The Cathedral of Baseball (Spring 2023 | Volume: 68, Issue: 2)

The Cathedral of Baseball

AH article image

Authors: Bruce Watson

Historic Era: Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Historic Theme:

Subject:

Spring 2023 | Volume 68, Issue 2

yankee stadium
Built in 1923 and demolished in 2010, the original Yankee Stadium was one of the most famous venues in the U.S., known as the "Cathedral of Baseball" and the "House that Ruth Built." Library of Congress

Editor's Note: Bruce Watson is a writer, historian, and contributing editor of American Heritage. You can read more of his work on his blog, The Attic.

The Bronx, February 14, 1922 — A beefy man steps into a lumber yard frosted with snow. Wielding a hefty bat, he takes off his overcoat and turns to face a reporter. The reporter throws ball after ball, and Babe Ruth slugs them deep, deep over the snowy expanse. The House that Ruth Built, still a blueprint, but not a ballpark, has been christened.

A century of Aprils ago, the New York Yankees opened a ballpark like none before or since.

A century of Aprils ago, the New York Yankees opened a ballpark like none before or since. With its towering tiers, copper frieze, and galactic dimensions, Yankee Stadium was “the cathedral of baseball.” Hosting heroes from Babe Ruth to Mickey Mantle, from Pelé to Muhammad Ali, plus boxing matches, papal masses, and more, Yankee Stadium was an American institution.

These days, stadiums are funded by taxpayers, but brewer Jacob Ruppert bankrolled the biggest ballpark in America with $2.5 million ($34 million today) in cash. Play ball!

yankee stadium aerial view
Requiring two million pounds of steel and costing $2.5 million, Yankee Stadium could seat nearly 70,000 people, double the number of more traditional ballfields of the time. National Park Service

The son of German immigrants, Ruppert turned down college to wash barrels in his father’s brewery. Rising to eventually run the brewery, he later served in Congress. By 1912, he was looking to buy a baseball team. He turned down the Cubs, couldn’t get the Giants, had to settle for the game’s lowliest team.

Playing in Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan, the New York Highlanders had a long string of losing seasons. Dynasty? Hah!

But Ruppert saw possibilities and bought the team in 1915. Four years later, in a deal we Red Sox fans will NEVER forgive, he bought a franchise named Babe Ruth.

Pennants, home run records, and crowds followed. But the Yankees had to share the Polo Grounds with the hated Giants.

In late 1921, when the Giants raised his rent, Ruppert went looking for land. He considered north Harlem and the West Side before finding a ten-acre lumberyard in the Bronx.

Christened by Ruth’s home runs in the snow, Ruppert’s park broke ground in May 1922. Over the next ten months, 500 workers hoisted two million pounds of steel, poured 45,000 barrels of cement, and outlasted heavy rains and a railroad strike. On April 18, 1923, the park was ready.

Here was the first ballpark to be called a “stadium.” Here was a field of dreams.

Fans began streaming in at noon. Twenty thousand were