A Bronx bombshell: New Yankee Stadium has it all

BY MARK HERRMANN | mark.herrmann@newsday.com

February 8, 2008

Not every construction site has a limestone and granite fixture so grand that it looks as if it were built 85 years ago, which is the whole point. It says something about the spirit of the new ballpark going up in the Bronx that the brilliant gold letters literally are carved in stone: "YANKEE STADIUM."

"We're bringing the ghosts with us," said Lonn Trost, chief operating officer of the Yankees, who yesterday conducted the first full-scale media tour of the place that was inspired by The House That Ruth Built next door.

By "ghosts," he meant all the tradition, the legends, the good memories and the larger-than-life aura that all say "Yankee."

So the elegant vaulted arches are back at the entrance at Gate 4, and there are spots for the round eagle crests that were there on Opening Day in 1923. About half of the fabled white curved frieze (what fans used to call the façade) already is up, ringing the top of the grandstand as it did in the original Stadium.

Most of all, the park itself says "Yankee." Trost said that early in the planning process, he talked toGeorge Steinbrenner about selling the naming rights, the way most stadiums and arenas have done. It could have meant as much as $50 million a year, Trost said, but the club's hierarchy said the place just wouldn't be the same.

"This is Yankee Stadium," Trost said. "I've said it before, there's oneWhite House, one Grand Canyon. Some things don't get changed."

But some things need change. Thus, the Yankees are packing their history and moving it into a $1.3-billion palace one door over (the address still will be the same - 161st Street and River Avenue). Amid the cranes, the 900 workers (about to expand to 1,500 in a month and a half), the cement and the mud yesterday, the plan's shape was plain to see. Trost said the building is proceeding right on schedule for an opening in April 2009. He didn't have to say that the spirit of the place will be timeless.

The new Stadium will have the dignified style of the park that was surrounded by Model T Fords whenBabe Ruth homered in the opener on April 18, 1923. Even the section numbers will be ordered the way they were then, one after another all the way around instead of having even numbers on one side.

A visitor now can see the slots on the outfield walls that will hold the old-fashioned auxiliary scoreboards, like the one you can see in the old photos of Don Larsen's perfect game.

Mostly, though, the inside will look a lot like the Stadium in which Chris Chambliss hit his pennant-winning homer in 1976, the first year of the refurbished park. The seats will be blue and the dimensions of the field will be exactly the same as the oneDerek Jeter plays on now.

At the same time, Trost pointed out dozens of features that aim at making this Yankee Stadium seem fresh in 2023. That starts with a new Metro North stop for a shuttle that is 12 minutes from Grand Central Station. Above the transplanted Monument Park in centerfield will be a high-definition screen six times larger than the current Stadium's video board.

Capacity will be down slightly, to 53,000 from 56,000, but the building will be 63-percent bigger than the current one. That will have room for a conference center, a Great Hall filled with Yankees memorabilia, a museum, a martini bar, and a steak house and grill room that's open year-round.

Yesterday, it was clear to see that instead of three decks, there are four. The Yankees like to say that there actually are two, with two levels in each, all of them much less steep than the old Stadium. The club likes to point out there will be a food court in centerfield devoted expressly for the 5,034 bleacher seats.

Trost said it will be safe - $50 million was spent on built-in security - and sound. He thinks it still will be making a name for itself in 80 years, or at least 40. Said Trost: "We have a 40-year lease."