The death of baseball's cathedral

By: Neil Albstein

Posted: 10/9/08

Baseball is a game that loves its traditions. The national anthem is played before every game. A ceremonial first pitch is thrown by someone who has no business throwing a baseball. During the seventh inning stretch everyone gets up and sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Each team has its own set of traditions too, and for the past 85 years, no team has been more defined by tradition than the New York Yankees. They wear the same basic uniforms, still bereft of players' names. They memorialize their greatest players in Monument Park just beyond the field of play. And, until now, they played in the same stadium that was built as their era of dominance began.

It was called the House that Ruth Built, after the Yankees' first major star player, whose ability to draw crowds to the Yankees' previous home, the Polo Grounds, enabled the Yankees to build their new home. It was the biggest stadium in baseball, seating around twice as many fans as the average ballpark of the time. The Yankees won the World Series in their first season at the Stadium, which was a sign of things to come. In the next 84 years, the Yankees would win 25 more championships.

Many of the greatest players in baseball history would call the Stadium home. Though the Stadium was renovated in the 1970s, much of the original structure remained, and the building that is about to officially close is still much the same one that opened on April 18, 1923.

Yankee Stadium played host to no fewer than 161 postseason contests, with a total of 100 World Series games. The New York football Giants called Yankee Stadium home for 17 years. Three Popes celebrated masses there. A memorial service for the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks was held at the legendary ballpark. Perhaps the last great moment in Stadium history was the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which began with a ceremony featuring no less than 49 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Why is the most traditional franchise in baseball leaving its longtime home? The answer is simple. Greed. Granted, baseball is a business, and well it should be. Part of what has made the Yankees great throughout the 85 years of the Stadium's existence is the fact that the high profits the team earned enabled the owners, including George Steinbrenner, the man responsible for the death of Baseball's Cathedral, to spend money like water to keep the Yankees in their traditional spot atop the American League. Steinbrennar, a billionaire and the principal owner of the Yankees, was key in driving up players' salaries and has become one of baseball's most controversial figures.

The new Yankee Stadium will have fewer seats than the old Stadium. In place of these seats will be dozens of luxury boxes. The seats that remain will be more comfortable, it's true, but they will also be more expensive. The amount of retail space will be almost doubled in the new park.

And, as if that weren't enough, the new Yankee Stadium will feature two restaurants that do not even have views of the field. Babe Ruth was a big fan of restaurants, but I think he would have expected a view of the field from a stadium restaurant. What's the point of a restaurant at a baseball stadium? Money. The restaurants will make buckets of money for no reason other than the fact that they are located on the grounds of a baseball stadium. Nothing against making money, but that's pretty petty.

The Yankees are not alone in their money grabbing. My beloved Mets are guilty of the same thing, though the stadium they are leaving behind lacks the history of Yankee Stadium. The football Jets and Giants are building themselves a new stadium as well, and are sticking to their fans far worse than either baseball team, with their personal seat licenses and auctions for club seats.

With the economy in bad shape, these teams may be facing hard times. They will very likely not make the profits they expected from the new stadiums, at least at first. Tragically, though, one of the most important sites in baseball history will be lost to the greed of men who were doing just fine without the new park.