Author Description

Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America's First Modern Ballpark represents a 100th anniversary celebration of the original Yankee Stadium. The work is the combined effort of 79 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), founded as a nonprofit in 1971. This was the first "modern" stadium; baseball had never seen anything like Yankee Stadium before it was built. It was the first ballpark to include three levels of seating, accommodating more fans by far than any in the country. In its 85-year existence, it hosted more World Series (37) than any other venue and stood as a shrine to baseball generations past in one of the nation's largest cities. Intended as a multipurpose venue from the outset, the Stadium is seen through 40 essays covering not only baseball, but memorable football games, boxing matches, soccer seasons, track and field meets, and wrestling competitions, not to mention rodeos, concerts, and religious and political assemblies. Baseball events at the Stadium embraced not only the New York Yankees-the facility also hosted more than 200 Negro Leagues contests, Hearst Sandlot Classics for developing youth stars, and even an AAGPBL exhibition game. Baseball was always central, though, and the book also includes accounts of 50 of the most notable games in the history of The House that Ruth Built.