1923 OPENING DAY 1ST GAME @YANKEES STADIUM “HOUSE RUTH BUILT” BABE HR TICKET PSA

Description: THE BEST BABE RUTH TICKET THERE IS THIS TICKET IS CALLED “THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT” GAME TICKET BABE RUTH HR #198 , BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY HE WAS THE 1ST TO EVER HOMER AT YANKEES STADIUM & HE SAID IN AN INTERVIEW THAT HE WOULD GIVE A YEAR OFF OF HIS LIFE IF HE COULD BE THE 1ST TO HOMER, THERE IS FANOUS FOOTAGE SHOWN ON KEN BURNS “BASEBALL” DOCUMENTARY OF RUTH WAVING HIS HAT IN CELEBRATION ROUNDING THE BASES. EXTREMELY RARE! PSA POPULATION REPORT 1 of only 6! THE CARD HAS NICE EYE APPEAL & IS THE MUCH MORE VALUABLE “FULLY DATED” VERSION & NOT THE YANKEE TICKET WITH A “1” WHICH IS STILL GREAT BUT LESS DESIRABLE, PSA GRADED IT AS AUTHENTIC ALTERED BECAUSE THE TAPE FOR THE TOP PART OF THE TICKET YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE IN THE PHOTOS. PLEASE FEELS FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS, I HAVE ONE OF THE LARGEST BABE RUTH TICKET COLLECTIONS WITH OVER 500+ , IM ALWAYS BUYING ALSO This is a rare and valuable ticket stub from the 1923 opening day, the inaugural game at Yankees Stadium “The House That Ruth Built” the game played between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The game was played at Yankees Stadium, and this ticket features the iconic Babe Ruth in his uniform. The ticket has been authenticated and graded by PSA, ensuring its authenticity and quality. The event/tournament aspect of this ticket is the April 18, 1923 Inaugural Game @ Yankees Stadium NYY-4 and Boston-1. This vintage ticket is a must-have for any baseball fan or collector, and is a great addition to any collection. Here is the backstory to this infamous game. The House That Ruth Built In 1913, the New York Highlanders baseball club moved to the Polo Grounds from their previous home of Hilltop Park, where they had played since their founding in 1903. As part of this move to the field on Coogan’s Bluff along the Harlem River in Manhattan, the team was renamed the New York Yankees. This new home of the newly-named Yankees was also the home field of the New York Giants, where the Giants had been playing since June 28, 1911. Both teams shared the Polo Grounds through the decade, but the Yankees started to out-draw the Giants in attendance after Babe’s arrival on the team in 1920. Shortly thereafter, this ballpark-sharing arrangement began to unravel as John McGraw, the owner of the Giants and the Polo Grounds itself, began to resent the Yankees’ ever-growing popularity. Mr. McGraw was not interested in being second dog on his own turf. In addition, the Giants management was looking to increase revenues by utilizing a larger, more flexible schedule for their games, which they could not do as long as they had another team that they needed to work around to determine their own game schedule. Thus, the Giants began to push the Yankees out of their Polo Grounds. In May of 1922, the Yankees responded by breaking ground on their own ballpark, on 10 acres just across the Harlem River and in view of the Polo Grounds. The new ballpark was built quickly, as construction took under 11 months. The end result was Yankee Stadium, considered by many to be an architectural work of art for its time, with an arched façade that decorated the third deck and became its primary architectural signature.. It was one of the first ballparks to be called a stadium and it was the first to feature three-tiered seating. On April 18th, 1923, the first day of the new baseball season, the gates of Yankee Stadium were opened and 74,200 people flooded through turnstiles, while another 25,000 were turned away – an amazing number, given that previous attendance record for a single game was 42,000 for the 1916 World Series in Boston. In an ironic twist, the first game was fittingly played against the Boston Red Sox, Babe’s former team. Even more fitting was that Babe Ruth hit the first homerun in the stadium on the opening day of the new ballpark – a three-run homerun, giving the Yankees the 4-1 win. As a response to Babe’s opening day homerun, sportswriter Fred Lieb referred to Yankee Stadium in his column as “The House That Ruth Built”. It was a nickname that quickly stuck. Given Babe’s great ability to draw a crowd, this reference to Yankee Stadium became a regular term and is still used as the great ballpark’s less-formal name. Marty Appel, a longtime Yankees publicist, had the opportunity to speak with ex-Yankee, Bob Shawkey, who had pitched on Opening Day. Not only was Bob the winning pitcher, but he also scored the first run. When Marty asked about the event, Bob responded: “Once the Babe homered, the fans cheered forever. Can you imagine anyone paying any attention to me that day? Babe owned the day. And that was just fine; he was born to be in the spotlight. It was his day from beginning to end.” Claire Ruth, Babe’s second wife, was asked about the event at one point and she said, “I think that was the proudest moment of his life, and I think he believed that it would never have been “The House that Ruth Built” if he hadn’t hit that homerun that day. He definitely talked about it more than any other homerun he ever hit, including his 60th, which, after all, only broke his own record of 59.” Babe’s granite memorial is one of the six free-standing granite edifices in Monument Park, an area inside the stadium of gardens and commemorative plaques to some of the Yankee’s baseball greats who played with the Babe or who followed him. Fans can visit the Memorial Park area every game day, as it is open before and after the game. Announced in 2006, a new Yankee Stadium was built across the street to bring New York baseball fans the facilities and comforts that a modern-era ballpark enjoys. The old stadium will forever be associated with the Babe and recognized as “The House That Ruth Built.” And, while the new stadium is not recognized as “Ruth’s House”, the Yankees have honored the Babe as a part of the new stadium. “Babe Ruth Plaza”, which directs fans to one of main entrances to Yankee Stadium, contains a small memorial to the Babe, a tribute to the best Yankee and player to ever play the game. Here is another story about the game…….. April 18, 1923: Babe Ruth homers in Yankee Stadium’s grand opening, hinting at franchise’s dynastic future….. In 1913 the New York Highlanders were renamed the Yankees and moved from Hilltop Park into the Polo Grounds, the home field of the National League’s New York Giants. Two years later, the franchise was under the new co-ownership of Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston, who initiated the team’s transformation into an American League powerhouse by purchasing Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox in December 1919. The Big Bam’s prodigious home-run output eventually resulted in the tenant Yankees outdrawing the landlord Giants in their own home park. As a result, John McGraw, the Giants’ manager, minority owner, and noted hater of the American League, could no longer abide the Yankees. It was not enough for him that he had led the Giants to consecutive World Series triumphs over his despised rivals in 1921 and 1922, including holding the vaunted Sultan of Swat to a .188 batting average with no home runs in a four-game sweep in the latter Series. He wanted the Yankees gone and persuaded majority owner Horace Stoneham to banish them in the hope that the team would falter and fold. When McGraw found out that the Yankees’ new stadium would be built in the Bronx, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, he gleefully crowed, “They are going up to Goatville. And before long they will be lost sight of. A New York team should be based on Manhattan Island.”1 Although McGraw was an innovator who had a long, successful career in baseball, his assessment of the Yankees’ new home and the team’s future could not have been more in error. The $2.5 million structure was situated on a 10-acre plot, and it took 500 workmen 11 months to complete “the first ballpark to be referred to as a stadium” just in time for opening day of the 1923 season.2 In light of its size and price tag, the New York Times rhapsodized: Down on the Potomac, close by the National Capitol, they are thinking about erecting an impressive monument to the national game of baseball. But in the busy borough of the Bronx … the real monument to baseball will be unveiled this afternoon — the new Yankee Stadium … comprising in its broad reaches of concrete and steel the last word in baseball arenas.3 Everyone who was someone, along with a host of anyones — more than 25,000 of whom were unable to gain admission to the sold-out stadium — wanted to be part of the grand opening on April 18, 1923. The Yankees gave the official attendance that day as 74,200, but later amended that number to 62,200.4 The list of dignitaries present included Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, New York Governor Al Smith, and New York City Mayor John Hylan. John Philip Sousa directed the Seventh Regiment Band as it marched to the center-field flagpole, where New York manager Miller Huggins and Boston skipper Frank Chance raised the American flag and the Yankees’ 1922 pennant as the band played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” After Governor Smith threw the ceremonial first ball to Yankees catcher Wally Schang, it was time to play ball. New York hurler Bob Shawkey threw the first pitch in Yankee Stadium history, a ball high and inside, to Schang with Chick Fewster at bat for Boston. Another notable moment took place in the top of the second inning, when Red Sox first baseman George Burns got the first hit in stadium history. Burns then attempted to garner the first stolen base of the day, but he was gunned down at second base by Schang. Second baseman Aaron Ward made the first base hit for the home team when he singled in the third. After the game Burns received a box of cigars and Ward received 50 “ropes” [cigars] for their landmark hits.5 Ruth, whose popularity had made this new stadium both possible and necessary, naturally provided the day’s biggest thrill as the Yankees scored all four of their runs in the third inning. Shawkey and Whitey Witt had reached base on consecutive singles, and Joe Dugan followed with a base hit of his own to drive in the first run. The next batter to step to the plate, with runners at first and third, was The Bambino. Ruth was seeking redemption after a miserable 1922 season in which he had batted .315 with 35 homers after hitting .378 and clouting 59 round-trippers in 1921; there was also the cloud of that .188 World Series performance hanging over his head. Ruth knew “[t]he talk was that he was boozing it up a lot and couldn’t be managed, and maybe he was through.”6 He had spent the offseason walking the straight and narrow and working his way back into playing shape. In spite of his efforts, he had not performed well in spring-training exhibition games, and he told his teammates, as they left the clubhouse on Opening Day, “I’d give a year off my life to hit one today.”7 Ruth now had his second opportunity of the day to deliver the desired blow. He fouled off Red Sox pitcher Howard Ehmke’s first pitch, took a ball, hit another pitch foul, and watched ball two go by. Then Ehmke left a letter-high curveball over the plate that Ruth ripped several rows up into the bleachers for a three-run blast that gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead. As he crossed home plate, Ruth “lifted his Kelley and smiled from ear to ear as he faced the multitude and made those graceful bows rehearsed so many times in his great season of 1921.”8 Ever the showman, and often a bit of a huckster, Ruth afterward asserted that his blast had been forecast earlier in the week. He claimed that Hendrik Willem van Loon, author of The Story of Mankind, had given him a silver dollar for good luck and had promised him, “You’ll get a homer in the third inning with two on base.”9 The fact that the certainty expressed in this story did not exactly jibe with Ruth’s willingness to sacrifice a year of his life for an Opening Day homer did not faze The Big Bam. Ruth’s clout was the climax of the game, though the Yankees did threaten to score again in the fourth inning. Bob Meusel led off the frame with a double, but Ehmke fielded Schang’s bunt and nailed Meusel at third base. After Ward struck out, Everett Scott, playing in his 987th consecutive game, delivered a double of his own.10 Schang tried to score from first base but was gunned down at home on a nice play from right fielder Shano Collins to first baseman Burns, who fired the relay throw to catcher Al DeVormer. The Red Sox scored their lone run in the top of the seventh inning when Shawkey walked Burns and Norm McMillan drove him in with a triple. It was the only hiccup of the afternoon for Shawkey, who pitched a complete-game three-hitter to earn the first win in Yankee Stadium history. The final noteworthy event occurred in the ninth inning, with Burns batting for Boston, when fans from the bleachers scaled the outfield wall and surrounded Ruth in right field. Home-plate umpire Tom Connolly stopped the game but soon realized “the futility of trying to clear the outskirts. Accordingly, Ruth had plenty of comrades in right when the game closed.”11 The Yankees emerged victorious in their 1923 debut, and everyone seemed certain that Ruth was back on track. However, the New York Times summarized the importance of the day by stating, “But the game, after all, was only an incident of a busy afternoon. The stadium was the thing. For the Yankee owners it was the realization of a dream long cherished. For the fans it was something which they had never seen before in baseball.”12 Perhaps to the chagrin of McGraw and Stoneham, the Times added, “The Yankees’ new home, besides being beautiful and majestic, is practical. It was emptied yesterday of its 74,000 in quicker time than the Polo Grounds ever was.”13 After slugging his Opening Day home run, Ruth had referred to his offseason training regimen and abstinence from his vices, saying, “I guess there must be something in that old gag about virtue being its own reward.”14 By the end of the 1923 season, the tenants of the new “beautiful, majestic, and practical” baseball cathedral called Yankee Stadium would be World Series champions for the first time after defeating the denizens of their previous home, McGraw’s Giants, in six games. Ruth batted .393 and led the league with 41 homers in the regular season. He redeemed himself in the World Series as well by battering Giants pitching for a .368 average and three home runs. It was indeed quite a reward. Here is another….. NEW YORK-Governors, generals, colonels, politicians and baseball officials gathered together solemnly today to dedicate the biggest stadium in base-ball, but it was a ball player who did the real dedicating. In the third inning, with two teammates on the base lines, Babe Ruth smashed a savage home run into the right-field bleachers, and that was the real baptism of the new Yankee Stadium. That also won the game for the Yankees, and all the ceremony which had gone before was only a trifling preliminary. The greatest crowd that ever saw a baseball game sat and stood in this biggest of all baseball stadia. Inside the grounds, by official count, were 74,200 people. Outside the park, flattened against doors that had long since closed, were 25,000 more fans, who finally turned around and went home, convinced that baseball parks are not nearly as large as they should be. The dream of a 100,000 crowd at a baseball game could easily have been realized today if the Yankee Colonels had only piled more concrete on concrete, more steel on steel, and thus provided the necessary space for the overflow. In the face of this tremendous outpouring all baseball attendance records went down with a dull thud. Back in 1916, at a world's series game in Boston, some 42,000 were present, and wise men marveled. But there were that many people in the Yankee Stadium by 2 o'clock today, and when the gates were finally closed to all but ticket holders at 3 o'clock the Boston record had been exceeded by more than 30,000. It was an opening game without a flaw. The Yankees easily defeated the Boston Red Sox, 4 to 1. Bob Shawkey, war veter-an and oldest Yankee player in point of service, pitched the finest game of his career, letting the Boston batters down with three scattered hits. The Yankees raised their American League champi-onship emblem to the top of the flag-pole- the chief feature of an opening-day program that went off perfectly. Governor "Al" Smith, throwing out the first ball of the season, tossed it straight into Wally Schang's glove, thus setting another record. The weather was favorable and the big crowd was handled flawlessly. Only one more thing was in demand, and Babe Ruth supplied that. The big slug-ger is a keen student of the dramatic, in addition to being the greatest home run hitter. He was playing a new role today- not the accustomed one of a renowned slugger, but that of a penitent, trying to "come back" after a poor season and a poorer World's Series. Before the game he said that he would give a year of his life if he could hit a home run in his first game in the new stadium. The Babe was on trial, and he knew it better than anybody else. He could hardly have picked a better time and place for the drive that he hammered into the bleachers in the third inning. The Yankees had just broken a scoreless tie by pushing Shawkey over the plate with one run. Witt was on third base, Dugan on first, when Ruth appeared at the plate to face Howard Ehmke, the Boston pitcher. Ruth worked the count to two and two, and then Ehmke tried to fool him with one of those slow balls that the Giants used successfully in the last world's series. The ball came in slowly, but it went out quite rapidly, rising on a line and then dipping suddenly from the force behind it. It struck well inside the foul line, eight or ten rows above the low railing in front of the bleachers, and as Ruth circled the bases he received probably the greatest ovation of his career. The biggest crowd in baseball history rose to its feet and let loose the biggest shout in baseball history. Ruth, jogging over the home plate, grinned Ruths famous quote ….. Before the game he said that he would give a year of his life if he could hit a home run in his first game in the new stadium. The Babe was on trial, and he knew it better than anybody else. He could hardly have picked a better time and place for the drive that he hammered into the bleachers in the third inning.

Price: 39999 USD

Location: Henderson, Nevada

End Time: 2024-09-19T11:02:31.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9.99 USD