Yankee Stadium: Remebering a Legendary Ballpark

The #1 sports venue on the planet, the House that Ruth built, Yankee Stadium, is now closed. Yankee Stadium lasted from 1923-2008 and so many legendary moments and players took that field. Baseball fans everywhere have lasting memories of events in that ballpark both good and bad. Watching Yankee legends return to the field last night for one last time was touching and emotional for baseball fans everywhere.
Yogi Berra trotted onto the field, Babe Ruth's 92-year old daughter threw out the first pitch, Willie Randolph sprinted onto the field and slid into second base, Bernie Williams was the last legend introduced and his ovation was extraordinary, and all the other players or their relatives marching onto the field. Famous moments were played over and over, Lou Gehrig's speech, Aaron "bleeping" Boone's home run in 2003 stuck out the most to me. 26 World Series were won here, 9 clinched in the actual stadium. Perfect games no-hitters, epic home runs were a common e! vent at the stadium. Concerts, boxing matches and other events were all showcased at Yankee Stadium as well.
Although ESPN's coverage beginning at 1 p.m. was very excessive, I did watch a lot of it switching between that and football. Just seeing legends from all over baseball history speak about their experiences was very cool. Not just Yankees fans and players had memories here, the entire baseball world has. The last epic game played at Yankee Stadium was actually Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS when the Boston Red Sox completed their incredible comeback against the Yankees to advance to the World Series and eventually win their first title in 86 years. This was not a fond memory for the Yankee Empire, but was an epic game held in the Bronx nonethless. Derek Jeter's speech after the game was extremely moving, watching Rivera, Posada, Jeter, and Pettite march around together was amazing as well. These longtime Yankees enjoying their last moments in Yankee Stadium toget! her. Rivera recording the last out, Jeter being pulled with 2! outs in the ninth to get a standing ovation, and Jose Molina of all players to hit the final home run in Yankee Stadium all come to mind when thinking of the actual game itself. The one element missing for me was the greatest manager in Yankee's history Joe Torre. Obviously, Torre is managing the Dodgers and could not be there. But, this just brings me back to the horrible mistake made by the Steinbrenner's in parting ways with Joe last offseason. The Yankees have not missed October since 1993, then the first year without Torre, the Yankees find themselves golfing while their arch nemises in Boston go for a second straight championship.
All in all, last night was a night that will never be forgotten in the baseball world. Next year, the Yankees will be playing in a state of the art stadium conveniently called Yankee Stadium. But for all those who had the opportunity to view the spectatcle of the real Yankee Stadium know that things will never be the same. Yankee Stadium ! is no more, 85 years of legendary baseball will soon turn to dust, but the memories will live on forever.