September 22, 2008 - I’m not a huge baseball fan but I am a fan of sports history and trivia so my interest was piqued when New York’s iconic Yankee Stadium staged its final game on Sunday to end 85 years of history.
Julia Ruth Stevens (92), daughter of legendary slugger Babe Ruth, tossed out the ceremonial first pitch in front of 54,000 nostalgic fans. Ruth hit the first home run on the stadium’s opening day in 1923
“I’m very sad to see Yankee Stadium will not be in existence any longer,” she told reporters. “I will always have memories of my father hitting towering home runs into the grandstands. He was very honored that the writers nicknamed it ‘The House that Ruth Built.”‘
According to MLB.com
Ruth Stevens still has memories of her father slamming long home runs, starting with 1927 in Yankee Stadium. And even though it’s terrible to think the ballpark has reached its final days, she understands that this moment had to come at some point.
While it was fitting for the daughter of the greatest player in franchise history to open the final game in the house her father “built,” Ruth Stevens knew the Babe would have been amused by the sight of the ball falling well short of the catcher’s glove.
When it was completed in 1923, the Bronx landmark, Yankee Stadium, cost a whopping $2.5 million. The new Yankee Stadium, to be built across the street, is estimated to cost 1.3 billion dollars!
RIP Yankee Stadium.
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