4/17/95 | Index | Next | Back
With photo.

Stadium alive again - at last

By Nick Perlmuter, Staff Reporter

Yankee Stadium is coming back to life.

While the Yankees, the official Yankees, train in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., work is under way to get the House that Ruth Built ready for the April 26 opener of the delayed season.

From the box office to the field, there's a hum of activity.

When the Yankees arrive for their 1:30 p.m. game against the Texas Rangers, they will find all of the bleacher and box seats sold out. The ticket office said last week that upper deck seats, shaded by the cement canopy, were still available.

Joseph Chiappetta bought three box seats along first base for the May 2 game against Boston, rather than sit in the nosebleed section on opening day. Chiappetta, a borough-based floor products salesman, bought his ducats while trying to work out a deal with the Yankees.

"I enjoy going to the stadium," said Chiappetta, 36. "I grew up watching the Yankees. Ticket prices are still reasonable."

Anxious to spend time in the stadium again, Chiappetta lamented last summer's baseball season, cut short by striking players.

"It's no longer a game," said Chiappetta. "It's a business. Last summer I did nothing. I went to the beach, but that does not compare."

Emilio Gonzalez, 45, said his neighbors near University Avenue and 165th Street will continue to go to the beach, even though the season starts next week.

And that makes Gonzalez, who sells beer at the stadium, a little nervous.

"They're dissatisfied," said Gonzalez. "They're going to . . . forget about baseball this year."

But Gonzalez, who had to go on welfare last season because of the strike, believes the fans could come back if the Yankees "start hitting home runs, massive home runs."

On the field, the well-rested, trimmed grass is as green as an envious replacement player. The basepaths now sport freshly tilled, rusty-tan dirt.

Memorial Park, where copper-colored plaques honoring Yankee greats like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle glisten in the sunlight, bursts with blooming red, yellow and orange flowers planted amidst newly laid sod.

On the Jerome Avenue side of the stadium, a worker plastered over dents in the red ticket booths. A brown UPS truck pulled up to the Yankees offices. With an audible grunt, the driver picked up one of two three-foot high cardboard boxes labelled "CLOTHES ON HANGERS -- HANDLE WITH CARE." New uniforms, no doubt.

Around the corner, Parks Department workers laid new red bricks in Babe Ruth Plaza, a five-foot-wide median strip separating traffic on East 161st Street.

"It gets walked on, gets driven on a lot," said Jerry Mule, supervisor for the rebricking project. "This is the first time we've done it."

Thick rolls of sod filled the bed of the Parks Department dump truck. The grass, pulled up from within the Stadium, will be planted around city offices on Randall's Island or donated to a community greenhouse.

"It's not their best sod," said Mule, 27. "They were just throwing it out. It's not from the field, but it is Yankee Stadium grass. Do you want some?" 


The Bronx Beat, April 17, 1995