A Room with a View.

by mchawk | July 15, 2008 at 03:16 pm

892 views | 7 Recommendations | 17 comments

THE BRONX - With the last innings soon to be played at Yankee Stadium, many fans are bidding farewell to their favourite seats. But for some, the move to the new stadium will mean they lose their view of the game altogether.

The fire escapes, roofs and top-floor windows of three apartment buildings on Gerard Avenue, two of them six stories and the other eight, are the Bronx equivalent of free Shakespeare in the Park: no-cost entertainment that generations of New Yorkers have cherished, envied, mythologized and taken for granted.

Across seven decades, the big plays of wealthy Yankees stars half a block away have filled dimly lighted hallways and cramped rent-stabilized apartments with the roar of 50,000. Tenants and their friends have congregated on the rooftops, running extension cords through open windows to watch the games on television, on account of the mostly obstructed views.

But as Major League Baseball prepares to play a farewell All-Star Game at the stadium on Tuesday, a way of life on Gerard Avenue is quietly ending.

Next April, the Yankees will move into a new $1.3 billion stadium directly across the street from the old one at East 161st Street and River Avenue. But the new stadium is too high, too far and facing the wrong way for the people on Gerard Avenue to get a look inside. And so the rooftop and fire-escape tradition, a quirky little footnote of Yankees history that dates to the early 1930s, when two of the three buildings were built, is in its final days.

Pablo Vargas, 38, has watched about 200 games in 23 years from the roof of 845 Gerard Avenue, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. He and a group of friends still climb the steps from the sixth floor to the roof for playoff and other big games. There is something magical, he said, about watching the Yankees from up there, where his uncle, the former super of the building, used to take him when he was a boy.

“The electricity of the crowd,” said Mr. Vargas, an installer for a satellite television company. “It’s what really drives us to go up there.”

He expects about 15 people to go up with him for the All-Star Game. After that, only 32 home games are left on the team’s regular-season schedule. The old stadium will be torn down, and Mr. Vargas misses it already.

“It’s always been there,” he said. “It’s a beautiful stadium.”

The stadium closed in 1974 for a $100 million renovation and reopened in 1976 with, among other things, a taller outfield wall on River Avenue. Before the renovation, residents on Gerard Avenue had a nearly unobstructed view of the diamond, and big crowds gathered on the rooftops to look inside.

Today, it takes more than a pair of powerful binoculars to watch a Yankees game from one of the buildings; it takes imagination.

A number of people in the neighborhood have long suspected that the Yankees, the richest team in baseball, built the walls higher during the renovation to block the view of nonpaying fans.

Jason Zillo, a spokesman for the Yankees, denied such accusations.

“When we made the renovations, there were no plans to impede or block people’s view from outside the stadium,” Mr. Zillo said. Of the Gerard Avenue spectators, he added: “It certainly sounds like a unique perspective to take in a ballgame. Yankee fans are very innovative when it comes to watching the Yankees.”

139

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Sign In or Join to post comments

cheleryan

at 18:41 on July 15th, 2008

I took this photo on a tour of Yankee Stadium. It was a beautiful day, making for perfect lighting and vivid colors. The stadium will be missed.

cheleryan has contributed a photo to this story.

lorainedicerbo

at 18:47 on July 15th, 2008

My husband is a former Upstate New Yorker who moved away to Michigan because of work, but remained a life-long Yankees fan. We decided to take our two young boys to Yankee Stadium before it closed at the end of the season. We had a beautiful day, and we watched the Yankees win against the Padres, 2-1. We hope they will always remember visiting the "House that Ruth Built".

lorainedicerbo has contributed a photo to this story.

NightSpirit

at 19:12 on July 15th, 2008

This game was Yankee vs Ray on July 9th. I was taking the shot for the field. It was my first time to visit the Yankee's Stadium. I felt so excited.

NightSpirit has contributed a photo to this story.

Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 19:37 on July 15th, 2008

mchawk, I like this story. It's good stuff.

eagleair13

at 22:16 on July 15th, 2008

This photo was taken at my first trip to Yankee stadium. I had such a great time. We watched the Boston Red Sox and Yankees game, even though the Sox won I will always cherish being able to watch a ballgame in what I beleive to be the most historic stadium in baseball.

eagleair13 has contributed a photo to this story.

giovanniosorio

at 04:13 on July 16th, 2008

I took a tour around mahanttan to look around, and was waiting to take a picture of yankee stadium

giovanniosorio has contributed a photo to this story.

pedrocheng168

at 04:28 on July 16th, 2008

pedrocheng168 has contributed a photo to this story.

Cloverdale Man

at 04:58 on July 16th, 2008

Since I was a kid I have had a dream to one day visit Yankee Stadium. On June 29th, in the last year of the old Yankee Stadium that dream came true. My family and I attended the New York, Texas Rangers game. The Texas Rangers unfortunately won 2-1, however that did not spoil the aura and the thrill of my dream coming true. All baseball fans regardless of if they are Yankee fans or not should have the opportunity of at leat once, experiencing the thrill of a game in the House that Ruth built.

Cloverdale Man has contributed a photo to this story.

surgater

at 07:30 on July 16th, 2008

This photo was taken on a recent trip to New York in June 2008. It was taken from the Ferry tour ride around Manhattan. We were in The City to watch the Dodgers beat the Mets at Shea Stadium. Regret to never have been to old Yankees Stadium. Even as a die hard Dodgers fan and hate all things Yankees, you can't help but feel like you are feet away from true baseball history and to feel the mystique of all those baseball legends who once played there. For a minute, then I got over it. We will visit the new one. GO DODGERS!

surgater has contributed a photo to this story.

kC Katastrophe

at 08:21 on July 16th, 2008

This photo was taken during the first pitch of the NY Yankees vs Detroit Tigers game, April 29 2008. This was the first game in the series. I had traveled from Detroit with friends. We wanted to see the Tigers play in Yankee Stadium for the last time. The Tigers swept the Yankees that series. Even though we got razzed the entire time we were there supporting our team, it was still a wonderful experience and it will be a memory to hold onto forever.

kC Katastrophe has contributed a photo to this story.

vrazifidoyangis

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:54 on July 16th, 2008

I guess this is how a father feels when his only daughter gets married... He will never again have her in the same table for breakfast, kissing him good morning, smiling, making his day, but on the other hand, deep down, he knows it's time for his daughter to... fly and make her own new nest... Still, the day the original Yankee Stadium will be torn down, will be a sad one...

adrian_mendez79

at 14:32 on July 16th, 2008

I took this picture during batting practice on july 4, 2008. it was a long long game against the BoSox. Yankee stadium will be missed as i spent most of my youth watching from the bleachers, the best seats in town!!

KMFIS

at 15:50 on July 16th, 2008

I have a slideshow for Yankee Stadium on Photoshow.

http://www.photoshow.com/members/kmfis/all/eb6EG4gS

You can watch and grab it.

taliesin88

at 17:00 on July 17th, 2008

Only 2,000 or so people there at first pitch.

taliesin88 has contributed a photo to this story.

booniechick08

at 22:00 on August 6th, 2008

The first and only time I've ever been to Yankee Stadium. It was incredibly beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. So much history in one place. I loved this picture because of the 'will face EJECTION' sign in the middle and The Bronx in the background.

booniechick08 has contributed a photo to this story.

melinda07

at 04:58 on August 10th, 2008

From the press box of the old Yankee Stadium

melinda07 has contributed a photo to this story.

melinda07

at 05:00 on August 10th, 2008

We toured Yankee Stadium and were able to take these pictures. I do not like the fact that they are tearing down history. The toure was exciting. We saw things that we would not have been able to see during a game