He watched his crew board up and drill shut one of the jewels of Yankee Stadium, and then Anthony Vespa strode right up to it. Wielding a large marker, Vespa scrawled out the words "THE BABE!" in thick black strokes, then stepped back to survey his work.
"Take him away," Vespa called.
And with that, the monument of Babe Ruth was gone.
Vespa and his crew, the Bronx-based Port Morris Tile and Marble Corporation, were charged on Wednesday with the enviable yet daunting task of removing one of the sturdiest artifacts from the grounds of Yankee Stadium. It took more than half an hour for workers to wrench the monument out of its 59-year resting place and into the safety of a storage container, in preparation for a move to the new Yankee Stadium later this year.
It was all part of a transition process that began shortly after season's end, made progress on Saturday when the Yankees moved home plate, the pitching rubber and piles of dirt from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one, and continued on Wednesday when the team dug up the weightiest monument -- at least symbolically speaking -- of them all.
With the still-standing monuments of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio looking on, perhaps bracing for a similar fate, a muddied yellow forklift struggled to navigate up the narrow incline that led to Ruth. A pair of cloth straps creaked as the crew lifted Ruth out of the ground and set him down multiple times, before gradually, tentatively ushering him out of Monument Park.I bet he didn't."It seemed like the Babe didn't want to leave," Vespa said.
| Here's a video of the move from NJ.com: |
And here's a similar video from WCBS:
10 Comments:
"We're dealing with something that you just can't reproduce" when I heard that I started to realize that old Yankee Stadium is going to dissapear for ever, that's a shame.
Yes it is.
I miss Yankee Stadium even more now
It's almost like moving a graveyard. You just don't do it.
If thats the case, the ghosts from Poltergiest followed the family wherever they went and that would be a good thing
"Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio looking on, perhaps bracing for a similar fate, a muddied yellow forklift struggled to navigate up the narrow incline that led to Ruth. A pair of cloth straps creaked as the crew lifted Ruth out of the ground and set him down multiple times, before gradually, tentatively ushering him out of Monument Park. It seemed like the Babe didn't want to leave," Vespa said."
My goodness can it get any more dramatic? This is MEN talking about a BASEBALL stadium.
It's a lot more than just a baseball stadium. A lot of people, myself included, have very strong feelings for that stadium.
I sort of agree with Anon. The horse is dead here, I think after the 24 hour ESPN coverage and dozens of publications about it what's next? A Danielle Steel romance novel? A Celine Dion tribute song?
Spare the emotional chatter for kids who have to go to school here, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/nyregion/06courthouse.html, down the block.
Right, M-Rod. The ghosts will show up in our new place.
Mike
I don't think anyone is saying the ghosts won't show up at the new place or that they won't be able to win in a new building or anything like that.
But for many of us, we're just not happy about the move. That's all.
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