Icing the House That Ruth Built?
When Yankee Stadium closes its gates in 2009, the final sound echoing across its hallowed ground won't be the crack of a Derek Jeter home run, or the roar that greets another save by Mariano Rivera.
It will be the immortal cry, "Potvin sucks!"
At least, that's what ESPN.com is reporting:
An executive with knowledge of the Yankees thinking tells 1050 ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand that the team will not stand in the way of a proposed plan for the final event at Yankee Stadium to be an NHL game.
No agreement is actually in place yet for the possible Yankee Stadium finale, but if a deal does happen, the game would likely be played on New Year's Day in 2009 and involve the New York Rangers. The opponent for the game has yet to be decided.
How would this go over with devotees of the pinstripe? Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reminds us that Yankee Stadium was never just a ballpark:
Boxers fought there, popes celebrated Mass there (with Pope Benedict XVI on deck for April 20), Jehovah’s Witnesses gathered there and U2 performed there. Knute Rockne implored Notre Dame to “win one for the Gipper” there, and Nelson Mandela declared, “I am a Yankee” there. The football Giants made it their home for a while. Pelé played there, too...
What would Jacob Ruppert have said about this? Ruppert, the old Yankees owner and Manhattan brewer, who built the Stadium with Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston, may have said, “How many cases of my Knickerbocker beer should I bring?”
(Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)
Comments
Your article was interesting about the world famous Yankee Stadium….I was there in 1955…1958 (The world’s largest religious convention that was held there and the nearby Polo Grounds for 8 days…July 27-August 3…with a peak attendance of 253,922 at both stadiums The widely advertised public address that Nathan H. Knorr then president of Watch Tower Society gave was GOD’S KINGDOM RULES…IS THE WORLD’S END NEAR?…the New York papers said this was the “best behaved convention ever held in New York city”…Delegates came from 120 countries. Mass baptism at Orchard Beach was 7,136. Not to be overlooked was the mass feeding at both stadiums over 800,000 meals cooked and serve by volunteers…the Army…Navy…and the Civil Defense came to get tips on how to mass feed people if a disaster was to come. I was there again in 1961…1963…1968 and 1973…and then in the new stadium in 1986…1988…those were the days…I was disappointed when they renovated the stadium…it just wasn’t the same anymore…
See www.divinewill1958.com for historic picture.
Yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses made history at Yankee Stadium and I was proud to be there for the ball game of life everlasting…
Thanks again…Paul E. Beerwort formerly of Philly but now in Eastman, Georgia….