Summary

A nostalgic and reverent look at The House That Ruth Built -- the most famous and historic baseball stadium in professional sports Relive 85 years of memories in Yankee Stadium with a DVD highlighting the Golden Age of Yankee stadium, exclusively produced for Yankee Stadium: A Tribute and narrated by legendary Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. Since its opening in 1923, Yankee Stadium has been the scene of 26 championship titles and some of the greatest achievements in baseball history, including Babe Ruth's 60th home run during the 1927 season, the race fro the home run title between teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, Jim Abbott's 1993 no-hitter, and Aaron Boone's 2006 game-winning run against the Red Sox to clinch the American League Championship Series. Yankee Stadium: A Tribute is a celebration of this great landmark and its history, a beautiful piece of nostalgia for the missions of fans who have visited baseball's most celebrated ballpark. The House That Ruth Built was the stage for scores of other athletic events, including football and boxing. It has played host to some of the world's most important cultural events, including the first papal mass in North America in 1965 and the first memorial service for the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Yankee Stadium: A Tribute -- written with the cooperation of key Yankee players from the past and present -- celebrates this great monument and the unforgettable events of its 85-year history.

Magical Moments
The Babe Wallops a Record 60	p. 8
DiMaggio Streaks to 56	p. 12
Reynolds Tosses Double No-Nos	p. 16
The Mick's Mighty Blast	p. 20
Maris One-Ups the Babe	p. 24
Yankee Doodle Dandy	p. 28
Abbott's Superhuman Feat	p. 32
Still Plenty Good	p. 36
What Happened? Perfection!	p. 40
Cone Replicates Perfecto	p. 44
400 and Counting	p. 48
October Classics
A Wild Finish	p. 54
The First Three-peat	p. 58
It's Yankees in a Thriller	p. 62
Bombers Broom the Phils	p. 66
Bauer Triples the Fun	p. 70
High Five	p. 74
Larsen's Masterpiece	p. 78
Chambliss' Pennant-Winning Pop	p. 82
Mr. October	p. 86
Nice Glove, Kid!	p. 90
Yankees Gallop to Title	p. 94
Yanks Restore New York Pride	p. 98
Boone Prolongs the Curse	p. 102
Stadium Milestones
Ruth Christens Yankee Stadium	p. 108
Night Ball in the Bronx	p. 112
The Stadium Gets a Face Lift	p. 116
Four Million Strong	p. 120
A Showcase for the Stars
A Doomed Gehrig Bids Farewell	p. 126
New York's All-Star Cast	p. 130
Babe Ruth Day	p. 134
So Long, Babe	p. 138
Saluting the Mick	p. 142
An All-Star Game at the Bronx Zoo	p. 146
Farewell, Captain	p. 150
A Day for Scooter	p. 154
A Final Tribute for Joltin' Joe	p. 158
Four for Five for No. 2	p. 162
Not Just Baseball
One for the Gipper	p. 168
Louis' Nazi Knockout	p. 169
Billy Graham's Bronx Crusade	p. 171
The Greatest Game of All	p. 172
Sermon on the Mound	p. 173
To the Moon, Norton!	p. 174
Honoring Victims and Heroes	p. 175
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Excerpts

Yankee Stadium: A Tribute
85 Years of Memories: 1923-2008

Chapter One

Magical Moments

The Babe Wallops a Record 60

September 20, 1927

The House That Ruth Built is the most lasting of the many nicknames accorded Yankee Stadium over the years. And for good reason—nobody was better than Ruth at filling the seats of that stadium or the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees played before the advent of Yankee Stadium. Ruth drew fans like ants to a picnic.

Ruth's 1927 season is one reason why so many wanted to push through the turnstiles to see the Sultan of Swat hit one of his tremendous home runs. Not only did he hit long ones, but he hit plenty of them. In 1921, he established an American League record—breaking his own mark of 54 set in 1920—by hitting 59 homers. But succeeding years saw him hit 35, 41, 46, 25, and 47, making the 50 Home run plateau appear to be a far away land that Ruth could no longer reach.

Still, Ruth reigned as the best player in the major leagues. Not only had he belted 47 home runs in 1926, but he also hit .372. And, heading into 1927, Ruth and the sports world knew that he would be hitting in the middle of what many believe to be the most powerful lineup in baseball history. Among this collection of hitters were Bob Meusel, Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, and the amazing Lou Gehrig, otherwise collectively known as Murderer's Row.

Heading into the final month of the season, Ruth appeared as though he would once again breathe the magic air of 50 home runs, as he had accrued 43 by the end of August. Nobody expected what happened next.

Ruth began to hit home runs like never before. September belonged to the Bambino, and his home run total climbed. With four games left, he had 56 home runs. Number 57, a grand slam, came in game 151 of the 155-game season (one tie had to be replayed). In the Yankees' next game against the Senators, he hit his 58th and 59th homers in a game where he flirted with four home runs. Unfortunately for Ruth, one of the hits went to the deep right-center field, where it hit the bottom of the wall. By the time the Senators returned the ball to the infield, Ruth had made it to third base with a triple. Had he pulled the ball even a little, it would have left the playing field. In his final at-bat, Ruth hit a deep drive to right field that came up a couple of feet short before being caught. The calendar now showed two games remaining in the season, and Ruth's ledger showed him one home run shy of 60.

The Yankees had 108 wins to their credit, with two games remaining, when they hosted the Senators at Yankee Stadium. They had already won the pennant, and the World Series sat on the horizon. Only one question remained in the thoughts of those sitting in the stands and dugouts at the hallowed ballpark: Can he do it? Could Ruth reach 60 home runs?

By the time he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, Ruth had walked, collected a single to deep right field in the fourth inning, and cracked another single in the sixth. Suspense filled the ballpark when Senators pitcher Tom Zachary looked in for the sign. In all likelihood this at-bat would be Ruth's last chance to break his home run record, at least for that day.

Ruth took a called strike on the first pitch before taking one at the letters to make the count 1-I. Surely Ruth would go down swinging in an attempt to knock one out of the park.

Zachary delivered his third pitch. A fastball came in low and inside. Ruth took a huge swing. He did not miss. Nobody in Yankee Stadium had any doubts that the ball had the distance to reach the right-field seats; only the accuracy of the drive was in doubt, as it curled toward foul territory. The ball landed a foot inside the right-field foul line and midway to the top of the bleachers.

"Foul ball! Foul ball!" Zachary yelled, arguing with the umpire to no avail.

Ruth rounded the bases much to the approval of the unusually sparse crowd of approximately 10,000, which tossed confetti and hats into the air. The salute continued when Ruth ran out to right field in the top of the ninth, as the crowd waved handkerchiefs. Ruth basked in the attention.

"Sixty," the Babe would say later. "Count 'em, 60. Let's see some other SOB match that."

A crowd of 20,000 showed up at Yankee Stadium the next day, hoping to see Ruth add one more to his new home run record. Unfortunately, he went 0-for-3, with a strikeout in his final at-bat of the regular season, to leave the single-season home run mark at 60—a high bar that would not be broken until three decades later, when Yankee Roger Mans famously broke the record.

Yankee Stadium: A Tribute
85 Years of Memories: 1923-2008. Copyright © by Les Krantz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Yankee Stadium: A Tribute: 85 Years of Memories: 1923-2008 by Les Krantz
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.