On September 30, 1973, the last game at the original Yankee Stadium before its first renovation saw a half-capacity crowd of 32,969. Most came for sentimental reasons, paying farewell to the 1923 “House that Ruth Built.”
“Souvenir-hunting wasn’t in vogue — [but some] players and fans took some keepsakes,” writes Anthony McCarron in The New York Daily News. “Some in the crowd came prepared…bringing screwdrivers and hammers to make sure they got mementos.”
One lucky fan made off with an extra special souvenir: the sign affixed to the right field wall designating the 296-feet distance from home plate. Eighteen bids have lifted the newly discovered holy relic from $200 to $46,120 in a spectacular Clean Sweep Auction ending tonight, June 6.
The mementos that tool-wielding fans sought were primarily old wooden seats bracketed by cast iron stands. Back then, most stadium artifacts were virtually worthless and headed for the salvage yard or scrap heap, or sold for next to nothing. Getty Images sells photos of happy parents with small children hauling off seats like teddy bears from a carnival— kind of a dark inverse of a Norman Rockwell painting.
Although today it seems incredible that stadium security didn’t blink an eye about marauding hordes brandishing hammers and screw drivers in the South Bronx, law enforcement had more urgent matters on its mind. Homicide rates were through the roof and buildings were worth more torched for insurance than for being maintained. My Uncle Henry, a brave and noble sanitation truck driver in the South Bronx, then known as Fort Apache, kept a baseball bat at his feet, and it wasn’t for pick-up games.
The appropriated right field sign sat in a closet for 40 years. “The consignor’s brother ripped it off the outfield fence at the end of the game as it was total chaos,” Clean Sweep President Steve Verkman told me. “The brother died and then left it to his brother, our consignor. He knew it was special and kept it until now.”
The 296-foot sign may be one of the holiest in sports, marking the shortest part of Yankee Stadium’s famous “short porch ”at the edge of right field foul line. Just think of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris wrapping their home runs around the foul pole in their mythical chase in 1961 to break Babe Ruth’s single season 60-home run record…and you can understand the bidding frenzy.
Measuring 61 x 29, the sign exhibits the wear-and-tear from dozens and dozens of seasons. Old photos of the New York Giants football team show it weathering snowy winter games.
“This is in at best VG [very good] condition with some peeling off the painted numbers, but the display value is simply tremendous,” notes Clean Sweep.
Since the sign is a singular object unknown to the hobby, the auction house had no idea how to assign a starting price. “We have decided to open it at an almost impossibly low minimum bid [$200!] and see what happens,” Clean Sweeps explained, in an understatement as classic as the first Yankee Stadium itself.
