There would be many more championships. Many more Babe Ruth World Series home runs. The only World Series perfect game.
Decades worth of memories and great moments awaited, but on October 10, 1923, Yankee Stadium hosted its first postseason game. Now, a sweeping news photograph showing what was for the time a massive crowd in the “House That Ruth Built” is up on the auction block for the first time through RMY Auctions.
The 8×10 image has spent the last several decades inside a newspaper archive and retains the original caption on the back, describing the scene as the dapper crowd sits in the bleachers while the Giants and Yankees do battle in Game 1 of the 1923 World Series.
The size of the stadium made it the first series to attract 300,000 fans with a gate of over $1 million.
The famous flagpole sits in the field of play just in front of the center field wall while the running track/warning track winds around the spacious outfield.
The Yankees and Giants were meeting for the third straight year and the Giants won Game 1 thanks to a late inside the park homer from–are you ready?—Casey Stengel. The future Yankees manager also won another game with a standard homer but the Yankees took the series thanks in large part to Ruth, who hit three homers, hit .368 and drew eight walks.
The Yanks were the last team to win a World Series in the first year of a new ballpark until the Cardinals did it in 2006. The Yankees did it again in the new Yankee Stadium three years later.
The photo is one of more than 500 in RMY’s November Auction, set to close Saturday night.
Related Stories:
Wally Pipp’s 1923 World Series Champs Pocket Watch Up for Auction
Photo Includes Conlon’s Honest Take on Mathewson’s Appearance
Photo of the Day: Babe’s Homer as Yanks Win 1st Title
Oversized Cobb Sliding Photo from 1908 World Series Among RMY Headliners
Photo of the Day: Ruth Takes a Cut During 1921 Season
Photo of the Day: Lou Gehrig, Mid-Summer Home Run Leader
Historic Memorabilia, Fresh to Market Vintage Cards Part of 2023 All-Star Auction
