Nov 10, 2008 4:15 am US/Pacific
Yankees Move Home Plate To New Stadium
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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When the Yankees heard the crowd's last cheers at their old stadium in September, players dug their hands into the ballpark dirt to take some home, along with the memories. (File)
Michael Heiman/Getty Images
When the Yankees heard the crowd's last cheers at their old stadium in September, players dug their hands into the ballpark dirt to take some home, along with the memories.
On a hushed, rainy field Saturday, a group of Bronx kids and a few legendary players dug shovels into the soil around the home plate and pitcher's mound, filling dozens of blue and white buckets.
Workers then removed the plate and mound, and the group walked across the street to the Yankees' shining new stadium to mix the old dirt with the fresh soil.
Gabriel Nieves, 15, shoveled about five pounds of dirt from the home plate into his pail.
''This is a once in a lifetime experience. It's something you remember forever,'' he said as he moved dirt with about 60 other youths, joining Yankee legends David Cone, Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius and Jeff Nelson.
Nieves' mother, Audrey, watched the ceremony with tears streaming down her face.
''This is just awesome,'' Audrey Nieves said. ''This is a big deal. This is the end of an era.''
Cone, a 1998 World Series champion who pitched a perfect game from the old mound a year later, stood by the hole in the ground after workers pulled up the long white piece of rubber.
''This piece of rubber is special, because this is how we made our living, on this piece of rubber,'' said Cone, standing on the wet grass in the empty, illuminated ballpark.
Glancing up at the bleachers, the 45-year-old baseball great added with a smile, ''That's where the 'Bleacher Creatures' would yell our names, and the bleachers shook during games.''
The Yankees played their final game at the 85-year-old stadium on Sept. 21 a 7-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Players scooped handfuls of dirt from the ballpark as they left.
''Take the memories from this stadium, add it to the new memories that come with the new Yankee Stadium and continue to pass them on from generation to generation,'' team captain Derek Jeter said at the time.
In the new field, part of a $1.3 billion stadium set to open in April, Nieves helped set down the home plate, dreaming about his future as an engineer: ''Maybe I'll help build the next Yankee Stadium.''
He is part of a Yankee-sponsored afterschool program aimed at helping Bronx youths pursue careers in architecture, engineering and construction. Scholarships are granted to selected high school seniors.
Later on Saturday, 17-year-old Omar Liriano stood proudly in the subway with his shovel and bucket. Inside, wrapped in plastic, was something special he was taking home a mound of old Yankee Stadium dirt.
''I'm, like wow,'' he said with a grin. ''I'll keep it at home in a jar.''
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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