Suspicious activity at Yankee Stadium
A Friend of Yankee Stadium writes us:
As I was browsing the web and searching information on the new Yankee Stadium I came across a link that took me to New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The site talks about the new Yankee Stadium and it's plans for the surrounding area. The site also lists capital projects involving the existing Yankee Stadium in past years. I was surprised to see a capital project involving expansion joints involving Yankee Stadium.
I have copy and pasted the info from the site:
Project Description:
YANKEE STADIUM EXPANSION JOINTS, WATERPROOFING, ETC. @ #3
Date Started: Thursday, July 31st, 1997
Date Completed: Friday, July 24th, 1998
Total Budget: $1,246,000.00
If you look closely you can see that the date started for this project was July 31st, 1997....9 months before an expansion joint mysteriously fell on an empty seat just hours before a game on opening day weekend at Yankee Stadium.
Those who remember this happening know at the time Mayor Guiliani and Steinbrenner were scheming to move the Yankees to Manhattan's West Side. The failure of this expansion joint strengthened the City's position on why a new Yankee Stadium needed to be built. Although the West side stadium site fell through, the supposed failure of the expansion joint continued to be a satisfactory reason why a new Yankee Stadium was needed.
Coincidence? I think not. At the time Yankee Stadium was celebrating it's 75th anniversary. The supposed failure of this beam on the opening day celebration weekend quickly changed from celebrating Yankee Stadium's 75 years to "Wow! 75 years is a long time...Maybe we do need a new Yankee Stadium." Congratulations George and Rudy. You conned the majority of the public but you can't con me!
(If I remember correctly, even after this "accident" over 70% of fans polled were in favor of maintaining the present stadium as opposed to building a new one--ed.)
By the way, I talk to a lot of people about this subject and many do not know that Yankee Stadium will be torn down if a new Yankee Stadium is built. I guess it helps when Yankee Announcers on Yes or 880am or Mike and the Mad Dog on 660am WFAN and Yes Network are all George Steinbrenner YES men who fear for their jobs if they cross the wrath of the BOSS.
posted by * @ 6:38 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Does anyone remember when the satdium was being renovated and Steinbrenner vowed to restore Macombs Dam Park?
The eternal "shylock"! How can our city and elected officials be so gullible?
Just a quick follow up on the Yankee Stadium expansion joints. When this supposed accident happened in 1998 the papers explained that the expansion joint was not part of the original 1923 structure and was added in 1928 when the Stadium's Upper Deck and Loge Level stands in left field was extended around the foul pole The same was done in 1937 to the Right field Stands. So this would lead me to believe that the only expansion joints throughout the Stadium was added to connect the stands both in leftfield and right field. Just wanted to make it clear that there may only be 2 isolated areas involving expansion joints. I'm not an architect or Engineer so if I'm wrong please let me know....Oh and by the way the Engineers who throughly check Yankee Stadium said that Yankee Stadium was a sound structure that will stand for another 75 years. I would like to believe that this is true. Unfortunately the Engineers were unaware of an individual by the name of George Steinbrenner. Thank You.
A quick aside to the expansion joint issue: shortly after it fell, the Daily Show covered it in its own irreverent way. Jon Stewart was not host at that point. Craig Kilbourne, still wet behind the ears from his ESPN Sportscenter hosting experience, may have been better suited to anchor that particular coverage since the focus was a sports facility. I recall that he closed his hard-hitting, in-depth coverage with the tongue-in-cheek assertion that George Steinbrenner could not be reached for comment because he was at Sears "returning a blowtorch and a hacksaw." As was the case with some of the recent presidential election coverage, maybe this parody of news was closer to the mark than all the other "mainstream" news outlets covering the story with real reporters. BT
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