Yankee Stadium [I] Demolition

[willpryce1]

right

It was also in either the NY Daily News or the NY Post. I don't remember which one. More than likely, it was The Post.

You're right about the frieze, that's where I saw it too.

[The Monument]

Don't know if anyones used this line before, but I'm referring to Steiners sale of Stadium memorabilia as 'The Great Haul".

[Gary Dunaier]

Photos from Saturday, May 16

First, a couple of views from the back row of the current stadium...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


This may not be new to some of you but it is to me... there's a cut-out hole in the "Priority Mail" ad. This must be the space where they had the electronic display for the Met Life Countdown Clock, the display that showed how many games were remaining.


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


From the new bridge leading to the new Metro North station we get this terrific vantage point showing that the advance ticket windows and Sidewalk Cafe areas have been boarded up in preparation for demolition work...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Here's a look inside the escalator bank behind Gate 4... at this point it's kinda like peeking inside a corpse...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


You can see how much of 157th Street they left for pedestrians...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Looking through the fence at the open emergency gate in right field...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


River Avenue in the process of being prepared for stadium demolition... poles for the wooden fences are already in place, and a traffic barrier for pedestrians has been placed in River Avenue proper... note that the barrier goes all the way from 157th Street to 161st Street, so you can no longer cross at 158th Street to get to Stan's...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Speaking of Stan's, here's a post-game view from inside Stan's... one of the last times you'll be able to see the stadium from within... incidentally, Stan's didn't seem to be hurting for business in this photo taken about an hour after the final out...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Finally, for those who are hoping to preserve Gate 2... here's a view as seen from the back row of the new stadium... if there's anyone out there who can use it along with whatever Photo Shop or other image manipulation skills to help support the cause, be my guest...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

[SultanOfWhat]

Great pics, Gary, as always.

NY Post:

HARDHATS BRING DOWN THE HOUSE -
INSIDE PEEK AT YANKEE STADIUM DIG FOR GOLD

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009...use_169786.htm


Also:

Yankees Players Pick Out A Piece Of History

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009...ece_169793.htm


What they want:

[peterrod16]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009/news/regionalnews/hardhats_bring_down_the_house_169786.htm

see pics below
HARDHATS BRING DOWN THE HOUSE

May 18, 2009 --
A crew of hardhats is the new "murderers row."

Drills whirring, they unbolt four seats at a time and toss them onto pallets, which are then carried by forklift onto what was once the hallowed field of the original Yankee Stadium.

"I think this is the section I sat in when my dad took me to my first game at age 12," said worker Jesumar Banhao, 31, as he stacked seats in preparation for one of the greatest memorabilia sales of all time.

Uprooting for the home team is an "eerie responsibility," Banhao said. "We're going to be the last ones to be in the stadium -- the ghosts will leave with us."

But as destruction goes, this is careful work, the hardhats said.

It's not a demolition so much as a Mickey Dismantle.

Four thousand seats are being ripped from the stands each day at the Stadium. Just a few tufts of grass are all that survived the harvesting of the outfield, which is now a desert. The corridors, offices and locker rooms have been stripped bare. In the bottom of this sad and final inning, the once-glorious ballpark is a cadaver.

The Post was given an exclusive peek at the huge operation to surgically remove valuable souvenirs from the House That Ruth Built and sort, transport, inventory and sell off relics which, depending on whom you ask, amount to either gold or fool's gold.

"You could argue that this could have all been kept here as a museum," said Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing, which last week started selling seats for $1,499 a pair and clumps of dirt and grass for $80.

"People complain to me, 'Steiner, you're selling everything,' to which I say, 'Would you rather we just throw Yankee Stadium away?' "

The seat backs, bottoms and frames have each been bar-coded and tagged by authenticators, and in the next two weeks, they will be shipped to Syracuse, separated, stripped of lead, repainted and reassembled.

"We found a color that looked like the faded blue they are now," said Adam Raiken, the Yankee staffer charged with overseeing the carnage.

For years, George Steinbrenner threatened to move Yankee Stadium to the Meadowlands, and now, it's actually happening for the rest of its innards. All the lockers, signs, outfield wall and even the foul poles are being trucked to an East Rutherford warehouse.

Stacked up in the warehouse, the segments of outfield wall -- which may sell for as much as $25,000 each -- are all torn and covered in grime.

But that's the point, Steiner said.

"These objects have values because of the moments of history they witnessed," he said. "Yankee Stadium is our closest equivalent to the Roman Coliseum."

Packed into wooden crates, or stacked unceremoniously, the parts seem estranged from the whole. There are boxes of bases and home plates, giant plastic canisters of infield dirt, a phone booth with directories from the 1970s, the batting practice netting, the concession-stand signs and all the executive office furniture.

Steiner is renting the warehouse from Pat Dunne, who normally handles the liquidation of office furniture.

"At my son's school, most of the kids say when they grow up, they want to be like President Obama. But after I took my son and some of his friends here, one kid said, 'When I grow up, I want to be a liquidator,' " Dunne said.

[skikola]

these demolition photos are heart-breaking, and it's only the beginning.....

just in case you need some help getting to tears;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh4t51Q75Uw

[jimmyjimjimz]

First, a couple of views from the back row of the current stadium...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


This may not be new to some of you but it is to me... there's a cut-out hole in the "Priority Mail" ad. This must be the space where they had the electronic display for the Met Life Countdown Clock, the display that showed how many games were remaining.


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


From the new bridge leading to the new Metro North station we get this terrific vantage point showing that the advance ticket windows and Sidewalk Cafe areas have been boarded up in preparation for demolition work...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Here's a look inside the escalator bank behind Gate 4... at this point it's kinda like peeking inside a corpse...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


You can see how much of 157th Street they left for pedestrians...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Looking through the fence at the open emergency gate in right field...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


River Avenue in the process of being prepared for stadium demolition... poles for the wooden fences are already in place, and a traffic barrier for pedestrians has been placed in River Avenue proper... note that the barrier goes all the way from 157th Street to 161st Street, so you can no longer cross at 158th Street to get to Stan's...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Speaking of Stan's, here's a post-game view from inside Stan's... one of the last times you'll be able to see the stadium from within... incidentally, Stan's didn't seem to be hurting for business in this photo taken about an hour after the final out...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Finally, for those who are hoping to preserve Gate 2... here's a view as seen from the back row of the new stadium... if there's anyone out there who can use it along with whatever Photo Shop or other image manipulation skills to help support the cause, be my guest...


(Photo taken May 16, 2009. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

Some of those pictures come up as red X's for me

edit: nevermind, I see them now

[Mike Wagner]

As terribly sad as these photos are, it's still a very important part of the legacy of Yankee Stadium. We know Gary and the other folks will do justice to Yankee Stadium because of their love for the sacred ballpark. Yankee Stadium I will NEVER DIE!!!

Just as the Babe, Lou, Mickey, and others will forever live in the hearts of baseball fans, so will Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, and other famed parks. Besides these historical photos, saving a part of Yankee Stadium is the right thing to do. Not just for baseball and sports fans, but it has hosted Popes, Billy Graham, and the 9/11 Memorial Service to the victims of that very tragic event. Americans and foreigners should be able to pay their solemn respects to Yankee Stadium for all it has meant during its spectacular lifetime. To keep no part of the Stadium standing would be TOTALLY INEXCUSEABLE, given its historic and spiritual importance.

-Mike Wagner

[Jim Vaz]

I'm still curious as to why it took them this long to begin the demo. This really should have been planned out long before the last game and been done with already.

[NYaDiO]

They're trying to make us suffer that's why. Those pics from Gary are very sad, and I would never forget my first time at the Stadium sitting in the area behind homeplate against the Angels when they were just the Anahiem Angels. Walking in that place gave me a feeling like no other it is completely unexplainable almost like if the history of the building ran in from my feet to my head. Thank You Yankee Stadium for all the great memories.

[metsforever7515]

Not sure if anyone saw this, but they showed Yankee Stadium on skyfox today and all of the seats on the field level first base side are out. The lower level of those seats I believe. I don't know what it was called though.

[DHYF162]

pictures

there are new pictures on slidingintohome, but they are pretty small. can someone make them bigger and hi res them unfortunately i dont know how to

[Oddjob]

Not sure if anyone saw this, but they showed Yankee Stadium on skyfox today and all of the seats on the field level first base side are out. The lower level of those seats I believe. I don't know what it was called though.

http://www.demolitionofyankeestadium.com/2009/05/18/may-18-2009-seat-removal/

[SultanOfWhat]

Didn't notice this on here:

Old Yankee Stadium Seat Sales Brisk

Published: Wednesday, 13 May 2009 | 3:09 PM ET
CNBC
By: Darren Rovell
Sports Business Reporter

The folks at Steiner Sports just reported some pretty amazing numbers to us.

Since the New York Yankees and Steiner announced their sale yesterday, they've sold 1,500 pairs (3,000 seats) of old Yankee Stadium seats.

That's pretty good for the first 24 hours and it might confirm our suspicion that, despite doubling the price of their Shea counterpart, they actually might have underpriced these seats.

Seats cost $1,499 for a random pair and $1,999 for a specific pair.

And for those that didn't buy, there was plenty of looking. We're told SteinerSports.com gets about 8,000 unique visitors. Yesterday, more than 50,000 people came to the site.

Despite the fact that people made fun of the $80 freeze dried patches of grass, they sold 1,000 of them yesterday, to go along with eight turnstiles, 350 bricks from Monument Park and more than 200 signs.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30727844

[SparkyL]

Great pics of the seats being removed in the NY Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/galleries/tearing_down_the_old_yankee_stadium/tearing_down_the_old_yankee_stadium.html#ph0