopat’s complete game. In game two, run production was plentiful, and by the bottom of the sixth inning, when Paige entered the game, the Yankees were ahead 8-4. Paige was spectacular in one inning of work, holding Tommy Henrich, Yogi Berra, and Joe DiMaggio to a strikeout, a groundout, and a fly out respectively. In the top of the seventh, Cleveland cut the deficit to 8-7 and then won the game, 12-8, tying the series at one game apiece.

In the rubber match the next day, the Yankees scored six times off Bob Feller and took a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the sixth, when Paige came in. He gave up a single to Tommy Byrne and then retired Snuffy Stirnweiss, Tommy Henrich, and Charlie Keller. In the bottom of the seventh, Paige struck out DiMaggio, but DiMaggio reached first on an error by catcher Jim Hegan. Paige then retired the next three Yankees. However, Cleveland came up short and lost, 6-5.

On August 27, 1948, Cleveland visited New York for a doubleheader that was created by a rainout in May. Cleveland was a half-game ahead of the third-place Yankees and a half-game behind the first-place Red Sox. Cleveland routed New York, 8-1, in game one, and New York returned the favor in game two. Paige pitched in the bottom of the eighth inning of the second game with the Indians down 7-1 and retired the side on two fly-ball outs and a strikeout. Cleveland scored just once more in the top of the ninth and lost 7-2.

In the 1949 season, the defending World Series champions were in fourth place by June 18 when Paige made a rare start against New York ace Vic Raschi. This decision proved costly for Cleveland, which had won six games in a row. Paige walked three of the first four batters and gave up five hits and three earned runs. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that his performance “left a lot to be desired for.”39 But the loss was not squarely on Paige; the Cleveland offense failed to produce as Raschi held them to seven hits and drove in a run of his own with a triple off Paige. Paige was replaced in the sixth and suffered his fourth loss of the season.

Cleveland faced New York on July 25 riding a four-game winning streak. Paige relieved Early Wynn in the bottom of the eighth and got six consecutive fly-ball outs, securing a 4-2 victory and his fourth save of the season. This was an important game for Cleveland; the win put the Indians three games behind the Yankees. This was the last game Paige pitched at Yankee Stadium for a World Series and pennant contender. Bill Veeck sold the Indians after the 1949 season, and the new ownership offered Paige one-quarter of his 1949 salary for the coming season. Paige declined and left the majors to barnstorm.

In 1951 Paige had been receiving offers to return to major-league baseball and consulted his friend Bill Veeck for advice. Veeck asked Paige to hang tight as he had something in the works. By midsummer, Veeck had purchased the St. Louis Browns, and within a week Paige was signed. Reported attendance nearly doubled, from 293,790 in 1951 to 518,796 in 1952 after Paige’s first full season with the team, despite the Browns being the worst team in baseball.

However, when the Browns returned to Yankee Stadium with Paige on September 11, 1951, they swept the doubleheader against the eventual 1951 World Series champion Yankees, 4-3 and 6-3. In the second game of the doubleheader, Paige relieved ex-Yankee Tommy Byrne in the sixth inning. He pitched 3⅓ innings of one-hit ball and secured the 6-3 victory and his fifth save of the season.

Paige pitched in four games at Yankee Stadium in 1952. His appearances ranged from less than one inning of work to a seven-inning outing that included extra innings. The Browns were still at the bottom of the league, but when Paige pitched at Yankee Stadium, the games were competitive.

Paige’s first pitching appearance in 1952 at Yankee Stadium was on April 30. He replaced Bob Cain in the bottom of the seventh with the Browns up 8-4 and a runner on first base. Paige retired Gene Woodling, Yogi Berra, and Johnny Mize to end the inning. In the bottom of the eighth, with two outs, Paige gave up a single to Mickey Mantle, then struck out Joe Collins. He continued his dominant performance in the ninth inning, shutting down the Yankees and earning his first save of the season in the 9-4 victory. Paige allowed one hit and one walk and struck out two in three innings. On June 7 the Browns lost to the Yankees, 2-1. Paige uncharacteristically walked two Yankees in the bottom of the eighth but did not give up a run.

In his longest pitching appearance at Yankee Stadium since he pitched a complete game in a loss to Dave Barnhill on September 12, 1943, Paige replaced Stubby Overmire in the bottom of the fourth of a 4-4 game on July 12. He pitched spectacularly for seven innings as the game went into extra innings, but the Yankees offense ultimately proved too much for the lanky veteran.

In the bottom of the 11th inning, Yogi Berra singled off Paige and went to second on a bunt single to third by Gil McDougald. Gene Woodling singled to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Johnny Mize popped out to the shortstop. Then pitcher Allie Reynolds hit a single to center field that scored Berra to end the game, 5-4. It was Paige’s fifth loss of the season.

Paige made his final 1952 appearance at Yankee Stadium on August 26, another heartbreaking walk-off loss. In the ninth, with the game tied 3-3, the Browns intentionally walked Mantle, a lifetime .500 hitter in eight at-bats against Paige, to pitch to Joe Collins. Collins was 2-for-9 against Paige with three strikeouts and no home runs until he belted a line drive into the right-field stands with two Yankees aboard. It was Paige’s ninth loss of the season.40

Paige called his 1953 season the worst he ever had.41 He finished with a 3-9 record and a 3.53 ERA. It was his last full major-league season. Veeck sold the Browns in the offseason; the new ownership moved the team to Baltimore and let Paige go.

Paige made four relief appearances at Yankee Stadium in 1953 that included his shortest outing. On May 17 he replaced Don Larsen in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the game tied, 4-4. He walked Gil McDougald, then was replaced by Virgil Trucks, who got a groundout to end the inning. The Yankees won, 6-5, in extra innings.

A month later, on June 16, Paige and the Browns defeated the Yankees, 3-1. The win ended both the Browns’ 14-game losing streak and the Yankees’ 18-game winning streak. After the game Paige said, “There’s no team I like to beat better than them Yankees.”42 He pitched 1⅔ innings of shutout ball to secure the win for the Browns and earn his sixth save of the season. Paige was especially proud of this outing, saying, “I had that Mantle kid so confused he tried to bunt on a third strike. Imagine a fool thing like that. A home run hitter to bunt with two strikes on him.”43

Two days later, on June 18, Paige was not as sharp when he replaced Bob Cain in the seventh inning with the Browns down 1-0 and Yankee runners on first and second. Paige gave up an inherited run on a single by Billy Martin with the bases loaded. His afternoon was done the following inning when he was pinch-hit for. The Yankees blanked the Browns, 3-0.

Paige’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium, on September 16, 1953, came more than 19 years after his first. He replaced Duane Pillette in the bottom of the sixth with one out, the bases loaded, and a 4-1 lead. He gave up a single to Willy Miranda that scored Hank Bauer, but Johnny Mize was thrown out trying to score from second to end the inning.

Paige breezed through the seventh inning but was challenged in the eighth and ninth. The Yankees scored with two outs in the bottom of the eighth on a pinch-hit single by Mantle. Then Don Bollweg flied out. In the top of the ninth, Paige helped his cause by hitting a fielder’s choice grounder that scored Jim Dyck and increased the Browns’ lead to 5-3. In the bottom of the ninth with one out, Bill Renna hit a double to right field. Andy Carey flied out to deep center but Renna did not tag. Paige walked Irv Noren, then got Hank Bauer fly out, ending the game. It was Paige’s 11th and final save of the season and the last time he pitched at Yankee Stadium.

Paige is immortalized in the annals of baseball history for his showmanship, blistering fastball, pinpoint accuracy, and a number of apocryphal tales of his playing days. He pitched in a plethora of sandlots and ballparks throughout his career that paled in comparison to the vaunted Yankee Stadium. Each of Paige’s 34 appearances at Yankee Stadium contributed to his legendary career and demonstrated his versatility as a pitcher and tenacity as an athlete. But what stands out the most when Paige pitched in Yankee Stadium was his ability to draw a crowd and entertain the masses. The greatest showman in baseball deserved the greatest stage. And there was no greater stage in baseball than Yankee Stadium, and no greater showman than Satchel Paige.

NICK MALIAN lives with his wife and daughter in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada, where he was born and raised. Growing up in a border city, he idolized Detroit Tigers greats Cecil Fielder and Alan Trammell. As an impressionable 12-year-old, his allegiance shifted from the Tigers to the New York Yankees following their postseason dominance in 1996. He still attempts the “Derek Jeter jump-throw” (with limited success) at his weekly softball games. Nick is a pharmacist by day and amateur home chef by night. He enjoys reading anything about baseball and getting lost in science-fiction and fantasy novels.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted B​aseba​ll-referen​ce.​com, h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​alman​ac.co​m/tea​ms/ya​nkatt​e.​shtml, and the following:

Sullivan, Neil J. The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York (New York: Oxford Press, 2008).

NOTES

1 James Overmyer, “Black Baseball at Yankee Stadium: The House That Ruth Built and Satchel Furnished (with Fans),” SABR.​org, h​ttps:​//sab​r.org​/jour​nal/a​rticl​e/bla​ck-ba​sebal​l-at-​yanke​e-sta​dium-​the-h​ouse-​that-​ruth-​built​-and-​satch​el-fu​rnish​ed-wi​th-​fans/, accessed June 2022.

2 Paige’s birthdate has been reported differently at times. We use the date as provided by S​eamhe​ads.​com.

3 Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 (Avid Reader Press: New York, 2021), 707.

4 The average attendance for games Paige pitched at Yankee Stadium was determined conservatively, using the newspaper reported attendance cited in Notes 8, 12, 15, 18-22, 24, 25, 27-32, 34-37 and dividing by 20, for the number of games pitched.

5 Average attendance at Yankee Stadium for New York Yankee games was determined from h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​alman​ac.co​m/tea​ms/ya​nkatt​e.​sht​ml.

6 Larry Tye, Satchel: The Life and Times of An American Legend (New York: Random House, 2009), 63.

7 Tye, 63.

8 William E. Clarke, “30,000 Attend Four-Team Double Header at Yankee Stadium,” New York Age, September 15, 1934: 5.

9 Leroy (Satchel) Paige, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever (South Orange, New Jersey: Summer Game Books, 2018), 67.

10 Paige was known to intentionally walk the bases loaded for show. However, this was not the case in this game.

11 Chester L. Washington, “Paige Fans 12 to Shade Jones in Hot Mound Duel,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 15, 1934: 14

12 C. Augustus Austin, “35,000 Fans See Black Yankees and Pittsburgh Crawfords Defeat Chicago and Phila. At Stadium,” New York Age, October 6, 1934: 5.

13 Tye, 110-111.

14 Tye, 117.

15 “25,000 Watch Satchel Get Revenge Over All-Stars in Yankee Stadium,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 2, 1937: 16.

16 In Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, Paige said of Greenlee and the trade “Only he was selling a piece of paper and not the real stuff. Whatever happened, I didn’t pay much attention to it down in Mexico.” Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, 105.

17 Tye, 146.

18 “18,000 Thrilled as Satchel Paige Returns in Triumph in N.Y.,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 17, 1941: 16.

19 Maurice Dancer, “27,500 See KC and Paige Defeat Cubans,” Chicago Defender, July 26, 1941: 23.

20 St. Clair Bourne, “Monarchs Trounce Eagles, 6-1; Cubans Top Philadelphia, 4-3,” New York Amsterdam Star-News, August 30, 1941: 18.

21 “Paige in Form Before 30,000 Fans,” Greenville (Ohio) Daily Advocate, August 3, 1942: 5.

22 “25,000 See Monarchs Defeat Grays, 9 to 3,” New York Times, September 14, 1942: 21.

23 Dave Barr, “The 1942 Negro Leagues World Series – A Story That’s Hard to Tell,” MLB.​com/​blogs, October 29, 2013, accessed August 30, 2022, h​ttps:​//nlb​m.mlb​logs.​com/t​he-19​42-ne​gro-l​eague​s-wor​ld-se​ries-​a-sto​ry-th​ats-h​ard-t​o-tel​l-b08​5462d​2a41.

24 Wendell Smith, “Paige Stars as Monarchs Win in Yankee Stadium,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 3, 1943: 18.

25 Wendell Smith, “‘Satch’ Is Blasted Before 20,000 Fans at Yankee Stadium,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 14, 1943: 18.

26 Daniel, “Cuban Stars Defeat Monarchs and Philly,” New York Amsterdam News, August 14, 1943: 15.

27 “Barnhill Gives Up 2 Hits; Beats Satchell, 2-0,” New York Amsterdam News, September 18, 1943: 20.

28 Wendell Smith, “28,000 See Cubans Top Barons: Lose to K.C.,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 2, 1944: 12.

29 “14,000 Witness Paige Score Four Hits At Yankee Stadium, Sun,” New York Age, June 23, 1945: 11.

30 Haskell Cole, “Paige Sparkles as Kansas City Triumphs,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 13, 1945: 12.

31 Haskell Cole, “Paige Sparkles, But Mates Lose to N.Y.,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 13, 1946: 16.

32 “Paige Halts Black Yanks: Stars as Monarchs Triumph in Stadium Night Game, 10-0,” New York Times, August 2, 1946: 25.

33 “Paige Halts Black Yanks.”

34 “Black Yankees Beat Monarch Nine by 6 to 1,” New York Amsterdam News, September 21, 1946: 13.

35 “Paige’s All-Stars Rout Feller’s, 4-0,” New York Times, October 7, 1946: 25.

36 “Cubans Triumph by 8-3,” New York Times, August 9, 1947: 8.

37 “Black Yanks Win and Tie,” New York Times August 25, 1947: 20.

38 Associated Press, “Indians Sign Fabulous Satchel Paige,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July 8, 1948: 14.

39 “Raschi Subdues Indians for No. 11,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 19, 1949: 22.

40 Associated Press, “Tribe Beats A’s; Yanks Win 6-3,” Waco News-Tribune, August 27, 1952: 12.

41 Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, 233.

42 Ben Phlegar (Associated Press), “Brownies Elated at Yank-Kill,” Mt. Vernon (Illinois) Register News, June 17, 1953: 10.

43 Joe Reichler (Associated Press), “Satchel Confesses He’s Best Relief Pitcher in Game Today,” Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph, June 19, 1953: 16.

A packed crowd of 61,808 fans heard Lou Gehrig make his “Luckiest Man” speech between games of a doubleheader against Washington. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Lou Gehrig played his final game for the New York Yankees on April 30, 1939. Though only 35 years old, the Iron Horse, who played in 2,130 consecutive games, had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).1 To honor their stricken star, the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day on July 4, 1939.

The Independence Day doubleheader pitted the sixth-place Washington Senators, who entered play with a 28-42 record, 24½ games off the pace, and the three-time defending World Series champion New York Yankees, who were 51-16, 12½ games clear of the second-place Boston Red Sox. The games were overshadowed by the ceremony that took place between them. It was Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day and 61,808 fans jammed into Yankee Stadium to pay homage to the Yankees’ ailing star.

While Gehrig dressed in the clubhouse, some of his old teammates dropped in to say hello, including Mark Koenig, Wally Schang, Herb Pennock, Bob Shawkey, Benny Bengough, George Pipgras. Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Joe Dugan, Waite Hoyt, Bob Meusel, Everett Scott, and Wally Pipp, who faded away as the Yankees’ first baseman the day Gehrig took over back in 1925.2 Missing from the clubhouse was Babe Ruth. Ruth had yet to arrive and, given Ruth and Gehrig’s relationship, everyone wondered whether the Bambino would show up.

Ruth and Gehrig couldn’t have been more different. Ruth was a brash and boorish free spirit who had a casual and often defiant way of dealing with authority. He was also fun-loving and charismatic, with an ego that craved the spotlight. By contrast, Gehrig was modest and reserved, avoiding public attention. He was the consummate company man. Given these differences, it seemed unlikely that a relationship beyond the playing field would have materialized.3 However, a close relationship between the two did develop and from the very beginning it was complicated.

In the early years, Ruth was a mentor whom Gehrig idolized. Columbia Lou never believed that he could be Ruth’s equal. “The only real home run hitter that has ever lived,” Gehrig once said in reference to Ruth. “I’m fortunate to be even close to him.”4 The two developed a close relationship. Sharing confidences, eating, traveling and barnstorming together, playing cards, swapping batting tips, fishing and golfing together, Ruth and Gehrig should have grown closer with the passing years.5 Instead they grew apart and the relationship entered a period of estrangement, when each refused to speak to the other.

In the opener of the doubleheader, the Senators scored two first-inning runs in support of right-hander Dutch Leonard (8-2), who limited the Yankees to six hits and helped his own cause with a sixth-inning RBI single. Right-hander Monte Pearson (7-2) suffered the loss for Yankees, who managed a single run in the third and another in the ninth on a one-out home run by right fielder George Selkirk as the Senators hung on for a 3-2 victory.

Ruth arrived in plenty of time for the ceremony, wearing a cream-colored suit and looking tanned and rested. By the late 1930s, Ruth had ballooned to 270 pounds and was beginning to experience some health problems of his own.6

After the first game, microphones were set up behind home plate for the ceremony. Sid Mercer, dean of beat reporters covering the Yankees, served as emcee for the event. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia officially extended the city’s appreciation of the service Gehrig had given to his hometown. The mayor praised Gehrig as “the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship.”7 Postmaster General James Farley, also in attendance, concluded his remarks with “for generations to come, boys who play baseball will point with pride to your record.”8

Ruth then took a turn at the microphone. Though their relationship had been troubled, Ruth never held a grudge and seemed happy to be reunited with his old friend. In his own blustering style, Ruth gave his unqualified opinion that the 1927 Yankees were better than the 1939 edition. Summarizing his belief, Ruth said, “In 1927 Lou was with us, and I say that was the greatest ballclub the Yankees ever had.”9 The Sultan of Swat continued, “I know Lou is going to keep that stiff upper lip and he’s gonna keep on going.”10

Mercer then introduced Gehrig to the huge throng in attendance and millions listening on radios across the country. Head bowed, Gehrig stood silent until he privately whispered something to Mercer, who returned to the microphone and told the crowd and listening audience, “Lou has asked me to thank you all for him. He is too moved to speak.”11 The response to Mercer’s remark was chants of “We want Gehrig!” throughout the ballpark.12

As the chants continued, Gehrig took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped away his tears and moved toward the microphones once again. Head bowed, he spoke slowly and evenly as he delivered the most memorable farewell speech in baseball history. While no complete recording or transcript of the speech is known to exist, one commonly accepted version is as follows:

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break. Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“When you look around, wouldn’t you consider it a privilege to associate yourself with such a fine looking men as they’re standing in uniform in this ballpark today? Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”13

Like many in attendance, Ruth was moved to tears by Gehrig’s brief speech. The Babe went over to shake his old friend’s hand but impulsively put his arm around Gehrig and hugged him – ending the long-standing and petty feud between them.14 It was the first time Gehrig cracked a smile all day. As they embraced, a tearful Ruth couldn’t have imagined he would be facing a similar crowd under very similar circumstances less than a decade later.

After the ceremony, Gehrig returned to the clubhouse, where he saw right-hander Steve Sundra, who was slated to start the nightcap for the Yankees. Gehrig went to Sundra and said, “Big Steve, win the second game for me, will ya?”15

Sundra (5-0) delivered a six-hit complete game and the Yankees scored six runs in the first three innings off Venezuelan rookie right-hander Alex Carrasquel (4-6) on their way to an 11-1 victory. Selkirk paced the Yankees’ hitting attack with three hits, including a home run, while second baseman Joe Gordon drove in four runs for the Yankees. Right fielder Taffy Wright accounted for the Senators lone run with a second-inning home run.

On June 2, 1941, Gehrig died at his home.

PAUL HOFMANN has been a SABR member since 2002 and contributed to more than 25 SABR publications. Paul is the assistant vice president for the International Center at the University of Louisville and teaches in the College of Management at National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan. A native of Detroit, Paul is an avid baseball card collector and lifelong Detroit Tigers fan. He currently resides in Lakeville, Minnesota.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted B​aseba​ll-Referen​ce.​com and R​etros​heet.​org.

NOTES

1 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an incurable fatal neuromuscular disease. The disease attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons, which control the movement of voluntary muscles, deteriorate and eventually die. When the motor neurons die, the brain can no longer initiate and control muscle movement. Because muscles no longer receive the messages they need in order to function, they gradually weaken and deteriorate, resulting in paralysis.

2 John Drebinger, “61,808 Fans Roar Tribute to Gehrig: Chief Figure at the Stadium and Old-Time Yankees who Gathered in His Honor,” New York Times, July 5, 1939: 21.

3 Jonathan Eig. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 97.

4 Eig, 100.

5 Ray Robinson, “Ruth and Gehrig: Friction Between Gods,” New York Times, June 2, 1991: 394.

6 Ruth experienced the first of two heart attacks while playing golf in 1939.

7 Drebinger, “61,808 Fans Roar Tribute to Gehrig.”

8 Drebinger.

9 Eig, 315.

10 July 4, 1989-Tigers vs. Yankees (WPIX-Part 2), ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=uhU​L-f​f8​NQw (accessed August 15, 2022).

11 Rosaleen Doherty, “Wife Brave, Lou Shaken as 61,000 Cheer Gehrig,” New York Daily News, July 5, 1939: 120.

12 Doherty.

13 Transcript adapted from “Farewell Speech,” l​ougeh​rig.c​om/in​dex.p​hp/fa​rewel​l-​spe​ech/.

14 Robert Creamer, Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974), 415.

15 “Pages Out of the Past,” Atlantic City Evening Union, January 18, 1952, as cited by David Skelton, “Steve Sundra,” SABR BioProject, h​ttps:​//sab​r.org​/biop​roj/p​erson​/3c2f​6fad.