Yankee Stadium (1923)

===1923–1973===
[[File:Opening Day 1923 Yankee Stadium (baseball) LCCN2014715917.jpg|thumb|The raising of the American flag on Opening Day in 1923]]
Yankee Stadium officially opened on Wednesday, April 18, 1923, with the Yankees' first home game, against the Boston Red Sox. According to the ''[[New York Evening Telegram]]'', "everything smelled of&nbsp;... fresh paint, fresh plaster and fresh grass". At 3&nbsp;pm, the composer-conductor [[John Philip Sousa]] led the [[Seventh Regiment of New York#Seventh Regiment Band|Seventh ("Silk-Stocking") Regiment Band]] in playing ''[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]''. After a parade of the players and dignitaries, Babe Ruth was presented with a case containing a symbolically big bat. New York Governor [[Al Smith]] threw out the first pitch directly into the glove of catcher [[Wally Schang]] rather than the customary couple of feet wide. The Yankees went on to defeat Ruth's former team, the [[Boston Red Sox]], by a score of 4–1, with Ruth hitting a three-run home run into the right-field stands. Asked later for his opinion of the stadium, he replied, "Some ball yard."<ref>Slayton, Robert A. (2001), ''Empire Statesman: the rise and redemption of Al Smith'', [[Free Press (publisher)|The Free Press]], New York ({{ISBN|0-684-86302-2}}), pp. 229–230</ref>

Upon opening, [[Fred Lieb]] of the ''New York Evening Telegram'' dubbed it "The House That Ruth Built".<ref name="House"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Stout|first=Glenn|author2=Johnson, Dick |title=Yankees century: 100 years of New York Yankees baseball|year=2002|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=0-618-08527-0|pages=104|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1jgEtGJQ040C&q=Yankees%20century%3A%20100%20years%20of%20New%20York%20Yankees%20baseball&pg=PA104}}</ref> The Yankees also won their first [[1923 World Series|World Series]] during the Stadium's [[1923 Major League Baseball season|inaugural season]]. Future Yankee manager [[Casey Stengel]] hit the first post-season home run in stadium history while playing with the opposing [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]].<ref name="go">{{cite web|url=http://espn.go.com/classic/s/series_subway_moments.html|title=ESPN Classic – Great Subway Series moments|publisher=espn.go.com|access-date=September 17, 2015}}</ref><ref name="retrosheet">{{cite web|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1923/B10100NYA1923.htm|title=Retrosheet Boxscore: New York Giants 5, New York Yankees 4|publisher=retrosheet.org|access-date=September 17, 2015}}</ref> The only other teams to do so prior to the [[2006 St. Louis Cardinals]] in (the new) [[Busch Stadium]] had been the [[1909 Pittsburgh Pirates season|Pittsburgh Pirates]], who won the [[1909 World Series]] in [[Forbes Field]]'s inaugural season, and the [[1912 Boston Red Sox season|Boston Red Sox]], who won the [[1912 World Series]] in [[Fenway Park]]'s first year. The Yankees accomplished this feat yet again in the [[Yankee Stadium|New Yankee Stadium]] in the [[2009 World Series]].

The Stadium was the first facility in North America with three tiers, although the triple deck originally extended only to the left and right field corners. The concrete lower deck extended well into left field, with the obvious intention of extending the upper deck over it, which was accomplished during the 1926–27 off-season. As originally built, the stadium seated 58,000. For the stadium's first game, the announced attendance was 74,217 (with another 25,000 turned away); however, Yankees business manager [[Ed Barrow]] later admitted that the actual attendance was closer to 60,000. Regardless of what the figure was, it was undoubtedly more than the 42,000 fans who attended game five of the [[1916 World Series]] at [[Braves Field]], baseball's previous attendance record. However, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Yankees' popularity was such that crowds in excess of 80,000 were not uncommon. It was referred to as "the Yankee Stadium" (with the "s" in "stadium" sometimes lowercase) until the 1950s.

Yankee Stadium underwent more extensive renovations from 1936 through 1938. The wooden bleachers were replaced with concrete, shrinking the "death valley" area of left and center substantially, although the area was still much deeper than in most ballparks; and the second and third decks were extended to short right center. Runways were left between the bleachers and the triple-deck on each end, serving as bullpens. By 1938, the Stadium had assumed the "classic" shape that it would retain for the next 35 years. In April 1945, Yankees president [[Larry MacPhail]] announced that after the [[World War II|War]], the Yankees would install an additional tier of bleachers to increase stadium capacity to 100,000. In addition to the bleachers, he also planned to add 2,000 additional box-seats by lowering the field and shortening the distance from the backstop to home-plate from {{convert|82|to|60|ft|m}}.<ref>{{cite news |title=Enlarged Stadium to Seat 100,000 Planned by Yanks |first=Joe |last=Reichler |newspaper=Evening Independent |date=April 15, 1945 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QKULAAAAIBAJ&pg=4927,4654160&dq=phillies&hl=en }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> However, the plans fell through and the expansion did not take place.

[[File:Yankee Stadium Color 1959.jpg|thumb|260px|A pre-renovation Yankee Stadium in 1959]] Many sources incorrectly state that prior to the [[1955 Major League Baseball season|1955 season]], Yankee Stadium's [[Ballantine Brewery|Ballantine Beer]] scoreboard was sold to the Phillies for use in [[Shibe Park]]. Although the two scoreboards possessed some superficial resemblances, they differed in many details and the Yankee Stadium scoreboard remained at Yankee Stadium until 1959 when it was replaced, two years after a different Ballantine scoreboard was installed at Shibe (by then renamed Connie Mack Stadium).<ref name="Lowry">{{cite book |title=Green Cathedrals |last=Lowry |first=Philip |year=2006 |publisher=Walker & Company |isbn=978-0-8027-1608-8 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Afo5vtVTz4wC&q=green%20cathedrals&pg=PP1 }}</ref>

The stadium was owned by the Yankees until [[December 17]], 1953 when the ballclub's co-owners [[Dan Topping]] and [[Del Webb]] sold it and [[Municipal Stadium (Kansas City, Missouri)|Blues Stadium]] for $6.5 million ($57,676,180 in 2016 dollars) to [[Arnold Johnson (industrialist)|Arnold Johnson]], who also dealt the land under the ballpark to the [[Knights of Columbus]] for $2 million ($17,746,517 in 2016 dollars).{{sfn|Kauffman|1982|p=378}}<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1953/12/18/page/61/article/yankees-net-2-700-000-in-park-deals "Yankees Net $2,700,000 In Park Deals"] ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Friday, December 18, 1953</ref> After he purchased the [[Philadelphia Athletics]] and transferred the franchise to [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] on [[November 8]], 1954, Johnson sold Yankee Stadium to John W. Cox on [[March 22]], 1955.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19550323&id=D8QwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4moDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1567,6452061&hl=en "Yankee Stadium Sold To Chicago Businessman"] Associated Press, Tuesday, March 22, 1955</ref> Cox, a 1927 graduate of [[Rice University]], donated the ballpark to his alma mater on [[July 19]], 1962.<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1962/07/20/page/45/article/yanks-park-given-to-rice-by-chicagoan "Yanks' Park Given To Rice By Chicagoan"] ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Friday, July 20, 1962</ref>

In the 1966–67 offseason, during the period in which Rice owned the stadium, the concrete exterior was painted white, and the interior was painted blue.<ref>Adcock, Catherine; ''Sallyport'' (Winter 2006) [http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/2006/winter/features/Fact_Fiction2.html Rice University] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211125551/http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/2006/winter/features/Fact_Fiction2.html |date=February 11, 2012 }}</ref> The metal frieze circling the upper deck was painted white.