End of an era at Yankee Stadium

The House That Ruth Built closes after 86 glorious years of baseball - and much more.

The curtain came down on the House That Ruth Built Sunday night, as the New York Yankees played and won their final home game at Yankee Stadium 7-3 and now start looking ahead to moving across the street next year to a new, $1.3 billion park.

As I sat at home watching hours of telecast before the first pitch even took place, my family knew not to even bother asking me to do anything. As I would stay clued to the television for the next five plus hours watching the pre-game show, the ballgame, and the post-game.

The stadium was home to the Yankees for the past 86 years except for two seasons while it was remodeled in the mid-1970s. It played host to 26 Yankees World Series championship teams but also was the site for many significant moments in pro and college football, boxing and non-sports events such as Catholic Masses celebrated by three popes.

Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 as a showcase for Babe Ruth, who was in the process of changing the game of baseball forever with his prodigious home-run power. The first park to carry the name "stadium," it was unique in every way, from its cavernous size to the distinctive copper frieze along its roofline. Much of that charm was lost during the renovations, but it remained baseball's most prestigious destination and, to many, retained the intangibles that made it special.

I'm going to miss Yankee Stadium, but I am sure that once I get a chance to make it to New York and see a ballgame in the new stadium I will fall in love with that one as I did with the original.