BlackAmericans.com

Stories poured forth from people outside the Yankee Stadium who remembered small, touching moments in the life of the hulking stadium.

With a long day ahead of them, the masses already queuing to enter the stadium at 1 p.m. seemed largely subdued.

The last Yankees game at this Yankee Stadium is not the same as the last Dodgers game at Ebbets Field. The Yankees are just going across the street. The Dodgers were going across the country.

There is never any pretext of subtlety or modesty. They are the Yankees — front page, bold type — and their ballpark has always reflected that.

The director of tours at the old Yankee Stadium, who has been dispensing thousands of tidbits for 22 years, gave the last in-season tour.

It was 1948 when Paul Simon suddenly realized he was a Yankee fan. Sixty years later, he reminisces about his experiences at Yankee Stadium.

Long after Yankee Stadium I turns to rubble, the actual work of the firm that designed it, contained in scores of gray linen-cloth blueprints, will continue to exist.

The Yankees and the Mets have said little, if anything, about their plans to say farewell to their old stadiums.

Rank has its privileges everywhere else — so why not here?.

Getting to the postseason, Yankees rooters discovered this year, is not an inalienable right. Not even in the last season in the House That Ruth Built.