Yankee Stadium Opens and Ruth Christens It with a Home Run

On April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx with 74,217 fans in attendance and an estimated 25,000 more turned away at the gates. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. Babe Ruth hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the third inning off Howard Ehmke, the first homer in the new ballpark.

The stadium had been built in just eleven months at a cost of $2.5 million, an enormous sum for the era. The Yankees had previously shared the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants, and Giants owner Charles Stoneham had grown tired of being overshadowed by Ruth's drawing power. When the Giants told the Yankees to find their own park, Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Cap Huston purchased a plot in the Bronx, directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds.

Sportswriter Fred Lieb nicknamed the new stadium "The House That Ruth Built," and the opening day crowd confirmed the logic. Ruth's three-run shot to right field came on an Ehmke fastball, and the New York Times described it as "a savage home run that was the real baptism of Yankee Stadium." Bob Shawkey pitched a complete game for the win.

John Philip Sousa's band played before the first pitch. Every box seat was taken. Fans stood in the aisles and packed the bleachers. The stadium would host its final game in September 2008, 85 years later. By then, Ruth's homer had become the opening sentence of the franchise's mythology.