Yankee Stadium History | Baseball Almanac

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The Official History of Yankee Stadium | Baseball Almanac

On February 6, 1921, the New York Yankees announced the purchase of ten acres of property in the west Bronx. The future home of Yankee Stadium was purchased from the estate of William Waldorf Astor for $675,000. On April 18, 1923, "The House That Ruth Built" opened for business.

Yankee Stadium was a gigantic horseshoe shaped triple-decked ballpark that was the first to be called a stadium. Countless articles have been written by countless historians bringing forth every aspect of the stadium's history.

Harvey Frommer even once described its seat parts in great detail, "There were 10,712 upper-grandstand seats and 14,543 lower grandstand seats were fixed in place by 135,000 individual steel castings on which 400,000 pieces of maple lumber were fastened by more than a million screws." Research by Baseball Almanac.

"I'd give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in the first game in this new park." - Ruth, Babe. Babe's Place: The Lives of Yankee Stadium. Wagner, Michael Phillip. Author. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. 29 October 2017. Page 27.

Yankee Stadium Major League Occupant(s)
Yankee Stadium Game Related Data
	First Game	04-18-1923
	Last Game	09-30-1973
	Post-Renovation
	First Game	04-15-1976
	Last Game	09-21-2008
Yankee Stadium Game Related Data
Yankee Stadium Ballpark Capacity & Seating Chart
Yankee Stadium Capacity
Capacity Changes(Yearly Attendance)	1923	58,000
	1926	62,000
	1927	82,000
	1928	67,113
	1929	62,000
	1937	71,699
	1942	70,000
	1948	67,000
	1958	67,205
	1961	67,337
	1965	67,000
	1971	65,010
	1976	54,028
	1977	57,145
	1980	57,545
Yankee Stadium Capacity
Yankee Stadium Ballpark Diagram & Dimensions
Yankee Stadium Dimensions
Backstop	1923	82'
	1953	80'
	1976	84'
Left Field	1923	280.58'
	1928	301'
	1976	312'
	1988	318'
Left Field (Short)	1923	395'
	1928	402'
	1976	387'
	1985	379'
Left Field (Deep)	1923	500'
	1924	490'
	1937	457'
	1976	430'
	1985	411'
	1988	399'
Center Field	1923	487'
	1937	461'
	1967	463'
	1976	417'
	1985	410'
	1988	408'
Right Field (Deep)	1923	429'
	1937	407'
	1976	385'
Right Field (Short)	1923	350'
	1937	367'
	1976	353'
Right Field	1923	294.75'
	1930	295'
	1939	296'
	1976	310'
	1988	314'
Yankee Stadium Dimensions
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium Items of Interest
Monuments:	468' Home Plate to Wall In Back
Owned By:	1923	New York Yankees
	1971	City of New York
Field Surfaces	1923	Ryegrass
	1933	Merion Bluegrass
	1947	Kentucky Bluegrass
Yankee Stadium Items of Interest
Yankee Stadium History | Baseball Almanac

The architect who designed "The Yankee Stadium" (which was its original name) was Osborn Engineering (1923) and Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury (1976). The construction was done by White Construction Company in 1923, at the cost of $2.5 million, and the renovation in 1976, cost $160 million.

In the first Yankee Stadium (pre-1976) there were actually three centerfield monuments in fair territory; Lou Gehrig on the left, Miller Huggins in the middle and Babe Ruth on the right. Since the 1976 renovation the New York Yankees have added many plaques and the comprehensive chart below includes all plaques and dedications:

Monument Park

Monument	Dedication
Miller Huggins	05-30-1932
Jacob Ruppert	04-19-1940
Lou Gehrig	07-06-1941
Babe Ruth	04-19-1949
Ed Barrow	04-15-1954
Pope Paul VI	10-04-1965
Joe DiMaggio	06-18-1969
Mickey Mantle	06-18-1969
Joe McCarthy	04-29-1976
Casey Stengel	04-30-1976
Pope John Paul II	10-02-1979
Thurman Munson	09-20-1980
Elston Howard	07-21-1984
Roger Maris	07-21-1984
Phil Rizzuto	08-04-1985
Billy Martin	08-10-1986
Lefty Gomez	08-01-1987
Whitey Ford	08-01-1987
Bill Dickey	08-21-1988
Yogi Berra	08-21-1988
Allie Reynolds	08-27-1989
Don Mattingly	08-31-1997
Mel Allen	07-25-1998
Bob Sheppard	05-07-2000
Reggie Jackson	07-06-2002
9/11 Victims	09-11-2002
Ron Guidry	08-23-2003
Red Ruffing	07-10-2004

Did you know that underneath second base in Yankee Stadium there was (removed in 1976) once a brick vault fifteen feet wide that contained electrical, telephone and miscellaneous equipment for boxing events?

Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today.

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