The Dying of the Light at Yankee Stadium
WHEN the Yankees are out of town and the old stadium in the Bronx is empty, it is easy to see the signs of wear on the 85-year-old structure. There are dents and streaks on the sheet metal wall along River Avenue and a bird’s nest in a loudspeaker near Gate 6. The blue illuminated Yankee Stadium sign, faded and patched in several different shades, looks on closer inspection as if it might be more at home in front of a deli.
On Wednesday, with the team in California, an affable Virginian named Randy Smith stood on the sidewalk next to the players’ parking lot, not far from the sign, and began sketching. He wanted to make a painting, with the stadium in the foreground and its glossy successor, across the street and nearly finished, rising up on the horizon.
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The new stadium has no illuminated sign; the lettering “Yankee Stadium” behind home plate is gold leaf. Its glass windows, which workers inside were cleaning with squeegees, are shiny and reflective like an office tower’s. Mr. Smith looked back and forth between the buildings as he sketched.
“I’m trying to get the yin and the yang, new versus the old,” he said. “This is the only spot I can get them both.”
With the season winding down and the team far from playoff contention, the groups of fans emerging from the subway in Yankees gear were focused resolutely on the past. Many were there for stadium tours, and some stopped at a souvenir store at 161st Street and River Avenue, where Abdul Abbadi, whose family owns the place, stood working on a crossword puzzle in front of a wall of jerseys with players’ numbers.
“This year, it’s the old-timers,” he said, musing about his best-selling shirts. “Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth. It’s all emotional this year. It’s a year of memories.”
Looking into the store’s glass case a few feet away were Arnie Dowdy, 66, from Grover Beach, Calif., and his brother Glenn, from Paducah, Ky. They are Cardinals fans, but it is Arnie Dowdy’s mission to visit every stadium in Major League Baseball, a quest that can require speed, what with the number of stadiums that are being torn down.
“They keep building them faster than I can get to them,” Mr. Dowdy said.
This was his first trip to see the Yankees, who were to open their final homestand in the stadium on Friday; he never got to see them before the stadium was renovated, extensively, over two years in the 1970s. Did that renovation of the 1923 structure — which changed the seats, the lights, the upper deck, the fences and the dimensions of the field, among other things — make this visit less special?
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” Mr. Dowdy said, before the question was even completed. “Stepping on the same field where you know Babe Ruth walked, you know Yogi Berra walked, you know Mickey Mantle walked, you know DiMaggio walked — these people are bigger than life.”
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Besides, even the renovated stadium is old. Even if the stadium had been built from scratch in 1976, the year it reopened, it would now be the fifth-oldest stadium in the American League. As for recent history, it has hosted 10 World Series with its new look — 6 of which the Yankees won.
By this point, Mr. Smith was coloring in some of the people in his painting — a visiting family, a driver named Fausto — while fans lined up for stadium tours. The family, the Cordascos of Westchester, were there to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of the parents, Louis and Marie, longtime season ticket holders.
In a concession to age and rising ticket prices, they will probably not be making the jump to the new stadium, so this was also a goodbye. But for Mr. Cordasco, 74, the memories are still crisp. He remembers the starting lineup for his first game, in 1946, for which he turned in empty bottles to raise the $1.25 ticket price. And, of course, he remembers his wedding day, Sept. 20, 1958, when the team, fortunately, was on the road.
“That’s the day Hoyt Wilhelm pitched against the Yankees,” he said, “and threw a no-hitter against them.”
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