100 years on, how Yankee Stadium helped give birth to a baseball juggernaut

A century ago on Tuesday, the New York Yankees came out of the shadow of their Manhattan landlords to christen the ballpark that would be known as “The House That Ruth Built” in the Bronx.

On 18 April 1923, 60,000 fans jammed into “The Yankee Stadium,” as it was originally called, to see the American League defending champions take on their rival Boston Red Sox. Batting third for the Yankees and playing right field on the historic Opening Day was their star slugger, Babe Ruth, just a few years after New York had acquired him from Boston in December 1919.

“I’d give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in the first game in this new park,” Ruth said before the game. Anyone familiar with Ruth’s career will have a fair idea of what happened next.

The Yankees had started out as the New York Highlanders in 1903, and played most of their first decade of mediocre baseball at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan. In 1913, the team, now called the Yankees, became tenants of the much more successful New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, also in Manhattan.

The two teams weren’t really rivals when the Yankees arrived at the Polo Grounds. For one thing, the Giants played in the National League and the Yankees in the American League, at a time before interleague play. That meant the only potential clash (other than exhibition games) would take place in the World Series. More importantly, the Giants had just won their second consecutive pennant in 1912, and they had little to fear from a Yankees team that finished in last place that same year. The Giants drew 638,000 fans in 1912, more than double the Yankees’ 242,000.

But things changed drastically after the Yankees acquired Ruth, a larger-than-life personality and the sport’s first true