Yankee Stadium

I'm heading to New York this weekend to visit the House That Ruth Built and see my Buccos welcome Roger Clemens back to the Bronx. This is a big deal for a baseball fan, or anybody really. As much as I hate the Yankees (and I do... I especially despise Derek Jeter), I realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. When the 60,000 seat "stadium" was built, baseball was a struggling sport and no one thought the Yankees could ever fill it on a consistent basis.

From Wikipedia:

Yankee Stadium was the first three-tiered sports facility in the United States and one of the first baseball parks to be given the lasting title of stadium. Baseball teams typically played in a park or a field. The word stadium deliberately evoked ancient Greece, where a stadium was unit of measure--the length of a footrace; the buildings that housed footraces were called stadiums. Yankee Stadium was one of the first to be deliberately designed as a multi-purpose facility. The field was initially surrounded by a (misshapen) quarter-mile running track, which effectively also served as a warning track for outfielders, a feature now standard on all major league fields. The left and right field bleacher sections were laid out at right angles to each other, and to the third base stands, to be properly positioned for both track-and-field events and football. The large electronic scoreboard in right-center field, featuring both teams' lineups and scores of other baseball games, was the first of its kind.

All of these luxuries came to life during a dark period for baseball. Popularity was very low following the Black Sox scandal a few years earlier. With his ability to transform the game by the might of a swing, the Sultan of Swat attracted more fans than ever to baseball. Combined, it could be argued that Ruth, the Yankees, and Yankee Stadium saved baseball.

We're seeing one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball. And I'm seeing the game with a bunch of my buddies and my two brothers. Should be an awesome weekend for sure.