House that Ruth Built is true baseball shrine

The funny thing about Yankee Stadium is that architecturally and aesthetically, it is decidedly unspectacular, at least in its refurbished form since the mid-1970s makeover.

Virtually all of its undeniable aura and mystique come from the cumulative knowledge of all who enter, the understanding that this is a genuine baseball shrine.

More specifically, the primary allure is the ghosts that roam the building, which went up in 1923 and will be replaced, in grand and predictably ostentatious fashion, next season.

The Mariners, who finish a series at Yankee Stadium today, will make one more appearance at the House That Ruth Built, three weeks hence (May 23-25).

Oh, a select few will come back for the All-Star Game (July 15), and dreamers (which this year includes fans of both teams) can envision a postseason series there in October.

The end is in sight, however, and that is evoking considerable nostalgia for the old place. This season will be a virtual sellout at Yankee Stadium, despite some alarming signs of Yankees decline, and tickets for the regular-season finale are going for $15,000 on Internet sites. The Yankees, in typical understated fashion, have deemed this season "The Swan Song for the Cathedral."

But most of the sentimentalists acknowledge that the time for a new building has come (with a few exceptions, like noted iconoclast Jim Bouton, who told author Harvey Frommer that the Yankees should emulate the Red Sox and try to refurbish the existing facility).

A more prevalent viewpoint is that expressed by Marty Appel, who worked 20 years for the Yankees, starting out at age 19 as Mickey Mantle's fan-mail clerk and eventually becoming the public-relations director.

"I love Yankee Stadium, and it has provided so many wonderful memories," said Appel. "But I'm also a realist. I know when the current stadium was built in the mid-1970s, it wasn't with 4 million fans a year in mind.

"No one saw the baseball business going this way. Factor in fan comfort, the lines at the concession stand, restrooms, the narrow ramps down which 57,000 fans exit, and it outgrew itself. They really need a new place."

Jeff Nelson, the former Mariners pitcher who played with the Yankees from 1996 to 2000 — the modern glory years, producing four World Series titles — is somewhat torn. He remembers passing the outfield monuments every day en route to the bullpen.

"I don't know how many times I read those plaques," he said wistfully. "Like Boston, the amenities and locker room are terrible, but the nostalgia part is what is nice, and that's still there."

The new ballpark will also be called Yankee Stadium, as the Yankees ownership, to its credit, rejected offers for naming rights said to be in the $50 million range.

Lonn Trost, the Yankees' chief operating officer, has promised, "The ghosts are coming with us."

But Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio could have scarcely fathomed the luxury and party suites, restaurants, conference center and martini bar that will inhabit the new building, of which Trost said, "We tried to reflect a five-star hotel and put a ballfield in the middle."

It is being built in the Bronx, right across the street from the current stadium, at the cost of $1.3 billion (until the next overrun, at least). The old Yankee Stadium will be demolished in the spring and summer of 2009. There are plans for part of the building to remain as a museum, with a community park and youth ballfields to be built on the grounds.

What will never leave is the vast array of history that occurred on that plot of land at 161st Street and River Avenue, hard by the Harlem River. The Yankees inhabited it after the New York Giants, jealous both of the Yankees' success and the popularity of a young slugger named George Herman Ruth, booted them out of the Polo Grounds.

After considering several sites, including the grounds of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in upper Manhattan and a plot at the rail yards on the west side of Manhattan, the Yankees opted for some farm land in the Bronx they purchased from William Waldorf Astor for $565,000. Giants manager John McGraw said derisively, "They are going to Goatville, and before long they will be lost sight of."

The new ballpark went up in 284 days at the then-exorbitant price of $2.5 million. It was, from the very beginning, a sight to behold.

As Frommer, author of the upcoming book, "Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House That Ruth Built," points out: "From the very beginning, it was called a 'stadium.' No ballpark before then had ever been called a stadium. It had an aura about it.

"The plan was to build a modern-day Roman Colosseum which no one could look into except the people inside. That plan failed, because you were able to see in from the 'el' outside, and from the buildings that arose. But it was still like a fortress in the Bronx."

The list of epochal events that took place at Yankee Stadium is absolutely staggering. Yankees highlights alone include Ruth's homer in the very first game in 1923; Gehrig's "luckiest man" speech in 1939; Ruth's farewell appearance in 1947; Mantle's epic homer off the right-field facade in 1956; Don Larsen's World Series perfect game in 1956; Roger Maris' 61st homer in 1961; Reggie Jackson's three-home-run game in the 1977 World Series; the Thurman Munson tribute after his death in 1979; perfect games by David Wells and David Cone in 1998 and 1999; and the final tribute to DiMaggio in 1998 — and that's the very tip of the iceberg in an 85-year Yankees run that included 37 pennants and 26 World Series titles.

Then factor other non-Yankee sporting events, such as the Knute Rockne "Win One for the Gipper" speech in 1928; the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling heavyweight bout in 1938; the Negro leagues World Series in 1942; a classic Army-Navy scoreless tie between undefeated teams in 1946; the NFL title game between the Colts and Giants, called by some the greatest game in football history, in 1958; the last Negro leagues All-Star Game in 1961; the Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton heavyweight bout in 1976; the appearance of Pele with the New York Cosmos in 1976; and the George Brett pine-tar incident in 1983.

And then add non-sporting events such as the Nelson Mandela rally in 1990; the three appearances by popes to celebrate mass; and the "Prayer for America" service in 2001 to remember those killed Sept. 11.

Again, we're just skimming the surface. Suffice it to say that no edifice in all American sports can match — for the history made within — Yankee Stadium. May it rest in peace as it's razed to pieces.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com