"The single most historic modern stadium in the world"

Dusting off some knowledge from my baseball history classes in college, I'm pretty sure the Yankees used to play in the Polo Grounds, and when they got really good, they started outdrawing the Giants there by an embarassing margin. The Giants, who owned the Polo Grounds, were so jealous/pissed, they ended up evicting the Yankees. The Yankees responded by building a better stadium, and as an added F-U, they built it where they did so it would be part of the skyline when you were looking out beyond center field in the Polo Grounds.

And for the record, attaching history from the old Yankee Stadium to the current building is sketchy at best, because the old building was basically gutted and demolished during the renovations in the mid-'70s.

 

As the Fonz would say, correctamundo.

 

This is why the Rose Bowl has the best argument among stadiums in the United States. Nowhere else has hosted its variety of sporting events that are massive both here AND overseas.

Five Super Bowls. A World Cup Final. A women's World Cup final.

Throw in any number of historic college football games, and it's a little amusing the discussion has gotten this far after the Rose Bowl was first mentioned.

Only Yankee Stadium compares in the US, but if you seek to name the most historic in the WORLD, any baseball stadium loses out when you consider the fact that baseball is still only played ina handful of countries.

 

Five pages ago, I wrote something that was unclear.
I was calling myself an idiot for not knowing JFK accepted his nomination in the Coliseum.
Sorry for the confusion.
And the old Croke Park in Dublin would be on this list. too.

 

Umm Star? While, you're patting yourself on the back for EOT and giving bonus points, you get a zero for accuracy.
Jesse Owens had that day at Michigan's Ferry Field, not Ohio Stadium. The plaque is in the corner of the field closest to home plate at Fisher Stadium...

Ferry Field has been the site of many great individual performances in Big Ten track championships, none more remarkable than Jesse Owens' efforts in 1935. Within a period of two hours, the Ohio State sophomore set world records in the 220 yard dash - :20.2, the broad jump - 26 ft. 8 1/4 in., the 220 yard low hurdles - :22.6 and tied the world record in the 100 yard dash - :09.4 seconds. A plaque at the southeast corner of Ferry Field commemorates Owens' incomparable performance.

 

Saw plenty of Jays games in those $2 (later $4) bleacher seats at the Ex, plenty of crazy Argo games (you had to have a mickey on you no matter how old you were) and dozens of concerts in the grandstand during the CNE.

 

Worth noting here that Yankee Stadium has also hosted two Papal masses.

 

To whomever mentioned that Dodger Stadium was the only one in which you couldn't go to the lower deck from the upper...

...U.S. Cellular Field (Comiskey Park aka Sox Park) has the same rule.

I wouldn't be shocked if most stadiums had that rule. Reinsdorf, though he has a well-earned reputation at squeezing out bucks wherever he can, instituted the rule after William Ligue and his son bought an upper deck ticket and visited the lower deck and, well, you know the rest.

 

Also adding: After he died, Babe Ruth lay in state in Yankee Stadium's rotunda. Can't think of another place except the Montreal Forum that hosted a funerary event, post if there was.

 

Dusting off some knowledge from my baseball history classes in college, I'm pretty sure the Yankees used to play in the Polo Grounds, and when they got really good, they started outdrawing the Giants there by an embarassing margin. The Giants, who owned the Polo Grounds, were so jealous/pissed, they ended up evicting the Yankees. The Yankees responded by building a better stadium, and as an added F-U, they built it where they did so it would be part of the skyline when you were looking out beyond center field in the Polo Grounds.

And for the record, attaching history from the old Yankee Stadium to the current building is sketchy at best, because the old building was basically gutted and demolished during the renovations in the mid-'70s.
The Giants owned the Polo Grounds, the Yankees were tenants after Hilltop Park burned. The real reason the Giants threw the Yankees out was economic. Yes McGraw was jealous and hated them, but the owners were getting killed finanially by having the Yankees share the stadium, because of Sunday games.

Back then the average attendance at a non-Sunday game was around 5,000 (most people worked 6 days a week), while Sunday games drew about 30,000. MLB had the Giants and Yankees split the Sunday games, so the Yankees got 15 and the Giants got 15 (assuming a 30 week season and both teams were home every Sunday). The problem for the Giants was that the Dodgers also got Sunday games, and the National League wouldn't allow the Dodgers and Giants to play at home the same Sunday. So the Giants were getting very few of the large attendance dates compared to the Yankees. Add to that the fact that often the Yankees and Dodgers would both be home the same day, with the Giants playing at Ebbets field, (which would be a sellout) and the Giants were coming in a distant third in revenue even though they were in the World Series and were the premier team in NY.

There was also the issue that Pennsylvania and Massachusetts didn't allow Sunday games, so teams would travel into NY for a one game series on a Sunday. That meant the Yankees were home for almost all of their 15 dates, and the Giants were only getting about 7.

 

It seems strange that the Dodgers and Giants weren't allowed to both play at home on Sundays. In a city the size of New York, in an environment where both teams had large followings, why would the NL have stood in the way of both teams getting to play home games on their preferred days?

I'm still wondering what school CitizenTino went to in order to study baseball history. Damn, I want to go there!

 

There were some great photos in this thread.