Not with a bang, but a whimper...

And just like that, a legend quickly fades from memory.

I speak of course, of the House that Ruth built, THE Cathedral of Baseball, Yankee Stadium.

The first team the Yankees played when they opened Yankee Stadium was the Boston Red Sox. The score was 4-1. Yankees won. That season, they didn't stop winning, and went straight through to the World Series and won that too. That's how it started.

This is how it ends:

The final game has been played. Now all that remains is the waiting for the demolition crew and proverbial wrecking ball to arrive. You see, after 85 years of hosting 37 World Series, 4 All Star Games, countless boxing matches (including the famous Joe Louis vs Schmeling bout), multi Papal visits, and concerts, this monument to more than baseball is going to be torn down... to make room for a parking lot.

Before Yankee Stadium, most baseball teams played in fields, or parks. Yankee Stadium was one of the FIRST ballparks to be given the title of Stadium. This obviously means nothing.

Now you too can park your SUV where Lou Gehrig gave his famous "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech. I can picture it now... fresh grease stains on the spot Mickey Mantle hit the big 5-0-0, a few more where Mr. October hit three home runs on three consecutive pitches in game 6, a tailgate party where Adolf Hitler's Aryan Superman was knocked out by the Brown Bomber, and handicap parking logo spray painted over the spot where legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne gave his "win one for the Gipper" speech. Living history.

Perhaps I am making too much of this. I mean, it's only a building right? Not in New York. No structure with that many memories attached to it, especially in town like New York can ever be considered "JUST a building." It's an icon. It's a historical landmark. It's yesterday's news.

And what better testament to Yankee Stadium's new found worth, than to end it's use, not on the grandest stage possible, the World Series, but in a lowly regular season game, against of all teams, the Baltimore Orioles. At least the Yankees won right? Not much consolation.

I wonder what they'll call the new home of the New York Yankees? The Wachovia-American Airlines-Hertz Rent-a-Car Center? Ya, I'm sure we'll be building memories worthy of inclusion in history books there.

Meanwhile, the ghosts of Yankee Stadium will be standing vigil from across the street, next to a Honda Accord.