TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US TO NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 18, 1923. ‘The house that Ruth built’ opened on this date in 1923. That’s what Yankee Stadium quickly became known as.
Babe Ruth came to the Yankees in 1920, the result of an infamous purchase from the Boston Red Sox. He went on to become the biggest drawing card in all of sports.
The Yankee Stadium that Ruth built, in effect, disappeared in the mid-1970's when it was completely overhauled.
Yankee Stadium was baseball’s first triple deck structure. It was also the first baseball venue to be called a “stadium.” Others were usually called “Parks” or “Fields.”
It had some interesting dimensions that changed from time to time. For most of the original stadium’s history the fences down the foul lines were quite inviting: 301 down the left and 296 down the right. Left quickly ballooned out to over 400 feet. Straight-away center-field was 461 feet from home plate. The Yankee Stadium that Ruth built, in effect, disappeared in the mid-1970’s when it was completely overhauled.
Before Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Bombers played their home games in the Polo Grounds as tenants of the New York Giants. Tenant and landlord had a falling out in 1920. The Yankees were told to leave as soon as possible. The discord was partly due to the Yankees Bronx Bombers doubling their attendance that season to almost 1.3 million fans, 100,000 more than the Giants. Babe Ruth, with his prodigious home runs, was the main attraction. So Yankee Stadium was built a quarter mile from the Polo Grounds.
The Yankees won the first of many World Championships in that inaugural year of 1923. The victim – their former landlord, the New York Giants. The Giants couldn’t wait for the Yankees to move into the house that Ruth built.