title: Carnegie Hall

text: Due to the limited space available on the land lot, the construction of Zankel Hall required excavating of additional basement space, at some points only under the Stern Auditorium's parquet level. The excavations descended up to below the original space's floor and came as close as to the adjacent subway tunnel. This also required the removal of twelve cast-iron columns holding up the Main Hall. In its place, a temporary framework of steel pipe columns, supporting I-beam girders and thick Neoprene insulation pads, was installed. JaffeHolden Acoustics installed the soundproofing, which filters out noise from both the street and the subway. An elliptical concrete wall, measuring wide, surrounds Zankel Hall and supports the Stern Auditorium. The elliptical enclosure measures long and wide. The walls are sloped at a 7-degree angle and contain sycamore paneling. The lighting and sound equipment is mounted from twenty-one trusses.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall is named after Sanford I. Weill, a former chairman of Carnegie Hall's board, as well as his wife Joan. This auditorium, in use since the hall opened in 1891, was originally called Chamber Music Hall and was placed in the "lateral building" east of the main hall. The space later became the Carnegie Chamber Music Hall, and the name was changed to Carnegie Recital Hall in the late 1940s. The venue was renamed after Joan and Sanford I. Weill in 1986, reopening in January 1987.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The recital hall is served by its own lobby, which contains a pale color palette with red geometric metalwork. Prior to a 1980s renovation, it shared a lobby with the main auditorium. The Weill Recital Hall is the smallest of the three performance spaces, with a total of 268 seats. The orchestra level contains 196 seats in fourteen rows, while the balcony level contains 72 seats in five rows. The modern-day recital hall contains off-white walls and blue seats. In the mid-20th century, the recital hall was decorated with red and gold, which was replaced in the 1980s with Palladian arches similar to those in the hall's original design. A proscenium arch made of plywood, as well as a paneled wall behind the stage, were installed after the recital hall's completion but were removed in the 1980s to improve acoustics. The room has three chandeliers, which also amplify the room's acoustics.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: A boiler room was placed under the sidewalk on Seventh Avenue. A small electric generation plant for 5,300 lamps was also planned. At the ground level of the main hall, stores were installed in the 1940s. The storefronts, as well as a restaurant at the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, were removed in a 1980s renovation. Originally, there was a 150-seat dining room on the ground level below the Chamber Music Hall. Above the dining room, but below the venue itself, were parlors, cloak rooms, and restrooms.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Above the Chamber Music Hall was a large chapter-room, a meeting room, a gymnasium, and twelve short-term "lodge rooms" in the roof. The 56th Street side of Carnegie Hall was designed with rooms for the choruses, soloists, and conductors, as well as offices and lodge rooms. On the roof of the 56th Street section were janitors' apartments. Three elevators, two on the 57th Street side and one on the 56th Street side, originally served the building. The addition at the corner of 56th Street and Seventh Avenue was arranged with offices, studios, and private music rooms.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The eighth floor of the main hall, which contained studios, was installed after the complex was completed. There were a total of 133 or 150 studios, many of which doubled as living quarters. Over the years, personalities such as Leonard Bernstein, Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Norman Mailer lived in the studios. The spaces were designed for artistic work, with very high ceilings, skylights and large windows for natural light. Documents showed that Andrew Carnegie had always considered the spaces as a source of income to support the hall and its activities. After 1999, the space was re-purposed for music education and corporate offices. In 2007, the Carnegie Hall Corporation announced plans to evict the 33 remaining studio residents, including celebrity portrait photographer Editta Sherman and fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. The last resident, poet Elizabeth Sargent, moved out during 2010.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The building also contains the Carnegie Hall Archives, established in 1986, and the Rose Museum, which opened in 1991. The Rose Museum is east of the first balcony of the Stern Auditorium and has dark makore and light anigre paneling with brass edges, as well as columns with brass capitals, supporting a coffered ceiling. The Rose Museum space is separated from two adjacent rooms by sliding panels.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The idea for what is now Carnegie Hall came from Leopold Damrosch, the conductor of Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society. Though Leopold died in 1885, his son Walter Johannes Damrosch pursued his father's vision for a new music hall. While studying music in Germany in 1887, the younger Damrosch was introduced to the businessman Andrew Carnegie, who served on the board of not only the Oratorio Society but also the New York Symphony. Carnegie was originally uninterested in funding a music hall in Manhattan, but he agreed to give $2 million after discussions with Damrosch. According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the Music Hall was "unique in that it was free of commercial sponsorship and exclusively dedicated to musical performance". At the time, New York City's performance halls were mainly clustered around 14th Street, while the area around 57th Street was still mostly residential.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: In early March 1889, Morris Reno, director of the Oratorio and New York Symphony societies acquired nine lots on and around the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 57th Street. William Tuthill had been hired to design a "great music hall" on the site. The Music Hall, as it was called, would be a five-story brick and limestone building, containing a 3,000-seat main hall with and several smaller rooms for rehearsals, lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions. "The New York Times" said "The location for the music hall is perhaps rather far uptown, but it is easily accessible from the 'living' part of the city." The Music Hall Company was incorporated on March 27, 1889, with Carnegie, Damrosch, Reno, Tuthill, and Stephen M. Kneval as trustees. Originally, the Music Hall Company intended to limit its capital stock to $300,000, but this was increased before the end of 1889 to $600,000, of which Carnegie held five-sixths. The cost of the building was then projected to be $1.1 million, including the land.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: By July 1889, Carnegie's company had acquired additional land, with frontage of on 57th Street. The architectural drawings were nearly completed and excavations for the music hall had been completed. The Henry Elias Brewery owned the corner of Seventh Avenue and 56th Street and originally would not sell the land, as its proprietor believed the site had a good water source. Plans for the Music Hall were filed in November 1889. Andrew Carnegie's wife Louise laid the cornerstone for the Music Hall on May 13, 1890. Isaac A. Hopper and Company was the contractor in charge of building the Music Hall. The "Real Estate Record and Guide" praised the building's design as "harmonious, animated without restlessness, and quiet without dullness." In February 1891, Damrosch announced that he had created a subscription fund for a "permanent orchestra" that would perform mainly in the new Music Hall.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The Recital Hall opened in March 1891 for recitals of the New York Oratorio Society. It was around this time that tickets for the official opening of the Music Hall were being sold. The oratorio hall in the basement opened on April 1, 1891, with a performance by Franz Rummel. The Music Hall officially opened on May 5, 1891, with a rendition of the Old 100th hymn, a speech by Episcopal bishop Henry C. Potter, and a concert conducted by Walter Damrosch and Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. During the performance, Tuthill looked at the crowds on the auditorium's top tiers and reportedly left the hall to consult his drawings. He was uncertain that the supporting columns would withstand the weight of the crowd in attendance, but the dimensions turned out to be sufficient to support the weight of the crowd. Tchaikovsky considered the auditorium "unusually impressive and grand" when "illuminated and filled with an audience". The "New York Herald" praised the auditorium's acoustical qualities, saying "each note was heard". The Music Hall had cost $1.25 million to construct and was the second major performance hall in New York City, after the Metropolitan Opera House.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: In May 1892, the stockholders of the Music Hall Company of New York discussed expanding the Music Hall into the site of a brewery at Seventh Avenue and 56th Street, which they had purchased about three months previously. The Music Hall Company also discussed enlarging the main auditorium's stage so it could accommodate operas. By that September, the Music Hall's stockholders planned to enlarge the hall to accommodate operatic performances, following a fire that severely damaged the Metropolitan Opera House. At the time, Morris Reno said the stage could not be modified until at least early 1893. The Music Hall Company filed plans for alterations in December 1892. The plans called a tower of about at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 56th Street. In addition, the original building's mansard roof would become a flat roof, and the seventh story would be converted into a full story.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The Philharmonic Society moved into the Music Hall in November 1892, drawing further crowds. The studios atop the building were constructed shortly afterward, from 1894 to 1896. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts moved into the basement recital hall in 1896, leasing the basement recital hall for the next fifty-four years. Also during the mid-1890s, the Music Hall was renamed Carnegie Hall for its main benefactor. According to Carnegie Hall archivist Gino Francesconi, the renaming occurred "so that it shouldn't be confused by European artists with a vulgar music hall". During the early 20th century, Carnegie Hall accommodated many recitals and concerts because of its acoustic qualities.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Carnegie Hall officials renovated the building in 1920, replacing its porte-cochère, overhauling the Philharmonic Society's office, and removing staircases for about $70,000. By late 1924, the Carnegie Foundation was considering selling the hall to a private developer because of increasing financial deficits, which amounted to $15,000 a year. At the time, the site was valued at $2.5 million, and another performance venue in midtown, Aeolian Hall, had been sold for redevelopment. In February 1925, Carnegie's widow sold the hall to a real estate developer, Robert E. Simon. The sale agreement included a clause requiring that either Carnegie Hall would continue to operate as a performance venue for at least the next five years, or another performance venue would be erected on the site. Simon said the hall would continue to operate for as long as it was profitable, and he wished to restore the basement recital hall as well.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Under Simon's ownership, a new organ was installed in Carnegie Hall and dedicated in December 1929. Robert Simon died in 1935. Murray Weisman succeeded Simon as president of Carnegie Hall's board of directors, while the late owner's son Robert E. Simon Jr. became the vice president. A bust of the senior Simon was installed in the lobby in 1936.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The main hall was modified around 1946 during filming for the movie "Carnegie Hall". A hole was made in the stage's ceiling to allow the installation of ventilation and lights for the film. Canvas panels and curtains were placed over the hole, but the acoustics in the front rows became noticeably different. In 1947, Robert E. Simon Jr. undertook renovations of the hall. The work was carried out by New York firm Kahn and Jacobs.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: By the 1950s, changes in the music business prompted Simon to sell the hall. In April 1955, Simon negotiated with the New York Philharmonic, which booked a majority of the hall's concerts each year. The orchestra intended to move to Lincoln Center once it had been built (at the time, plans to build it were still at an early stage). Simon notified the Philharmonic that he would terminate the lease by 1959 if it did not purchase Carnegie Hall. In mid-1955, longtime employee John Totten organized a fundraising drive to prevent the demolition of Carnegie Hall. Meanwhile, the Academy of Dramatic Arts had moved out of the basement recital hall in 1954. The Academy's former space was rented for the time being to other tenants.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Simon sold the entire stock of Carnegie Hall, Inc., the venue's legal owner, to a commercial developer, the Glickman Corporation, in July 1956 for $5 million. With the Philharmonic ready to move to Lincoln Center, the building was slated to be replaced by a 44-story skyscraper designed by Pomerance and Breines. The replacement tower would have had a red facade and would have been constructed on stilts, with art exhibits and other cultural facilities at the base. However, Glickman was unable to come up with the $22 million that the construction budget for the skyscraper called for. This, combined with delays in Lincoln Center's construction, prompted Glickman to decline an option to buy the building itself in July 1958.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Meanwhile, soon after the sale, Simon started planning how to preserve the hall, and approached some of its resident artists-in-residence for help. Violinist Isaac Stern enlisted his friends Jacob M. and Alice Kaplan, as well as J. M. Kaplan Fund administrator Raymond S. Rubinow, for assistance in saving the hall. In 1959, two hundred residents of Carnegie Hall's studios were asked if they wanted to buy the building. Stern, the Kaplans, and Rubinow ultimately decided that the best move would be for the city government to become involved. The move gained support from mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., who created a taskforce to save Carnegie Hall in early 1960, but Simon and his co-owners still filed eviction notices against some studio tenants. The same year, special legislation was passed allowing the city government to buy the site from Simon for $5 million, and Simon used the money to establish Reston, Virginia.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The city leased the hall to the Carnegie Hall Corporation, a nonprofit organization formed to run the venue. For 15 years, the Carnegie Hall Corporation paid the New York City government $183,600 in cash, Afterward, the corporation started paying the city through benefit concerts and outreach programs. Carnegie Hall was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. The landmark status was certified in 1964, and a National Historic Landmark plaque was placed on the building. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission also designated Carnegie Hall as a city landmark in September 1967.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: A minor renovation of Carnegie Hall's interior, as well as a steam-cleaning of the facade, took place in mid-1960. The basement recital hall became a movie theater called the Carnegie Playhouse. A screen was installed at the front of the former stage, while the balconies and side galleries were sealed. The Carnegie Hall Cinema opened in May 1961 with a showing of the film "White Nights" by Luchino Visconti. Carnegie Hall received a concert organ from the Netherlands in 1965, although the stage had to be renovated before the organ could be installed. The installation of the organ was delayed several times, as opponents feared that the changes would damage the hall's acoustics. Meanwhile, Carnegie Hall was profitable by the late 1960s, having consistently hosted about 350 shows a year during that decade.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Carnegie Hall became a more popular destination in the 1960s and 1970s, in part because of complaints over acoustics in the new Philharmonic Hall. The deficiencies with Carnegie Hall's facilities became more prominent after the latter's renovation. Carnegie Hall began to deteriorate due to neglect, and the corporation faced fiscal deficits. By the mid-1970s, the venue suffered from burst pipes and falling sections of the ceiling, and there were large holes in the balconies that patrons could put their feet through. At the same time, operating costs had increased from $3.5 million in 1977 to $10.3 million in 1984, and the deficits had also risen accordingly. Carnegie Hall's equipment included a rundown air-conditioning system that did not work in the summer.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: In 1977, the Carnegie Hall Corporation decided to stop allowing new residents for its upper-story studios; existing residents were allowed to continue living there. The studios were instead offered mainly to commercial tenants, who could afford to pay higher rents. This prompted protests from the existing tenants. In 1979, the board of Carnegie Hall Corporation hired James Stewart Polshek and his firm, Polshek Partnership, to create a master plan for Carnegie Hall's renovation and expansion. Polshek found that Carnegie Hall's electrical systems, exits, fire alarms, and other systems were not up to modern building codes. The next year, the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the New York City government signed a memorandum of understanding, which would permit the development of the adjacent site to the east, a parking lot. In 1981, the federal government gave Carnegie Hall $1.8 million for the renovation; the city and Astor Foundation had previously given $450,000.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The first renovations started in February 1982 with the restoration and reconstruction of the recital hall and studio entrance. The lobby was lowered to street level, the box office was relocated behind the main auditorium, and two archways were added to the 57th Street facade. A new lobby and dedicated elevator for the recital hall was also created. The Carnegie Hall Corporation was also looking to develop a vacant lot immediately east of Carnegie Hall. The renovation was complicated by the fact that some parts of the original plans had been lost. A controversy also emerged when the Carnegie Hall Corporation started evicting longtime tenants of the hall's upper-story studios, particularly those who refused to pay steeply increased rents. The first phase of the renovation was completed in September 1983 for $20 million. A second phase included upgrades to mechanical systems, such as air-conditioning and elevators.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: As part of the third phase of renovations, a recording studio called the Alice and Jacob M. Kaplan Space was built within the old chapter room on the fifth floor, directly above the main hall. The Kaplan Space opened in March 1985. The corporation announced in May 1985 that the main hall and recital hall would be closed for several months. The corporation also started a fundraising drive to raise the $50 million needed to fund the renovation; more than half of the funding had already been raised at the time. A new structure designed by César Pelli, later to become the Carnegie Hall Tower, was planned for the lot immediately east of Carnegie Hall. Further upgrades, which required the main and recital halls' closure, included upgrades to both halls, the lobby, the facade, backstage areas, and offices. The lobby was lowered to street level and doubled in size.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the proposed renovation in July 1985. Renovation work began afterward. The project was complicated by the need to schedule construction around performances, the lack of a freight elevator, and the requirement that materials be replaced with close or exact replacements. In April 1986, Carnegie officials announced their intent to sublease the vacant lot to Rockrose Development for the construction of Carnegie Hall Tower. The following month, the hall closed completely for a seven-month renovation. The hall's plaster decorations were restored, although the carpeting and seats were replaced. That November, Carnegie Hall announced it would rename the recital hall after Joan and Sanford I. Weill, who not only were major donors to the renovation but also enlisted other donors to fund the project. The Weill family had donated $2.5 million, more than any other donor in the hall's history.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The main hall (including the Stern Auditorium) was reopened on December 15, 1986, with a gala featuring Zubin Mehta, Frank Sinatra, Vladimir Horowitz, and the New York Philharmonic. The Kaplan Rehearsal Space was also created in 1986, and the Weill Recital Hall opened in January 1987. A month after the main hall reopened, "New York Times" music critic Bernard Holland criticized its acoustics, saying: "The acoustics of this magnificent space are not the same." The Weill Recital Hall also received complaints about its acoustics, prompting Carnegie Hall officials to test out noise-absorbing panels in that space. Several noise-absorbing panels were installed in the main hall in 1988, but complaints continued for several years. Critics alleged there was concrete underneath the stage, but Carnegie Hall officials denied the allegations. Isaac Stern offered to disassemble the stage on the condition that the critics pay for the repairs if no concrete was found. Polshek Partners won the American Institute of Architects' Honor Award in 1988 for its renovation of the hall.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: During the late 1980s, Carnegie Hall had begun collecting items for the opening of a museum in the under-construction Carnegie Hall Tower. The Rose Museum was founded in April 1991, with its own entrance at 154 West 57th Street. The East Room and Club Room (later renamed Rohatyn Room and Shorin Club Room, respectively) were created the same year. Though the East and Club rooms were in Carnegie Hall Tower, they were connected to the original Carnegie Hall. This represented the first new space added to Carnegie Hall since the studios were added in the late 1890s. At the parquet level, Cafe Carnegie was also renovated.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The stage of the main hall had begun to warp by the early 1990s, and officials disassembled the stage in 1995, where they discovered a slab of concrete. John L. Tishman, president of Tishman Realty & Construction, which had renovated the stage in 1986, alleged that the concrete was there before the renovation. The concrete was removed in mid-1995 while Carnegie Hall was closed for the summer; soon afterward, critics described a noticeable change in the acoustics.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: In the basement, the Carnegie Hall Cinema operated separately from the rest of Carnegie Hall until 1997, when the hall's management closed the cinema, along with two shops on Seventh Avenue. In late 1998, Carnegie Hall announced that it would turn the basement recital hall into another performance venue, designed by Polshek Associates. The project was to cost $50 million; the high cost was attributed to the fact that the work would require excavations under the basement while concerts and other events were ongoing. In recognition of a $10 million grant from Arthur and Judy Zankel, the new space was renamed after the Zankels in January 1999; the auditorium proper was named after Judith Arron, who donated $5 million. Construction took place without disrupting performances or the nearby subway tunnel. Zankel Hall had been planned to open in early 2003, but the opening date was postponed due to the city's economic difficulties after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The excavations also raised the budget to $69 million.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: In June 2003, tentative plans were made for the Philharmonic to return to Carnegie Hall beginning in 2006, and for the orchestra to merge its business operations with those of the venue. However, the two groups abandoned these plans later that year. Zankel Hall opened in September 2003. Music critic Anthony Tommasini praised Zankel Hall's flexibility, though he said "the builders did not quite succeed in insulating the auditorium from the sounds of passing trains". Architecturally, the space was described by critic Herbert Muschamp as "a luxury version of a black-box theater, the hall has the feel of a broadcasting studio, which it partly is". Though Zankel Hall's large capacity was highly publicized, it was only reconfigured once in its first two and a half years of operation. The Stern Auditorium's stage was renamed in March 2006 after Ronald Perelman, who had donated $20 million to Carnegie Hall.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Carnegie Hall Corporation announced in 2007 that it would evict all the remaining tenants of its upper-story studios so the corporation could convert the space into offices. By 2010, the last tenant had moved out. In 2014, Carnegie Hall opened its Judith and Burton Resnick Education Wing. The new wing houses 24 music rooms, one of which is large enough to hold an orchestra or a chorus. The $230 million project was funded with gifts from Joan and Sanford I. Weill and the Weill Family Fund, Judith and Burton Resnick, Lily Safra and other donors, as well as $52.2 million from the city, $11 million from the state, and $56.5 million from bonds issued through the Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York. The American Institute of Architects gave an architectural award to the project in 2017.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Carnegie Hall closed temporarily in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. The hall reopened on October 6, 2021, with a performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Subsequently, Carnegie Hall announced that it would return to hosting a full schedule of programming during the 2022–2023 season.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Symphony No. 9, opus 95, "From the New World" by Antonín Dvořák, performed on December 16, 1893, was the first world premiere at Carnegie Hall. By the 1900s, conductors such as Richard Strauss, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Camille Saint-Saëns, Alexander Scriabin, Edward Elgar, and Sergei Rachmaninoff were staging or performing their own music at Carnegie Hall. In its early years, Carnegie Hall hosted the New York Philharmonic and Symphony, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphonic Orchestra, and other visiting orchestra companies. In particular, the Boston Symphony Orchestra regularly performed at Carnegie Hall after its first concert in 1893, and Leopold Stokowski of the Philadelphia Symphonic Orchestra regularly performed at the hall for six decades.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The hall also hosted recitals by solo performers such as pianists Arthur Rubinstein and Mieczysław Horszowski, who both debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1906 and continued performing there until 1976 and 1989, respectively.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The hall's lobbies are adorned with signed portraits and memorabilia from various performers. The NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, frequently recorded in the Main Hall for RCA Victor. On November 14, 1943, the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein had his major conducting debut when he had to substitute for a suddenly ill Bruno Walter in a concert that was broadcast by CBS. In late 1950, the orchestra's weekly broadcast concerts were moved there until the orchestra disbanded in 1954. Several of the concerts were televised by NBC, preserved on kinescopes, and have been released on home video.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Carnegie Hall was desegregated from its opening, in contrast to other music venues like the National Theatre, which remained segregated well into the 20th century. Sissieretta Jones became the first African-American to sing at Carnegie Hall on June 15, 1892, less than a year after the hall opened.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The hall was used for popular music as early as 1912, when James Reese Europe's Clef Club Orchestra performed a "proto-jazz" concert there. Many legendary jazz and popular music performers have also given performances at Carnegie Hall including Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Keith Jarrett, Judy Garland, Harry Belafonte, Charles Aznavour, Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Robeson, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, James Taylor, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, all of whom made recordings of their concerts there. The Benny Goodman Orchestra gave a sold-out swing and jazz concert on January 16, 1938, with guest performers such as Count Basie and members of Duke Ellington's orchestra.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Rock and roll music first came to Carnegie Hall when Bill Haley & His Comets appeared in a variety benefit concert on May 6, 1955. Rock acts were not regularly booked at the Hall however, until February 12, 1964, when The Beatles performed two shows during their first trip to the United States. Promoter Sid Bernstein convinced Carnegie officials that allowing a Beatles concert at the venue "would further international understanding" between the United States and Great Britain. Two concerts by Led Zeppelin were performed on October 17, 1969. Since then numerous rock, blues, jazz and country performers have appeared at the hall every season. Some performers and bands had contracts that specified decibel limits for performances, an attempt to discourage rock performances at Carnegie Hall. Jethro Tull released the tapes recorded on its presentation in a 1970 Benefit concert, in the 2010 re-release of the "Stand Up" album. Ike & Tina Turner performed a concert April 1, 1971, which resulted in their album "What You Hear is What You Get". The Beach Boys played concerts in 1971 and 1972, and two songs from the show appeared on their "Endless Harmony Soundtrack". Chicago recorded its 4-LP box set "Chicago at Carnegie Hall" in 1971.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: European folk dance music first came to Carnegie Hall when Tanec performed a concert on January 27, 1956, becoming the first dance company from Yugoslavia to perform in America.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The 2015–2016 season celebrated the hall's 125th anniversary and the launch of a commissioning project of at least 125 new works with "Fifty for the Future" coming from Kronos (25 by female composers and 25 by male composers).


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The hall has also been the site of lectures, including the Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture by Booker T. Washington, and the last public lecture by Mark Twain, both in 1906. The hall was also used for commencement ceremonies, including those of the City College of New York, the New York Law School, as well as the Juilliard School.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: , the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall is Sir Clive Gillinson, formerly managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra. Gillinson started serving in that position in 2005.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: The hall's operating budget for the 2008–2009 season was $84 million. For 2007–2008, operating costs exceeded revenues from operations by $40.2 million. With funding from donors, investment income and government grants, the hall ended that season with $1.9 million more in total revenues than total costs.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: It emerged in 1986 that Carnegie Hall had never consistently maintained an archive. Without a central repository, a significant portion of Carnegie Hall's documented history had been dispersed. In preparation for the celebration of Carnegie Hall's centennial in 1991, the management established the Carnegie Hall Archives that year. The historical archival collections were renamed the Carnegie Hall Susan W. Rose Archives in 2021, after a longtime trustee and donor to the Archives and Rose Museum.


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Rumor is that a pedestrian on Fifty-seventh Street, Manhattan, stopped Jascha Heifetz and inquired, "Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "Yes," said Heifetz. "Practice!"


title: Carnegie Hall

text: This joke has become part of the folklore of the hall, but its origins remain a mystery. Although described in 1961 as an "ancient wheeze", its earliest known appearances in print date from 1955. Attributions to Jack Benny are mistaken; it is uncertain if he ever used the joke. Alternatives to violinist Jascha Heifetz as the second party include an unnamed beatnik, bopper, or "absent-minded maestro", as well as pianist Arthur Rubinstein and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Carnegie Hall archivist Gino Francesconi favors a version told by the wife of violinist Mischa Elman, in which her husband makes the quip when approached by tourists while leaving the hall's backstage entrance after an unsatisfactory rehearsal. The joke is so well known it is often reduced to a riddle with no framing story. According to "The Washington Post", the joke "shows how firmly the building [...] has lodged itself in American folklore".


title: Carnegie Hall

text: Other stories have been attributed to the folklore of Carnegie Hall. One such story concerns a performance on the unusually hot day of October 27, 1917, when Heifetz made his American debut in Carnegie Hall. After Heifetz had been playing for a while, fellow violinist Mischa Elman mopped his head and asked if it was hot in there. Pianist Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, replied, "Not for pianists."


title: Carnegie Hall

text: While the Elman/Godowsky anecdote was confirmed to be true, other accounts about Carnegie Hall may have been apocryphal in nature. One such story involved violinist Fritz Kreisler and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, who were supposedly performing a Beethoven sonata when Kreisler lost track of what he was playing. After a few minutes of improvisation, Kreisler allegedly asked "For God's sake, Sergei, where am I?", to which Rachmaninoff was said to have responded, "In Carnegie Hall."


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Herbert Richard Baumeister (April 7, 1947 – July 3, 1996) was an American businessman and serial killer. A resident of the Indianapolis suburb of Westfield, Indiana, Baumeister was under investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars. Police found the remains of eleven men, eight identified, on Baumeister's property. Baumeister committed suicide after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was later linked to a series of murders of at least twelve men along Interstate 70, which occurred in the early to mid-1980s.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Herbert Baumeister was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the oldest of four children born to Herbert and Elizabeth Baumeister. His childhood was reportedly normal but he began exhibiting anti-social behavior by the onset of adolescence, playing with dead animals and urinating on a teacher's desk. In his teens, Baumeister was diagnosed with schizophrenia but did not receive further psychiatric treatment.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: In 1965, Baumeister attended Indiana University for a semester before dropping out, but returned in 1967. In 1972, he attended a semester at Butler University. As an adult, Baumeister drifted through a series of jobs, marked by a strong work ethic but also by increasingly bizarre behavior.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Baumeister married Juliana "Julie" Saiter in November 1971, a union that produced three children. Julie later said they had been sexually intimate only six times in over 25 years of marriage. In the 1970s, Baumeister was committed to a psychiatric hospital by his father; his wife said he was "hurting and needed help."


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Baumeister founded the successful Sav-A-Lot thrift store chain (two stores total) in Indianapolis in 1988.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: By the early 1990s, investigators with the Marion County Sheriff's Department and the Indianapolis Police Department began investigating the disappearances of gay men of similar age, height, and weight in the Indianapolis area. In 1992, they were contacted by a man named Tony Harris claiming that a gay bar patron calling himself "Brian Smart" had killed a friend of his, and had attempted to kill him with a pool hose during an erotic asphyxiation session. Harris eventually saw this man again in August 1995, following his car and noting his license plate number. From this data, police identified "Brian Smart" as Herb Baumeister.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Investigators approached Baumeister, told him he was a suspect in the disappearances, and asked to search his house. Both Baumeister and his wife, Julie, refused to allow a search of their property. By June 1996, however, Julie had become sufficiently frightened by her husband's erratic behavior that, after filing for divorce, she consented to a search. The search of the estate, Fox Hollow Farm, was conducted while Baumeister was on vacation. It turned up the remains of eleven men, eight of whom were identified. The eight identified victims were John Lee Bayer, Richard Douglas Hamilton, Steven S. Hale, Allen Wayne Broussard, Jeffrey A Jones, Manuel Resendez, Roger Allen Goodlet, and Michael Frederick Kiern.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: With a warrant out for his arrest, Baumeister fled to Ontario, where he committed suicide at Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron by shooting himself in the head. In his suicide note, he described his failing marriage and business as his reason for killing himself. He did not confess to the murders of the men found in his backyard. Hamilton County Coroner's office has requested anyone with missing family members from the mid-1980's to mid-1990's to complete a DNA test in an effort to help identify victim remains.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Baumeister would posthumously be suspected of killing twelve other men, the bodies of whom were found in rural areas along the corridor of Interstate 70 between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, during the early to mid 1980s. One eyewitness identified Baumeister as the man seen leaving a bar in 1983 with Michael Riley, who was later found dead. Like the other victims, Riley was strangled to death and deposited nude or semi-nude in a river.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: The A&E television series "Investigative Reports" aired an episode about Baumeister titled "The Secret Life of a Serial Killer" in 1997. History featured the case in their "Perfect Crimes" series. The case was also featured on "The Investigators" on TruTV in 2008, "Behind Mansion Walls" on Investigation Discovery (ID), "Paranormal Witness" on Syfy in 2012, and "Ghost Adventures" in May 2014. An independent documentary film titled "The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm" also explores the crimes and the possibility of hauntings on the grounds of Baumeister's former estate.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: ID featured the case again on the series "True Nightmares", in October 2015. The "Crime Junkie" podcast released an episode on Baumeister on March 4, 2018. The "Monster Presents: Insomniac" podcast released a two-part episode about the case on June 27, 2019. The All Things Comedy Mexican podcast "Leyendas Legendarias" released an episode where they talked about the case on October 14, 2020.


title: Herb Baumeister

text: Georgia Hardstark covered the case on the podcast, "My Favorite Murder," in episode 67- Live at the Egyptian Room, during a live performance in Indianapolis, and is included on the List of My Favorite Murder episodes.


title: The Long Ballad

text: The Long Ballad (Chinese: 长歌行), also known as Chang Ge Xing, is a 2021 Chinese historical series based on the 2011 manhua of the same name by Xia Da. It is directed by Zhu Ruibin and stars Dilraba Dilmurat, Leo Wu, Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning. Set against the backdrop of the Tang dynasty, during the reigns of Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong, the drama tells the story of an imperial princess who seeks revenge for her family, and in doing so, her fate interwines with that of a tribal prince. Although it features many real historical figures, most of the relationship between the characters and plotlines are fictional.


title: The Long Ballad

text: The story takes place in the political center of Chang'an in the year 626 C.E of the Tang Dyanasty, revolving around Li Changge, the daughter of Li Jiancheng, the Crown Prince of Tang.


title: The Long Ballad

text: However, her peaceful life turns upside down after her family was brutally murdered during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, a coup d'état instigated by her uncle, who is known afterwards as Emperor Taizong. Traumatized by the sudden loss of her family and the betrayal of her uncle, Li Changge's anguish evolves into a burning intent for vengeance.


title: The Long Ballad

text: With her mind firmly fixed on revenge, she sets off on a journey to overthrow Taizong. Along her way, she unexpectedly meets Ashile Sun, who is later revealed to be the valiant general of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and Tegin of the Eagle Division. Through countless events, their fates become increasingly intertwined, and together they soon discover the forces working behind the scenes that could jeopardise the safety and peace of everything they love.


title: The Long Ballad

text: "The Long Ballad" is based on Xia Da's comic "Chang Ge Xing", which was published from 2011 to 2016. The comic has received numerous awards such as the Golden Dragon Award for Best Girls' comic and the Newcomer Award at the first Sino-Japanese Youth Exchange Cartoon Festival.


title: The Long Ballad

text: "The Long Ballad" is available for streaming on Netflix, YouTube and Viu with English & Turkish subtitles (only on YouTube).


title: The Long Ballad

text: "The Long Ballad" is very well received by both at home and overseas. According to the distributors of the series, it scored 9.4 points out of 10 on the popular streaming site Viki, propelling it to the top of the charts for new Chinese series during its premiere week. Additionally, the first 20 episodes of the series has accumulated over 20 million views online as of April 6, 2021, just a little over three weeks of its airing.


title: Feras Antoon

text: Feras Antoon (; born 29 June 1975) is a Syrian-Canadian pornographer, and the co-owner and CEO of MindGeek, the world's largest pornography company, which runs sites including YouPorn and Pornhub. He created his first porn website in the early 2000s before co-founding Brazzers, which specialized in the MILF segment of porn distribution, which depicts sexually attractive older women. He and David Tassillo later bought Manwin (MindGeek) from Fabian Thylmann.


title: Feras Antoon

text: Feras Antoon was born on 29 June 1975 in the city of Damascus, Syria, before immigrating to Canada. A resident of Montreal, he graduated with an engineering degree from Montreal's Concordia University.


title: Feras Antoon

text: In the early 2000s, with four other recent Concordia engineering graduates, he created his first porn website for Mansef Productions. The company was run by Stéphane Manos, and Antoon would become his brother-in-law.


title: Feras Antoon

text: Their first porn company, Brazzers, was set up in about 2005 by Ouissam Youssef, Matt Keezer, Stephane Manos, and Feras Antoon with the company name being an allusion/homage to their mainly Middle Eastern origins, and their pronunciation of "Brothers". Brazzers focused on the sexualization of MILFs. According to Antoon, "At first, they focused on busty women, because the big tits niche was so cheap. They realized that the MILF niche – the older-women niche – is even bigger. And they became masters of the big-tit-MILF niche". Further expansion led to sites including YouPorn, before all the businesses were sold to German businessman Fabian Thylmann for an estimated $140 million.


title: Feras Antoon

text: In January 2011, commenting on paid and free ("tube") porn sites, Antoon said, "I personally have one or two memberships, and I still go to the tubes. I get my appetizer on the tubes, my main course on one of the sites."


title: Feras Antoon

text: Following his extradition from Belgium to Germany in 2012, on charges of tax evasion, Fabian Thylmann, the owner of Manwin (which changed its name to MindGeek in 2013) sold the company to its two senior managers, Antoon and COO David Tassillo, for a reported €73 million. Antoon is the CEO of MindGeek (formerly Manwin), which in 2014 was described as a "porn monopoly".


title: Feras Antoon

text: By 2016, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in Montreal had executed search warrants and obtained cease-trade orders for 13 people, with allegations of insider trading including Antoon, David Baazov, Josh Baazov, and John Chatzidakis.


title: Feras Antoon

text: Antoon lives in Montreal, Canada. He is married to Nicole Manos, a Canadian of Greek descent. The couple have two sons. Nicole is the daughter of George Manos and Louise Laberge Manos (1952–2017). His brother Mark Antoon is a vice-president of MindGeek. Antoon's Can$19-million dollar mansion in the 'Mafia Row' neighbourhood of Montreal burnt down in a suspected arson on 26 April 2021.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Joseph William Gilgun (born 9 March 1984) is an English actor known for several roles, including that of Vinnie O'Neill in the Sky One series "Brassic", Marcus in Hollyoaks Eli Dingle in the ITV soap opera "Emmerdale", Jamie Armstrong in the long-running ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" , Woody in the film "This Is England" (2006) and its subsequent spin-off series, and Rudy Wade in E4's "Misfits". From 2016 to 2019, he starred in the AMC television adaptation of the Vertigo comic "Preacher" as the Irish vampire Cassidy.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun was born in Chorley, Lancashire, to Judith and Andrew Gilgun. He grew up in Rivington, Lancashire, as part of a working-class family with his two younger sisters, Jennie Seddon and Rosie Thomson. Gilgun attended Rivington VA Primary School and Southlands High School. He has dyslexia and ADHD, which he describes as the "biggest pain of [his] life" and in interviews has openly discussed depression and anxiety. He started drama workshops at the age of eight, following advice from an educational psychologist, and was described as having "exceptional talent". He also trained at the Laine Johnson Theatre School and the Oldham Theatre Workshop. When he was 10, he got his first TV acting role in "Coronation Street". He stayed with the show until he was thirteen years old.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun studied A Levels at Runshaw College.Outside of odd jobs and a few roles in small theatre productions, Gilgun worked as a plasterer until returning to acting full-time with "Emmerdale" in 2006.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: As a child actor, Gilgun played little tearaway Jamie Armstrong in "Coronation Street" between 1994 and 1997. He left the soap when the actress playing his on-screen mother left the show. Gilgun revisited the set in an ITV special "The Kids from Coronation Street" in 2004. In 1998, when he was 14 years old, he presented a feature on "Wish You Were Here...?" where he visited Phantasialand, one of Germany's largest theme parks.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun took a break in his teens, acting part-time in local and national stage productions including the Salford-based "Hanky Park the Musical" at The Lowry. He played Charlie Millwall in a critically acclaimed tour of the stage play "Borstal Boy", which ended at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun found the break from acting difficult, telling "The Guardian" in December 2011 that "[I] went off the fucking rails" and became confused about what to do with his life. He ended up working as a plasterer.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: He returned to acting full-time in 2006, when he won the roles of both trouble-prone Eli Dingle in long-running soap opera "Emmerdale" and kind-hearted skinhead Woody in "This Is England", his debut as a film actor. "This Is England" was released in the UK on 27 April 2007 and subsequently won several awards including a BAFTA for Best British Film in 2008.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In 2007, Gilgun starred alongside welterweight boxing champion Michael Jennings in a locally produced feature-length documentary entitled "Chorley: Where People Go to Fight". All proceeds went to Derian House Children's Hospice, with Gilgun helping to present the cheque. Additionally, he appeared in a Dingle-centred episode of "Ghosthunting with..." hosted by Yvette Fielding.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun was granted time off from "Emmerdale" to shoot the 2009 British crime thriller "Harry Brown", where he played drug dealer Kenny Soames. Gilgun announced he would leave "Emmerdale" on 10 November 2009, feeling the time was right to move on. His last appearance was on 30 April 2010. An Emmerdale representative said the programme had not ruled out a future return for the character. Gilgun later indicated he currently had no such plans.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun reprised the character of Woody for three Channel 4 TV spin-off series of "This Is England", called "This Is England '86". and "This is England '88" and "This Is England '90", which aired in September 2010, December 2011 and 2015 respectively. In 2010, "This is England" writer-director Shane Meadows referred Gilgun to star in longtime collaborator Paul Fraser's music video for the song "Dead American Writers" by Tired Pony.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: On 9 May 2011, it was announced that Gilgun had been cast as newcomer Rudy Wade in the third series of "Misfits". The character Rudy can manifest a clone of himself that roughly represents his conscience. He appeared in the first episode of the third series in late October 2011. He replaced as lead the character of Nathan following the departure of Robert Sheehan. An online short called "Vegas Baby" covered Nathan Young's exit and Rudy's arrival. Gilgun said that replacing Sheehan had "been frightening... You'd think that it'd be a total ballache, what with being new and stuff and Rob doing such a good job".


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In the following years, Gilgun appeared in the 2012 American science fiction film "Lockout", co-written and produced by Luc Besson and starring Guy Pearce, the 2013 BBC series "Ripper Street" as a Fagin-type character, Carmichael, as well as starring in the final two series of "Misfits". He appears in the music video for "Tiny Legs" by Then Thickens, released in 2014. Having been friends with a few members of the band from growing up around Chorley, Joe agreed to star in the video. It involved him having makeup, flour and eggs applied to his face amongst other things and took several, messy takes to get right.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In 2015, Gilgun played Ellic in Breck Eisner's "The Last Witch Hunter" alongside Michael Caine, Vin Diesel, and Elijah Wood.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In March 2015 Gilgun earned the role of drug-addicted, Irish vampire Cassidy, one of the main characters in the AMC series "Preacher". Speaking of the casting of Gilgun, "Preacher" executive producer Seth Rogen said: "It's one of those things that happens only a few times throughout your career, where you just go 'Oh, it's you. You're the character that is written on the page'... You could tell Joe's lived like 100 lifetimes, and he's probably done some shit you do not want to hear about, but at the same time, he's one of the most fun, loving people you'll ever be around. And it was exactly what the character needed to be."


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In Spring 2015, Gilgun both filmed the pilot episode of "Preacher", as well as "The Infiltrator", a 2016 crime thriller film starring Bryan Cranston.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun was part of the main cast of all four series of "Preacher" which premiered on 22 May 2016 and concluded on 29 September 2019. Additionally, Gilgun was also an executive producer of the show, producing half of its third series and all of its fourth.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: In 2019, Gilgun created, executive produced, and starred in the Sky One comedy series "Brassic". Gilgun stars as Vinnie, a working-class petty criminal living in Northern England. The six-episode series premiere on 22 August 2019. The series was well-reviewed and received a second series renewal before the first series had aired. The show's third series was broadcast in October 2021. Filming for "Brassic's" 4th series has started in August 2021, and is expected to debut in 2022.


title: Joe Gilgun

text: Gilgun has developed a close relationship with his co-stars from the "This Is England" stories, referring to them in interviews as "the gang".


title: Joe Gilgun

text: He has opened up in podcasts and various media sources about his bipolar disorder and the effects that has had on his life. He has stated that many of the stories within the show "Brassic" are based upon his life.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The original Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees, one of the city's Major League Baseball franchises, from 1923 to 2008, except for 1974–1975 when the stadium was renovated. It hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the home of the New York Giants National Football League (NFL) team from 1956 through September 1973. The stadium's nickname, "The House That Ruth Built", is derived from Babe Ruth, the baseball superstar whose prime years coincided with the stadium's opening and the beginning of the Yankees' winning history. It has often been referred to as "The Cathedral of Baseball".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The stadium was built from 1922 to 1923 for $2.4 million ($34.4 million in 2022 dollars). Its construction was paid for entirely by Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, who was eager to have his own stadium after sharing the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants baseball team the previous ten years. Located only a half-mile (0.8 km) north of the upper Manhattan location of the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium opened for the 1923 season and was hailed at the time as a one-of-a-kind facility in the country. Over the course of its history, Yankee Stadium became one of the most famous venues in the United States, having hosted a variety of events and historic moments during its existence. While many of these moments were baseball-related—including World Series games, no-hitters, perfect games, and historic home runs—the stadium also hosted boxing matches, the 1958 NFL Championship Game (referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played"), college football, concerts, Jehovah's Witnesses conventions (see record attendance), and three Papal Masses. The stadium went through many alterations and playing surface configurations over the years. The condition of the facility worsened in the 1960s and 1970s, prompting its closure for renovation from October 1973 through 1975. The renovation significantly altered the appearance of the venue and reduced the distance of the outfield fences.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In 2006, the Yankees began building a new $2.3 billion stadium on public parkland adjacent to the stadium, which included $1.2 billion in public subsidies. The design includes a replica of the frieze along the roof that had been part of the original Yankee Stadium. Monument Park, a Hall of Fame for prominent former Yankees, was relocated to the new stadium. Yankee Stadium closed following the 2008 season and the new stadium opened in 2009, adopting the "Yankee Stadium" moniker. The original Yankee Stadium was demolished in 2010, two years after it closed, and the site was converted into a public park called "Heritage Field".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The Yankees had played at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan since 1913, sharing the venue with the New York Giants. However, relations between the two teams were rocky, with the Giants harboring resentment towards the Yankees. The Yankees had been looking for a new and permanent venue since at least 1909. The local papers had periodic announcements about the Yankees acquiring and developing land in the Kingsbridge neighborhood for a new ballpark northeast of 225th and Broadway, and wrote about the park as if its construction was already in progress. The Kingsbridge pipe dream continued with new owners Ruppert and Huston, but nothing came of it. The Yankees would remain tenants at the Polo Grounds for ten years, the same length of time they had spent at Hilltop Park.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: For the 1920 season, the Yankees acquired star slugger Babe Ruth and in his first year with his new team, the Yankees drew 1.3 million fans to the Polo Grounds, outdrawing the Giants. By the middle of 1920, the Giants had issued an eviction notice to the Yankees, which was soon rescinded. In 1921, the Yankees won their first American League pennant (but lost the then-best-of-nine 1921 World Series to the Giants in eight games, all played at the Polo Grounds). This exacerbated Giants owner Charles Stoneham's and manager John McGraw's resentment of the Yankees and reinforced their insistence that the Yankees find another place to play their home games. McGraw, always ready with a pointed quote for the sportswriters, derisively suggested that the Yankees relocate "to Queens or some other out-of-the-way place".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston and Jacob Ruppert, the Yankees' owners since January 1915, finally decided to put the club's dream into reality and build their own stadium. The owners did so at considerable financial risk and speculation. Baseball teams typically played in 30,000-seat facilities, but Huston and Ruppert invoked Ruth's name when asked how the Yankees could justify a ballpark with 60,000 seats. The doubt over the Yankees' lasting power was amplified by baseball's sagging popularity after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which eight Chicago White Sox players were expelled for conspiring with gamblers to fix that year's World Series. Many people also felt three baseball teams could not prosper in New York City, but Huston and Ruppert were confident the Yankees could thrive amongst the more established New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League (their gamble eventually paid off: Both National League teams relocated to California following the 1957 season). The total bill for construction of the stadium was $2.5 million.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Huston and Ruppert explored many areas for Yankee Stadium. Of the other sites being considered, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, at Amsterdam Avenue between 136th and 138th streets in Manhattan, nearly became reality. Consideration was also given to building atop railroad tracks on the West Side of Manhattan (an idea revived in 1998) and to Long Island City, in Queens. The area Huston and Ruppert settled on was a lumberyard in the Bronx within walking distance from and in sight of, Coogan's Bluff. The Polo Grounds was located on the Manhattan side of the Harlem River, at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue. Huston and Ruppert purchased the lumberyard from William Waldorf Astor for $600,000, equal to $ today. Construction began May 5, 1922 and Yankee Stadium opened to the public less than a year later. The stadium's walls were built of "an extremely hard and durable concrete that was developed by Thomas Edison", with a total of of concrete used in the original structure.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 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 ... fresh paint, fresh plaster and fresh grass". At 3 pm, the composer-conductor John Philip Sousa led the 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."


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Upon opening, Fred Lieb of the "New York Evening Telegram" dubbed it "The House That Ruth Built". The Yankees also won their first World Series during the Stadium's 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. The only other team to do so prior to the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals in (the new) Busch Stadium had been the Pittsburgh Pirates, who won the 1909 World Series in Forbes Field's inaugural season; and the Boston Red Sox, who won the 1912 World Series in Fenway Park's first year. The Yankees accomplished this feat yet again in the New Yankee Stadium in the 2009 World Series.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 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.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 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 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 . However, the plans fell through and the expansion did not take place.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 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 Blues Stadium for $6.5 million ($57,676,180 in 2016 dollars) to Arnold Johnson, who also dealt the land under the ballpark to the Knights of Columbus for $2 million ($17,746,517 in 2016 dollars). After he purchased the Philadelphia Athletics and transferred the franchise to Kansas City on November 8, 1954, Johnson sold Yankee Stadium to John W. Cox on March 22, 1955. Cox, a 1927 graduate of Rice University, donated the ballpark to his alma mater on July 19, 1962.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 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. The metal frieze circling the upper deck was painted white.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In 1970, newly reelected Mayor John Lindsay approached team president Michael Burke of CBS, which owned the Yankees, with an offer to spend $25 million on improvements to Yankee Stadium. (Six years earlier, the Mets' new home, Shea Stadium, had opened in Queens at a similar public cost.) By this time, it was obvious that the stadium had significant structural issues; concrete chunks were seen falling from the stands.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Burke floated two proposals to build a new stadium on the same site in the Bronx; one included a dome. CBS also asked for 10,000 additional parking spaces and road improvements to alleviate traffic. In August 1971, the New York Giants football team announced that it would leave Yankee Stadium for a new football-only stadium in the Meadowlands Sports Complex under development in New Jersey. In 1971, the city of New York forced (via eminent domain) Rice to sell the stadium for a mere $2.5 million (equivalent to $ today). That December, after significant lobbying by Lindsay, the New York City Board of Estimate approved $24 million ($140 million in 2014 dollars) for the city to renovate Yankee Stadium. The figure included $3.5 million for the purchase of the stadium and the piece of land from Rice University and the Knights of Columbus. At the time, New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy. In January 1973, CBS sold the Yankees to a group led by George Steinbrenner for $10 million. Yankee Stadium closed for renovation on September 30, 1973. The Yankees played their home games in 1974 and 1975 at Shea Stadium (The NFL Giants played their last Yankee Stadium game on September 23 (a tie), then went to the Yale Bowl through 1974, Shea in 1975, and the new Giants Stadium in 1976). When the renovated stadium opened in 1976 on April 15, the cost had ballooned to $160 million ($ in dollars); originally borne by New York City, it is now being paid off by New York State.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The outside shell of the stadium remained the same, with its original concrete walls painted over. Among the more noticeable changes after the renovation was the removal of 118 columns reinforcing each tier of the stadium's grandstand. The stadium's roof, including its distinctive metal frieze, was replaced by the new upper shell and new lights were added. A white painted concrete replica of the frieze was added atop the wall encircling the bleachers. The playing field was lowered by about and moved outward slightly. Escalators and ramps were added in three sections to make the upper deck more accessible. The original wooden stadium seats were replaced with wider plastic ones and the upper deck expanded upward nine rows, excluding the walkway. A new upper concourse was built above the old and original concourse exits were closed in by new seating. A new middle tier was built featuring a larger press box and 16 luxury boxes. About one-third of the bleacher seats were eliminated, their middle section converted to a blacked-out batter's eye. A wall was built behind the bleachers blocking the views from Gerard Avenue and the elevated subway platform above River Avenue. On this wall, the Yankees erected the first instant replay display in baseball, referred to in literature as a "telescreen". All told, the Stadium was reduced to a listed capacity of 57,545. The Stadium's playing field was drastically altered. "Death Valley" was reduced by more than while the right-field home-run porch was moved out. Monuments once in play were moved to a newly created Monument Park. In 1985, the left field fence was moved in and the stadium assumed its final dimensions in 1988. Although it was essentially the same structure, the renovations were significant enough that some sources consider them two different stadiums. The ESPN Sports Almanac, for instance, calls the original stadium "Yankee Stadium I" and the renovated stadium "Yankee Stadium II".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On April 13, 1998, an long beam fell onto a seat before a scheduled game causing the postponement of two games and the relocation of a third to nearby Shea Stadium while the stadium was inspected.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: After years of speculation that the Yankees would build a new ballpark to replace Yankee Stadium, construction on a new facility began on August 16, 2006, with a groundbreaking ceremony across the street in Macombs Dam Park, the site of the new stadium. The Yankees played their final two seasons in the stadium in 2007 and 2008 while the new venue was being built.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: After the final game in the Stadium's history was played on September 21, 2008, public tours of Yankee Stadium continued until November 23, 2008. November 9, 2008 was the last day the public tours included Monument Park and the retired number area. On November 12, 2008, construction workers began removing memorials from Monument Park for relocation to the new facility. On November 8, 2008, former Yankees Scott Brosius, Paul O'Neill, David Cone and Jeff Nelson, all members of the 1998 World Series championship team, joined 60 children from two Bronx based youth groups Youth Force 2020 and the ACE Mentor Program in ceremoniously digging up home plate, the pitcher's mound pitching plate (rubber) and the surrounding dirt of both areas and transporting them to comparable areas of new Yankee Stadium.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: An official closing ceremony was reportedly discussed to occur in November 2008, but was scrapped when the organization decided the final event should be a baseball game. Yankee officials said that while the team had contemplated a final ceremony (with any proceeds going to charity), talk of a concert was just media speculation.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The front office staff vacated the premises on January 23, 2009. Demolition began in March 2009 with the removal of the playing field. On May 13, 2009, the process of removing seats began and was completed on June 8. On September 3 and 4, the iconic white facade was dismantled.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On November 4, 2009, construction workers began tearing down the outfield bleachers, marking the first major structural demolition of the old ballpark. On November 12, demolition work began on the field level grandstand. By the end of November, most of the grandstand and bleachers at field level were gone. By the first week of December, demolition of the midlevel loge seats had begun. By January 2010, the loge level was gone and demolition began on the left field escalator bank adjacent to Gate 2. In February 2010, demolition work began on the upper deck and the outfield wall; the final part of the outfield wall (the Continental Airlines ad, the out-of-town scoreboard and the remaining part of the advertising panel to its right) was taken down February 24, 2010. By March 25, the entire upper deck was taken down.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Following an unsuccessful attempt to save Gate 2 (the only portion of the original Yankee Stadium that mostly remained unaltered after the venue's renovation), demolition of the outer walls of the stadium began on March 29. Demolition of the original Yankee Stadium was completed on May 13, 2010.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: A park complex called Heritage Field was constructed on the old stadium site, accounting for 40% of the original parkland that is now occupied by the new Stadium. The groundbreaking ceremony for Heritage Field took place on June 29, 2010. Heritage Field was officially opened in April 2012. At its opening, a blue outline showing the location of the original Yankee Stadium diamond was interwoven into the grass, showing that second base on the new field is in the approximate location of home plate of the original diamond.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Yankee Stadium was the first three-tiered sports facility in the United States and one of the first baseball parks to be given the lasting title of "stadium". Baseball teams typically played in a "park" or a "field". The word "stadium" deliberately evoked ancient Greece, where a "stade" was a unit of measure—the length of a footrace; the buildings that housed these footraces were called "stadia". Yankee Stadium was one of the first to be designed with the intent to be a multi-purpose facility. The field was initially surrounded by a (misshapen) running track, which effectively also served as a warning track for outfielders, a feature now standard on all major league fields. The left and right field bleacher sections were laid out roughly at a right angle to the third base stands, to be properly positioned for both track-and-field events and football. The large electronic scoreboard in right-center field, featuring both teams' lineups and scores of other baseball games, was the first of its kind.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: As Yankee Stadium owed its creation largely to Ruth, its design partially accommodated the game's left-handed-hitting slugger. Initially the fence was from home plate down the right-field line, referred to as the "short porch" and to near right field, compared with to the deepest part of center field, nicknamed "Death Valley". The right-field bleachers were appropriately nicknamed "Ruthville". Although the right field fences were eventually pushed back after the 1974–1975 renovations, they were still relatively close to home plate and retained the "short porch" moniker, favoring future Yankee lefty sluggers such as Graig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. There is an urban legend that the stadium's field level was several feet below sea level, but that is easily disproven by observing how much higher the stadium site was (and is) than the level of the nearby Harlem River. The altitude of the old ballpark's site is above sea level.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Monument Park was an open-air museum that contained the Yankees' retired numbers, as well as a collection of monuments and plaques honoring distinguished members of the New York Yankees. It was located beyond the left-center field fences, near the bullpens.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The origins of Monument Park can be traced to the original three monuments of Lou Gehrig, Miller Huggins and Babe Ruth that once used to stand in-play in center field. Over the years, the Yankees continued to honor players and personnel with additional monuments and plaques. After the 1974–1975 renovations of Yankee Stadium, the outfield fence was moved in, enclosing the monuments and plaques on the old fence and creating "Monument Park". A visual collection of retired numbers was soon added to this location. Monument Park remained there until the stadium's closing in 2008; after the new Yankee Stadium opened, the retired numbers, plaques, and monuments were moved into a new Monument Park in the new ballpark.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Yankee Stadium was the facade, which consisted of a green frieze that originally ran along the front of the roof of the triple-decked grandstand, and after a renovation, it ran atop the bleacher billboards and scoreboard. The frieze was made of copper and developed a green patina over time until it was painted white during the 1960s.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Until the September 30, 1973–April 14, 1976 renovation, the Yankees' American League championship pennants hung from the frieze. Tony Morante, who was in charge of tours at the Stadium, found most of these pennants in a box in 2004 and brought them to team executives to have them restored for display at the new Stadium.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The YES Network uses the frieze in its graphics. It was incorporated into the logo for the 2008 All-Star Game held at the Stadium. It is also used around the main grandstand at the team's spring training facility, which has the post-reconstruction dimensions.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: During its 87-year existence, Yankee Stadium's dimensions were changed several times. The many photographs taken throughout the stadium's history serve as references, especially as the Yankees were among the first to post distance markers on the outfield walls, doing so beginning in 1928.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In its 1923 incarnation, the right and left field foul lines hit the box seat railings at a distance of only about 257 feet from home plate. This did not pose too much of a problem for pitchers, as the seating angled away sharply, especially in left field. The right field corner was a problem for the outfielders, as its construction tended to make a bounding fair ball take an unpredictable carom. This problem, dubbed the "bloody angle" by the players, was solved prior to the 1924 season by moving the infield some ten feet toward center and rotating it slightly. That resulted in a new left field distance of , and a new right field of (eventually posted as 295).


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: By 1928 some of the box seats had been chiseled away in the left field corner, allowing a somewhat longer foul line distance of . The seating curved away sharply and the far corner of the lower left stand was away. The large wooden bleachers remained well out of reach to most batters hitting toward left and center fields. In 1928 the deep left-center field corner was marked as , with the deep right-center field corner 429. The "straightaway" right field distance (at an exit gate) was marked 350 and the right field foul line 295. The right field area would remain the only hitter-friendly portion of the outfield before its 1970s remodeling.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: When the wooden bleachers were replaced by a concrete structure in the 1930s, its left corner (now aligned with the main stand) was marked as . Deep left center shrank to a mere , behind the flagpole. As the monuments began to accumulate, the 461 sign was moved a few feet to the right. The deep right-center corner was 407, the right corner of the bleacher area was 367, and the right field line 296, with a 344 sign about halfway between them. A 457 sign was eventually added to left-center's "Death Valley", between the 402/415 pair and the 461.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The 415 sign in deep left field appears in clips of Al Gionfriddo's catch of Joe DiMaggio's long drive in the 1947 World Series. That sign, and its 367 counterpart in right field, were both covered by auxiliary scoreboards during the 1949 season. Those boards displayed the current game inning-by-inning along with runs-hits-errors.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: When the stadium reopened in 1976, the distance in straight-away center field was . The deepest part of the outfield was in left center at . The most recent field dimensions were reached primarily by moving the Yankee bullpen to left-center from right and making a few other changes so as to bring the left-center field wall in. The 1973-era left-center field wall locations could still be seen in 1976, as this is where the outfield bleacher seats began.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: After a mid-1960s remodeling, the 461 marker was replaced by a 463 marker slightly farther to the left of the pair of double doors and a 433 marker was added between the 463 and 407 markers ostensibly to represent true straightaway center field (being roughly at the midpoint of the batter's-eye screen).


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: From 1951 through 2007, Bob Sheppard was the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium. His distinctive voice (Yankee legend Reggie Jackson has called him "the Voice of God") and the way he announced players for over half a century made him a part of the lore of the stadium and the team. Before a player's first at-bat of the game, Sheppard announced his position, his uniform number, his name, and his uniform number again. Example: "Now batting for the Yankees, the shortstop, number 2, Derek Jeter, Number 2." For each following at-bat, Sheppard announced just the position and name: "The shortstop, Derek Jeter." Due to health reasons, 96-year-old Sheppard announced his last game on September 5, 2007. He did sign a new two-year contract with the Yankees in March 2008 but lacked the strength necessary to do the job and missed the entire 2008 season, including the 2008 All-Star Game, which was played at Yankee Stadium. He could not announce the final game at the old stadium in September 2008, but recorded a video address that was played during the pregame ceremonies and also recorded the lineups for the game. He officially announced his retirement after the 2009 season. Sheppard died in July 2010.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The Hammond Organ was installed at Yankee Stadium in 1967 and was primarily played by Eddie Layton from its introduction until his retirement after the 2003 season. The playing of the organ has added to the character of the stadium for many years, playing before games, introducing players, during the national anthem and the rendition of "Take me out to the ball game" during the seventh-inning stretch. After Layton's retirement, he got to pick his replacement, Paul Cartier. In recent years, the use of the organ has been decreased in favor of recorded music between innings and introducing players. Since the 2004 season, the national anthem has rarely been performed by the organists, opting for military recordings of the Star Spangled Banner. In 2005, a new Hammond Elegante was installed replacing the original Hammond Colonnade.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: One of the most famous traditions for Yankee Stadium was playing Frank Sinatra's version of the "Theme from New York, New York" over the loudspeakers after every home win, since 1980. Sinatra's version was played after Yankees wins, whereas Liza Minnelli's was played after Yankee losses.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: After the September 11 attacks, all American Major League Baseball stadiums started playing "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch for the remainder of the 2001 season. Many teams ceased this practice the following season, although it has continued in postseason events at many cities and become a tradition at Yankee Stadium alongside '"Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Usually, a recording of "God Bless America" by Kate Smith was played, although sometimes there was a live performance by Irish tenor Ronan Tynan. For part of the 2005 season, the Yankees used a recording of Tynan, but the Smith version was reinstated due to fan complaints about the long duration of the Tynan version. The tradition of playing Smith's version continued in the new stadium until April 2019, when accusations surfaced that some of her other songs contained racist lyrics. For the final game at Yankee Stadium, Tynan performed "God Bless America" live, including the rarely heard introduction to the song (which Tynan included every time he performed the song at a Yankees game). Currently, "God Bless America" is played on the organ at the new stadium during the seventh-inning stretch.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: When the Yankees scored a run, a version of the Westminster chime played as the last player to score in the at-bat gets to home plate. The version of the chime is the beginning of "Workaholic" by the music group 2 Unlimited. When the Yankees' closer Mariano Rivera entered a game, he was accompanied by Metallica's "Enter Sandman". Since , the Yankees' World Series championships were celebrated with the playing of Queen's "We Are the Champions" followed by Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Outside the stadium's main entrance gate stands a tall exhaust pipe in the shape of a baseball bat, complete with tape at the handle that frays off at the end. It is sponsored by Hillerich & Bradsby, makers of the famous Louisville Slugger line of baseball bats, which is specifically designed to look like a Babe Ruth model. As the most prominent feature on the stadium's exterior, recognizable even to first-time visitors, the bat was often used as a designated meeting spot for fans to meet their ticket holding friends before entering the stadium.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The "Bat" continues to stand outside the Metro North Station, built in 2009. A long pedestrian walkway and its staircase meet at the "bat".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Beginning in the 1990s and after the first pitch was thrown at the top of the first inning, the "Bleacher Creatures" in Section 39, usually led by a man nicknamed Bald Vinny, began chanting the names of every player in the defensive lineup (except the pitcher and catcher, with some rare exceptions), starting with the center fielder. They did not stop chanting the player's name until he acknowledged the Creatures (usually with a wave or a point), who then moved on to the next player. Other names called out during roll call from time to time have included Yankee broadcasters John Sterling and Michael Kay or Aaron Boone, Bucky Dent and Babe Ruth when the Yankees hosted the rival Boston Red Sox. Sometimes, after a long rain delay, the Creatures started another Roll Call for comedic effect. Often when a player was replaced in the field, their replacement was also welcomed with a chant. In 2008, center fielder Melky Cabrera booted a routine grounder while attempting to wave to the fans.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In its 86 years of existence, Yankee Stadium hosted 6,581 regular season home games for the Yankees. Only Fenway Park (Boston), Wrigley Field (Chicago), Sportsman's Park (St. Louis), and Tiger Stadium (Detroit) have hosted more games. Due to the Yankees' frequent appearances in the World Series, Yankee Stadium played host to 161 postseason games, more than any other stadium in baseball history. The Stadium hosted 37 of the 83 possible World Series during its existence (not counting 1974–75, and the 1994 strike), with the Yankees winning 26 of them. In total, the venue hosted 100 World Series games.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: 16 of the 17 World Series won in the Bronx were clinched at the 1923 Yankee Stadium, nine by the Yankees and seven by their opponents:


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The Yankees won their first 26 World Series championships while playing in Yankee Stadium, with their 27th coming in the first year of playing at its namesake replacement ().


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Perhaps the most memorable moment in the venue's history came on July 4, 1939, designated as "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day". Gehrig, forced out of action permanently by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and facing his impending death, gave a legendary farewell speech thanking his fans and colleagues for making him "the luckiest man on the face of the earth".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Many memorable and historic games have been played at Yankee Stadium. All three perfect games thrown by Yankee pitchers have occurred at the Stadium. Don Larsen threw a perfect game on October 8, 1956, in the fifth game of the World Series, while David Wells and David Cone threw theirs on May 17, 1998, and July 18, 1999, respectively. No-hitters were thrown by Monte Pearson, Bob Feller, Allie Reynolds, Virgil Trucks, Dave Righetti, Jim Abbott, Dwight Gooden and a combination of six Houston Astros pitchers in one game.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: The Stadium was the site of a nationally televised game on August 6, 1979, the same day as the funeral for departed Yankees captain Thurman Munson. The team attended the funeral in Canton, Ohio earlier in the day and flew to New York for an emotional game. Bobby Murcer drove in all five runs for the Yankees, including a game winning two-run single that defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5–4.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Many historic home runs have been hit at Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth hit the ballpark's first home run on its Opening Day in 1923. Ruth also set the then-league record for most home runs in a single season by hitting his 60th home run in 1927. Roger Maris would later break this record in 1961 at Yankee Stadium on the final day of the season by hitting his 61st home run. In 1967, Mickey Mantle slugged his 500th career home run. Chris Chambliss won the 1976 ALCS by hitting a "walk-off" home run in which thousands of fans ran onto the field as Chambliss circled the bases. A year later, in the 1977 World Series, Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three consecutive pitches in the championship-clinching Game 6. In 1983, the Pine Tar Incident involving George Brett occurred; Brett's go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of the game was overturned for his bat having too much pine tar, resulting in him furiously charging out of the dugout. In Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, Derek Jeter hit a fly ball to right-field that was interfered with by fan Jeffrey Maier but ruled a home run. In Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, Aaron Boone hit an extra-inning "walk-off" home run to send the Yankees to the World Series. The Red Sox would get revenge coming back from 3-0 and beating their rivals in Yankee Stadium the following year. On August 6, 2007, Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run against the Kansas City Royals at the Stadium. José Molina hit the ballpark's last home run in its final game on September 21, 2008.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In 2001, six weeks after the September 11 attacks, Yankee Stadium hosted an emotional three games in the World Series. For Game 3, President George W. Bush hurled the ceremonial first pitch, throwing a strike. In Game 4, Tino Martinez hit a game-tying home run off Arizona Diamondbacks closer Byung-hyun Kim with two outs in the ninth inning. Derek Jeter hit the winning "walk-off" home run in extra innings off Kim, earning himself the nickname "Mr. November". The following night in Game 5, the Yankees replicated their heroics from the previous night; Scott Brosius hit a game-tying home run off Kim with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning en route to a win.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On July 11, 1939, Major League Baseball held its seventh All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, in concert with the World's Fair being held at Flushing-Meadows in Queens. Yankees manager Joe McCarthy loaded his American League team with pinstripes: Bill Dickey (catcher), Joe DiMaggio (outfield), Joe Gordon (second base), Red Rolfe (third base), George Selkirk (outfield) and Red Ruffing (pitcher) were all in the starting lineup. Reserve players included Frank Crosetti (shortstop), Lou Gehrig (first base), Lefty Gomez (pitcher) and Johnny Murphy (pitcher). The American League won, 3–1, behind a home run by DiMaggio, in front of more than 62,000. This was the second All-Star Game held in New York; the Polo Grounds had hosted the event in 1934.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: From 1959 to 1962, Major League Baseball held two All-Star Games each year. On July 13, 1960, Yankee Stadium hosted baseball's second All-Star Game in three days. The National League won both games. In the latter game, Whitey Ford was the starting pitcher. Yogi Berra (catcher), Mickey Mantle (outfield), Roger Maris (outfield) and Bill Skowron (first base) were in the starting lineup; Jim Coates (pitcher) and Elston Howard (catcher) were reserves. The National League won the Yankee Stadium game, 6–0, tying a record with four home runs, including one by hometown favorite Willie Mays. The 38,000 fans who attended the game also saw the Red Sox' Ted Williams in his final All-Star appearance.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Showcasing its new renovation, Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Star Game on July 19, 1977. With the Yankees defending their 1976 pennant, Billy Martin managed the American League team on his home field. The National League won its sixth consecutive All-Star Game, 7–5, in front of more than 56,000 fans; the senior circuit's streak would reach 11. Reggie Jackson (outfield) and Willie Randolph (second base) started for the American League; Sparky Lyle (pitcher), Thurman Munson (catcher) and Graig Nettles (third base) also made the team. Jim Palmer was the game's starting pitcher because Nolan Ryan refused to play when Martin asked him.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: In honor of its final year of existence, in July 2008, Yankee Stadium hosted 2008 All-Star Game festivities. The Yankees were represented by Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera. In the Home Run Derby, Josh Hamilton set a single-round record with 28 home runs in the first round. At one point, he hit 13 straight home runs, many of which landed in the stadium's upper deck and deep into the right field bleachers, spurring the crowd to chant his name. Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau won the competition defeating Hamilton in the final round. The following evening, the American League won the 2008 All-Star Game 4–3 in 15 innings. Michael Young hit the game winning sacrifice fly in the 15th inning off Brad Lidge. The game was the longest in All-Star Game history by time, lasting 4 hours and 50 minutes and tied for the longest in history by innings, tied with the 1967 All-Star Game and was played in front of 55,632 people. J. D. Drew was named game MVP going 2 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Yankee Stadium hosted its final baseball game on September 21, 2008. The ceremonies for the final game at Yankee Stadium began with the opening of Monument Park, as well as allowing Yankee fans to walk on the warning track around the field. Many former Yankee greats, including Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Willie Randolph, Roy White and Chris Chambliss took their positions in the playing field as their names were announced by the legendary Bob Sheppard. Julia Ruth Stevens, daughter of Babe Ruth, threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the final game in "The House That Ruth Built".


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: With Andy Pettitte as the starting pitcher, the Yankees played their final game at Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles, recording the final out at 11:43 pm EDT in a 7–3 Yankee victory. Among many lasts to be recorded, a long-time standing question was answered. It was first wondered by Babe Ruth after he hit the first home run in Yankee Stadium on its opening day of April 18, 1923:


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: That player turned out to be Yankees backup catcher José Molina, as he hit a go-ahead and eventual game-winning two-run home run in the fourth inning.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Other lasts were Jason Giambi recording the last hit in Yankee Stadium, driving in Brett Gardner, who scored the last run in Yankee Stadium. Mariano Rivera made the final pitch in the stadium with Cody Ransom recording the final out at first base. In the eighth inning, Derek Jeter became the final Yankee to bat in Yankee Stadium.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: After the game was over, captain Derek Jeter delivered a speech on the field surrounded by his teammates. In the unplanned speech, Jeter thanked and saluted the fans:


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Afterwards, the team circled the stadium on the warning track waving to fans and wishing the stadium goodbye.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: From 1970 to 1987, the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) played its annual all-star game at various major league stadiums. The games were interleague contests between the CCBL and the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League (ACBL). The 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1980 games were played at Yankee Stadium. The star of the 1973 contest was game MVP and future major league manager Jim Riggleman. The 1980 game starred future New York Mets all-star pitcher Ron Darling of Yale University. In the game, Darling singled, doubled and homered as the CCBL left fielder, then came on in the final inning to pitch in relief, preserving the CCBL's one-run victory.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: When Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, the Polo Grounds continued to host boxing matches; however, Yankee Stadium was home to prizefighting beginning in its first few months. Benny Leonard retained the lightweight championship in a 15-round decision over Lew Tendler on July 24, 1923, in front of more than 58,000 fans. It was the first of 30 championship bouts to be held at the Stadium. (This excludes dozens of non-title fights.) The boxing ring was placed over second base; a vault contained electrical, telegraph and telephone connections. In July 1927, the aging former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey came from behind to defeat heavily favored Jack Sharkey by delivering several questionable punches that were deemed illegal. Sharkey had similarly bad luck in a July 1930 heavyweight championship bout at Yankee Stadium, when his knockout punch to Max Schmeling was ruled illegal; Schmeling won by default. In July 1928, Gene Tunney upheld the heavyweight title against Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium, and then retired as champion.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: Perhaps the most famous boxing match ever held at Yankee Stadium was on June 22, 1938, when Joe Louis, an African-American, squared off against Schmeling, a German. Adolf Hitler followed the rematch carefully, imploring Schmeling to defeat Louis, whom Hitler publicly berated. This left some with what they perceived as a moral predicament: root for the black fighter, or for the Nazi. Schmeling had defeated Louis in 1936, but in defense of his title, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. This was one of eight championship fights the "Brown Bomber" fought at Yankee Stadium.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On July 1, 1939, Max Baer defeated Lou Nova at Yankee Stadium, in the first televised boxing match in the United States. The event was broadcast by television station W2XBS, forerunner of WNBC-TV. (The World Series was not televised until 1947.) On September 27, 1946, Tony Zale knocked out New York native Rocky Graziano for the middleweight crown; it was the first of three bouts between Zale and Graziano.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On June 25, 1952, middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson sought his third title against light-heavyweight champ Joey Maxim at Yankee Stadium. More than 47,000 saw Robinson outfight Maxim but lose due to heat exhaustion in round 14 (due to the weather that topped ). The referee who declared Maxim the winner was the second that night; the first had left the fight due to heat exhaustion.


title: Yankee Stadium (1923)

text: On June 26, 1959, 5-1 Swedish underdog Ingemar Johansson defeated Floyd Patterson at the stadium by stoppage in the third round to become world heavyweight champion.