Yankee Stadium 2009

Home plate entrance portal to the 2009 edition of Yankee Stadium, Apr-2009. Other gates are similar.

The ornamental frieze (often mistakenly called a façade) of the 1923 Yankee Stadium has been reintroduced.

Where the Bronx County Courthouse dominated the old park’s view, here a huge Mitsubishi video board fills the space.

• Location: Jerome Avenue at 161 Street, Bronx, N.Y.
• Opened: 2009
• Home team: New York Yankees, American League (2009-present)
• Capacity: 52,325

Chronological Tour: Stop 340

Rating: 4 baseballs

The main entrance gates to the new ballpark were designed to mimic, though not entirely duplicate, the classic home plate entrance to the original Stadium. Once inside, the ornamental frieze that was a feature of the old park from 1923 through 1973 but removed in the 1976 renovation has been recreated, ringing the top of the upper deck. The stadium lights are also built into that level rather than towering above the park.

The footprint of the new park is about 60 percent larger than that of the historic Stadium, and there is a slight bit more foul territory, as the seats were bowed out a little bit in order to improve sightlines. The upper deck seems to be slightly lower but farther from the field here than at the old park. This will mean that the shadows in left field that made Yogi Berra remark of the old place, “It gets late early out there”, will arrive a little bit later. The outfield dimensions and the compass alignment of the new park are identical to those of the park across the street during the 2008 season.

However, the seating capacity of the new stadium is reduced by about five thousand, with the additional area given over to extra luxury suites and to a new Great Hall on the entrance level designed to play up the Yankees’ storied past (26 World Series titles during the tenure of their old park). Monument Park, which was in left field of the old park after its 1976 renovation, is in straightaway center field here.

Also unlike the old park, the new Yankee Stadium allows spectators to walk around and watch the game from its concourses. Passage between the bleachers and other parts of the ballpark is no longer restricted. There is a Yankees Museum (which I have not yet visited) on site, along with two restaurants that will be open year-round. The infrastructure is said to be just as impressive, with the Yankees gaining the largest clubhouse in baseball by far.

While new parks in Washington and Flushing sport large video boards, the one at Yankee Stadium trumps them all. This behemoth dominates the view in the outfield and replaces the view of the Bronx County Courthouse beyond the old park that is lost with the relocation, replaced mainly by a few high-rise apartment buildings on the Grand Concourse several blocks to the east. A fan with whom I attended the park’s first league game saw the new board displaying the logo of the visiting Cleveland Indians across the full screen and said simply, “That’s too big. Get that off of there.”

In addition to the monstrous video board, the out-of-town scoreboards are also capable of video matrix, and there is limited captioning for the deaf in the park. There are also two post-up line score boards built into the outfield wall, designed I’m sure to evoke the main scoreboard prior to the renovation of the old Stadium. However, the post-up numbers are a bit too small for the casual fan with average visual acuity to read comfortably.

The old Stadium was sadly in need of replacement after 84 seasons of use. This park will do the job admirably, but for this fan, it will take a while to warm to the concept that this is simply “The Stadium”, as Yankee fans affectionately called their old home.