Ground Breaks On The House That Construction Jobs Built

The House That Ruth Built is a sacred cathedral that inspires great reverence . . . which is why it must be demolished to make way for a more functional version of itself:

Declaring the start of a new era for the Yankees and for the Bronx, officials broke ground yesterday on a $1.2 billion project to build a 51,000-seat replacement stadium. The ceremony took place as throngs of police officers cordoned off protesters who oppose the project because it will eliminate most of two parks and require $400 million in public subsidies.

Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dismissed those complaints. The governor said the project would create more parkland than it would destroy and noted that the team would be responsible for any cost overruns. The mayor said the stadium would help revitalize the long-neglected South Bronx and create 6,500 construction jobs over the next four years, as well as 1,000 permanent jobs.

The ceremony, which drew the likes of the former Yankees catcher and manager Yogi Berra and the actor Billy Crystal, occurred on the 58th anniversary of the death of Babe Ruth.

The groundbreaking seemed to put to rest decades of speculation that the Yankees might return to Manhattan, where they played until 1923, or abandon New York altogether for New Jersey.

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Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, recalled discovering Yankee Stadium as a teenager with his mother. “To many fans, the ballpark is a cathedral, because it’s a place that inspires great reverence, and it is a place for comfort. If ballparks are indeed cathedrals, then Yankee Stadium is one of the most revered.”

The five-level, open-air stadium will replicate the entry facade, roof frieze, auxiliary scoreboards and right-field bullpen of the current stadium, which opened in 1923 and was substantially modified in a 1974-75 renovation. The stadium is to be completed in 2009, and the Yankees will pay the $800 million construction costs using tax-exempt bonds.

The groundbreaking occurred on a running track at Macombs Dam Park, which will be largely eliminated, along with John Mullaly Park. Across River Avenue, where the No. 4 subway line runs overhead, demonstrators from Save Our Parks, a community group, chanted and shouted. Metal police barricades kept the demonstration separate from the ceremony.

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