Area of fair territory: 113,000 sq. ft.

Area of foul territory: Immense behind the plate, but

                                small down the foul lines.

Fences: LF - 8 ft

            L - CF: 7 ft

            RC: 9 ft

            RF: 10 ft

Elevation: 55 feet

First opened: April 18, 1923. It was closed on September 30, 1973, for renovations, and re-opened on April 15, 1976.
First night game: May 28, 1946
Surface: Merion Bluegrass

Architect: Osborn Engineering in 1923, and then Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury for the 1976 renovations.
Construction: White Construction Company (1923).
Owner: New York Yankees (1923-1971); City of New York (since 1971)
Cost: $2.5 million in 1923; renovation in 1974-1976 cost another $48 million, though some estimate the actual cost with debt service at over $160 million.

History

   Asked to leave the Polo Grounds when his Yankees began outdrawing the New York Giants in 1920, owner Jacob Ruppert didn't know where to go. But when he bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for the vast sum of $125,000, he seized the opportunity to build what would become the most famous stadium in all of baseball, a triple-decked wonder called Yankee Stadium.

   Yankee Stadium, ready for its first game on April 18, 1923 against the Red Sox, came to be known as "The House That Ruth Built" because it was recognized that Ruth's drawing power made the new stadium possible. Over 74,000 fans packed Yankee Stadium for their first look at the new facility. Ruth's three-run home run led the Yankees to a 4-1 win over the Red Sox in the stadium's first game.

   This historic stadium has been the home of other sports, entertainment, and cultural events - for example, thirty championship fights were fought at The Stadium - but it remains a cathedral of baseball first and foremost. Erected on the site of a Bronx lumberyard just across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium has been the scene of many of baseball's greatest moments: Babe Ruth belted his 60th home run here in 1927; Roger Maris broke the single-season record with his 61st in 1961; it has hosted far more World Series than any other park, and two especially memorable World Series events took place here: Don Larsen pitched his perfect game on October 8, 1956, and Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three consecutive pitches to win the Series in Game Six on October 18, 1977.

   Despite the presence of sluggers like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, and Jackson, no ML batter has ever hit a fair ball completely out of the stadium, although legend says Negro Leaguer Josh Gibson pulled a home run over the left-field roof in 1934.  This claim is almost certainly untrue - though a 1930 homer he hit against the Lincoln Giants may be the longest ball he ever hit in Yankee Stadium.

   The grandstand was extended around the foul poles by 1928, with wooden bleachers surrounding the rest of the outfield, and the top of the stadium was ringed with a distinctive white fence facade. Like the stadium, the playing field itself was quite remarkable. The left- and right-field corners were only 281' and 295' in 1923, but left sloped out dramatically to 460' while center was a near-impossible 490' away.  Deep left and center fields became known as Death Valley as many a right-handed slugger watched towering fly balls die there.  Eventually, stone monuments to Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins were erected in deep left center, and although they were considered to be in the field of play they were rarely reached by batted balls.

   Lights were added in 1946, and the stadium remained virtually unchanged until 1973, when it was closed completely for two years of renovations and modernization. The stadium was reopened in 1976 with major structural improvements. Bulky support poles for the upper decks had been eliminated, along with the corresponding obstructed-view seats, and escalators improved access to the upper decks. The left- and center-field fences had been drawn in considerably, but were still a hefty 430' and 417' respectively. The monuments were relocated to Monument Park behind the left-field fence, open to fans before and after games, and numerous plaques have been added to the original trio of Yankee greats.

Click to purchase from the Danbury Mint collection

Analysis

   Yankee Stadium has become The Incredible Shrinking Ballpark.  Once, in the 1920s, left-center stood a Grand Canyon-esque 490 feet away from home plate.  Recently, under the direction of George Steinbrenner, the left- and center-field fences have been brought in, reducing Death Valley to 399 feet, from the immense 430-foot stretch in the 1970s; still, no ballpark in the majors is as tough on hitters as Yankee Stadium.

    Yankee Stadium's still-spacious outfield favors pitchers, even though it has little foul territory and a close right-field corner that is extremely inviting to lefthanded sluggers.  (In fact, in 2001 it had the highest LHB home run factor in the AL).  In addition, the long backstop means that a lot of popped-up foul balls end up as outs.

   Yankee Stadium also has deep infield grass, slowing down ground balls and helping infielders. It does require infielders to charge more balls than they would in other ballparks (something which Chuck Knoblauch took a while to realize) but in general it can turn solid-fielding players like Derek Jeter or Scott Brosius into Gold-Glovers.

Defense: Yankee Stadium has deep infield grass, slowing down ground balls and helping infielders. It does require infielders to charge more balls than they would in other ballparks (something which Chuck Knoblauch took a while to realize) but in general it can turn solid-fielding players like Derek Jeter or Scott Brosius into Gold-Glovers.

   Because of the spacious left-center alley, either the center-fielder or the left fielder must have excellent range.

© 2001 STATS, Inc.

Who benefits: The short distance to the corner outfield walls (314 feet to right and 318 feet to left) give pull hitters a huge home-run advantage; in addition, the distances to the right-field fence aren't as imposing as the distances to left-field, so left-handed hitters have a big edge.  Darryl Strawberry used to hit most of his homers here.  Tino Martinez hit more homers on the road in each of his four seasons here.

   Pitchers who give up fly balls love it here.  In 1999, Roger Clemens went 9-5, 3.56 ERA in the Bronx and 5-5, 6.20 ERA on the road.  In 2001, he was 10-1 with a 3.10 ERA at home, vs. 10-2 with a 3.85 ERA on the road.

     Andy Pettitte was 10-3 at home (3.16 ERA), vs. 5-7 on the road (4.97 ERA).  Because he doesn't allow a lot of walks and makes hitters earn their way on base, he benefits more than usual from the park's large dimensions.

Who gets hurt:  Hitters with alley power, especially righties.  Jack Clark came here in 1988 from St. Louis and saw his slugging percentage go from .597 in 1987 to .433.  Alfonso Soriano will have to learn to overcome the park's tendency to depress power output if he is to become one of the game's premier sluggers. 

Location

New York, NY (the southwest Bronx). Left field, to the NE, edges on E. 161st Street; the third base side, to the NW, is on Doughly Street and later Ruppert Place. Home plate, to the W, looks out on the Major Deegan Expressway/Interstate 87 and the Harlem River. First base (SW) edges on E. 157th Street. Right field (SE) is on River Avenue and the IRT elevated tracks.

Seating Chart

Dimensions - History

Left field: 280.58 (1923), 301 (1928), 312 (1976), 318 (1988)

Left side of bullpen gate in short left-center: 395 (1923), 402 (1928), 387 (1976), 379 (1985)

Right side of bullpen gate in left-center: 415 (1937)

Deepest left-center: 500 (1923), 490 (1924), 457 (1937), 430 (1976), 411 (1985), 399 (1988)

Center field: 487 (1923), 461 (1937), 463 (1967), 417 (1976), 410 (1985), 408 (1988)

Deepest right-center: 429 (1923), 407 (1937), 385 (1976)

Left side of bullpen gate in short right-center: 350 (1923), 367 (1937), 353 (1976)

Right side of bullpen gate: 344 (1937)

Right field: 294.75 (1923), 295 (1930), 296 (1939), 310 (1976), 314 (1988)

Backstop: 82 (1942), 80 (1953), 84 (1976)

Foul territory: large for the catcher behind home plate, but small for fielders down the foul lines.

Capacity - History

1923: 58,000

1926: 62,000

1927: 82,000

1928: 67,113

1929: 62,000

1937: 71,699

1942: 70,000

1948: 67,000 

1958: 67,205

1961: 67,337

1965: 67,000

1971: 65,010

1976: 54,028

1977: 57,145

1980: 57,545

Park Factors

© 2001 STATS, Inc.

Fun Facts

• Highest LHB home run factor in AL in 2001
• Second highest LHB home run factor in AL in 2000
• Third highest home run factor in AL in 2000
• Lowest run, hit, LHB batting average and batting average factor in AL in 1999
• Lowest home run factor in AL in 1998
• Highest strikeout factor in AL in 1999
• Second highest walk factor in AL in 1999
• Second highest infield-error factor in AL in 1999
• Second highest batting average factor in the AL in 1999
• Second lowest triple and home-run factor in the AL in 1999
• Third lowest double factor in the AL in 1999
• Third lowest LHB home-run factor in the AL in 1999
• Third lowest RHB batting average factor in the AL in 1999

• "Monument Park" in left-center had monuments to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins. After the 1973-1976 renovation, monuments to Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were added, but all are now behind the left-field wall.
• The green curtain in center is sometimes raised and lowered like a window shade to force visiting batters to face a background of white-shirted bleacher fans while allowing Yankees hitters to face a dark green background.
• The bleachers in right-field are often called Ruthsville or Gehrigsville
• The "Bloody Angle" between bleachers and right-field foul line in 1923 season was asymmetrical and caused crazy bounces. Eliminating this in 1924 caused the plate to be moved 13 feet and the deepest left-center corner to change from 500 to 490 feet.
• A 500 pound steel joint fell from the upper deck in April 1998 prompting the Yankees to play a home game at Shea Stadium and trade three home games with the Detroit Tigers