Oct 02, 2012 - Sale 2287

Sale 2287 - Lot 123

Price Realized: $ 3,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
FROM THE FIRST BALLGAME AT THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT (BASEBALL.) Official Souvenir Program, Opening Day, Yankee Stadium. 16 pages, 11 x 9 1/4 inches. 4to, original color pictorial wrappers, worn and detached, tape repairs to rear wrapper; unscored, leaves partly detached, tear to third leaf with loss of a few words, one vertical crease throughout. [New York]: Harry M. Stevens, 18 April 1923
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After a decade spent as tenants of the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, the New York Yankees built an enormous 60,000-seat stadium to start the 1923 season. Opening Day was a grand success, with the Yankees defeating the rival Boston Red Sox 4 to 1 on the strength of Babe Ruth's three-run home run. The New York Evening Telegram dubbed the new stadium "The House that Ruth Built" in that evening's paper.
This Opening Day program dates from the birth of perhaps the most fabled stadium in sports. The cover is illustrated with photographs of team officers Jacob Ruppert and T.L. Huston. Inside is a composite team picture featuring Ruth, as well as teammates including Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, and a confident-looking Wally Pipp (who had no idea Lou Gehrig was coming in two months to take his job). The new stadium itself is illustrated on the first page. The Yankees went on to win their first World Series that year.