While doing some clearing of the DVR this weekend, I happened upon my three-year-old recording of the last game at the previous Yankee Stadium. Having been at that game, I just can’t bring myself to delete it until I watch it a few more times. (Side question: when will DVR manufacturers and/or the cable companies allow simple export of recorded shows to a hard drive, optical disk, the cloud, etc.?)
This game appeared on ESPN that day in September 2008. The thing I like about ESPN is the network knows its viewers are not interested in spare presentations of the game. On the contrary, this particular, historic game was presented with a scrolling feed along the bottom pointing out notable happenings at Yankee Stadium since its opening in 1923. Concerts, prizefights, Papal visits, etc. all crawled across the bottom of the screen in a constant data pipe of information.
One part of the crawl interested me especially, as I have a fondness for both the Yankees and movies. It listed movies where at least some scenes were filmed at “Yankee Stadium (1923),” as Wikipedia calls it.
Here’s the list:
- Pride of the Yankees (1942),
- The Babe Ruth Story (1948),
- It Happens Every Spring (1949),
- Angels in the Outfield (original version, 1951),
- Bang the Drum Slowly (1973),
- Major League (1989), and
- For the Love of the Game (1999)
Interestingly, one notable movie about Yankees lore, 61*, was filmed in Tiger Stadium in Detroit.