Go ahead and trick yourself. Sure, you can say the most compelling sports stories of last week were Major League Baseball’s pennant races and college football’s dramatic weekend.

But that would be a lie. As it has for much of the last 85 years, the sports world revolved around Yankee Stadium this weekend.

The old Yankee Stadium, that is. By now, you’ve heard. You know they’re tearing down Yankee Stadium and moving into the new $1.6 billion Yankee Stadium across the street next year. You probably saw part of the old stadium’s final game Sunday on ESPN when the Yankees topped the Orioles, 7-3, and the way everyone wanted to share their memories of the baseball paradise.

Sportswriters wanted to give it one last tribute. Famous faces went out of their way to tell Yankee Stadium stories. Babe Ruth’s 92-year old daughter was even part of the celebration.

Maybe you think it’s overkill. After all, the Yankees are going to miss the playoffs for the first time in 13 years and somehow are still finding a way to steal the front pages of sports sections. Normally, that’s how I’d be. Usually by the end of September, I’d rather watch Home and Gardening TV than another darn Yankees game. But this, well, this is special.

I have my own Yankee Stadium memories – who doesn’t? I hated the place. It haunted me as a child. Nope, I never had to walk through the stands with an opponents’ jersey on. Watching from home as an Atlanta Braves fan was scary enough.

Yankee Stadium and I got off to a good start. The first time I remember watching a game from there and caring was Game 1 of the 1996 World Series. The Braves were the defending champions and actually had a better team in 1996. In my fourth-grade mind, there was no way the Yankees would beat them in a seven-game series.

Sure enough, Atlanta breezed by in the first game, 12-1, behind a two-homerun performance from 19-year old phenom Andruw Jones and lights out pitching courtesy of Cy Young winner John Smoltz. Game 2 was just as dominant for the Braves with Greg Maddux pitching them to a 4-0 victory.



But the next Braves game at Yankee Stadium – Game 6 of the World Series – would change my mind on the place forever. That’s when Atlanta lost its fourth consecutive ballgame to lose the 1996 World Series. That’s when the Braves went from being called ‘the team of the decade’ to ‘the team that won a lot of division championships but only one World Series.’ Yeah, the Braves lost three games in that World Series at home. But none of those losses hurt like the final one did – of course they didn’t. That defeat was finality.

The image of Yankee closer John Wetteland jumping into catcher Joe Girardi’s arms that night makes me queasy. Always will.

But somehow, knowing the stadium is all but dead now made me come to terms with it all. I’m happy I have Yankee Stadium memories. I’m glad I can remember some of the more recent famous moments inside of it.

Whether I like it or not, I’ll never forget Derek Jeter’s walk-off homerun in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series or the start of the Yankees’ epic collapse in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the hated rival Boston Red Sox.

I know these are two minimal moments in the long history of the building – just imagining the top ones is overwhelming. But that’s what makes it all so special. As much animosity as I had towards it, I’m thankful I got to watch games in the same place where Muhammad Ali threw punches, Lou Gehrig gave his famous speech and Babe Ruth belted hundreds of homeruns.

Farewell Yankee Stadium. Even I have to admit, you were one of a kind.