Only a year after they changed Baseball forever with the purchase of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees made another buy that would forever change the way the game was watched. On February 6, 1921, the Yankees issued a press release to announce the purchase of 10 acres of property in the west Bronx. The land, purchased from the estate of William Waldorf Astor for $675,000, sat directly across the Harlem River from the Yankees' current Manhattan home, the Polo Grounds, which they shared unhappily with the landlord Giants of the National League since 1913. The relationship between the Giants and their tenant crumbled after the 1920 season when Yankee attendance boosted by their new slugging sensation doubled to 1,289,422. That was over 100,000 more than the Giants, who, in 1921, notified the Yankees to vacate the Polo Grounds as soon as possible. With their departure from the Polo Grounds now inevitable, Yankee co-owners Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast l'Hommedieu Huston set out to build a spectacular ballpark of their own, Baseball's first triple-decked structure. With an advertised capacity of 70,000, it would also be the first to be labeled a "stadium." Original plans of the architect the Osborne Engineering Company of Cleveland, Ohio had the Stadium triple-decked and roofed all the way around. An early press release, in fact, described the Yankees' new home as a field enclosed with towering embattlements, rendering the events inside "impenetrable to all human eyes, save those of aviators." But the initial, grand design was quickly scaled back with the triple-decked grandstand not reaching either foul pole. Contrary to the owners' wishes, the action would be more than visible from the elevated trains that passed by the outfield as well as from the buildings that would spring up across River Avenue. Fortunately, a purely decorative element also survived the project's early downsizing and would become the park's most recognizable feature. A 15-foot deep copper facade would adorn the front of the roof which covered much of the Stadium's third deck. It would give Yankee Stadium an air of dignity that no park has possessed -- either before or since. The new stadium would favor lefthanded power with the right-field foul pole only 295 feet from home plate (though it would shoot out to 429 by right center). Though the left-field pole measured only 281 feet from the plate, righthanded hitters were neutralized by a 395-foot left field and a whopping 460 to left center. It would also be friendly to patrons, boasting an unheard of "eight toilet rooms for men and as many for women scattered throughout the stands and bleachers." (When the Stadium was remodeled 50 years later, it included more than 50 restrooms.) The club's executive offices would be moved from midtown Manhattan and located between the main and mezzanine decks with an electric elevator connecting them with the main entrance. The construction contract was awarded to New York's White Construction Co. on May 5, 1922 with the edict that the job must be completed "at a definite price" ($2.5-million) and by Opening Day 1923. Incredibly, it was. In only 284 working days, Yankee Stadium was ready for its inaugural game on April 18, 1923 vs. the Boston Red Sox. Officially, 74,200 fans packed Yankee Stadium for their first glimpse of Baseball's grandest facility while thousands more milled around outside after the fire department finally ordered the gates closed. Before the game began, John Phillip Sousa and the Seventh Regiment Band led both clubs to the flagpole in deep center field where the American flag and the Yankees' 1922 pennant were raised. Appropriately, Babe Ruth christened his new home with a three-run homer to cap a four-run third inning as the Yankees coasted to a 4-1 win. Because it was widely recognized that Ruth's tremendous drawing power made the new stadium possible, it would immediately become known as "The House That Ruth Built." Later that season, the Stadium hosted the first of 33 World Series and the Yankees won their first World Championship over their former landlord, the Giants. Of course, as the Stadium became the stage for a staggering number of World titles - now totaling 26 - it also would become known as "The Home of Champions." In its early years, when wooden bleachers surrounded the outfield, a grass slope approached the outfield walls from foul pole to foul pole. Outfielders, especially Ruth in right, routinely backed up the small hill to pull down fly balls. Atop the bleachers were advertising signs except for a lone, manually operated, wooden scoreboard in right-center field which was "big enough to record 12 innings for games played by every club in the two major leagues." Over the years, the board would be replaced by more modern models. The Yankees, in fact, would unveil the first electronic message board in 1959. By 1928, the Stadium was ready for its first major facelift as the triple-deck grandstand in left field was extended beyond the foul pole to its current termination point. The right-field grandstand was extended in 1937, allowing "upper-deck" home runs in both directions. With the '37 expansion of the grandstand, the remaining wooden bleachers were replaced by a concrete structure and the distance to center field dropped from 490 feet to a still-astronomical 461 feet. Except for the addition of lights in 1946, the look of Yankee Stadium would now remain relatively the same until the winter of 1966-67. Then, under the direction of its new owner, CBS, the 44-year-old facility received a $1.5-million modernization, most of which was spent on paint (90 tons of it). The brown concrete exterior was painted white as was the by-now greenish copper facade. And all of the grandstand seats went from green to blue, a color scheme that would be retained when the Stadium was completely remodeled after the 1973 season.
courtesy :http://www.yankees.com/
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