The Nation: Yankee Stadium Shuts Down

The New York Yankees not only closed the season last week losing their final game to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 8-5, they closed their ballpark along with it. The loss of the game is theirs, but Yankee Stadium belongs to the American past. The park is not slated to fall, but will undergo a two-year refurbishing that will install new seats, remove the iron pillars that have blocked the spectators’ view since the stadium opened in 1923, and completely redesign the playing field. The City of New York has undertaken the job for the Yankees, and must complete it by the opening of the 1976 season to ensure that the team will keep its home in New York. The team’s owners swear the Yankees have not the slightest intention of moving to another town, but eager fans with long memories were not so sure. So they yanked out rows of wooden seats, tore signs from walls, and scooped up souvenir clumps of grass to take home. Fittingly enough, first base went to Mrs. Lou Gehrig in honor of her husband who once guarded it so well, and home plate went to Mrs. Babe Ruth, whose husband minced across it triumphantly so many times.