APRIL 10, 2008 --

The last opening day for Yankee Stadium had been scheduled for March 31 and it was not to be, not on that date, that is.  

Rain started to fall mid-morning and the decision was made at about 2:30 PM to postpone this opening game against Toronto, scheduled to start at 1:05 PM.   

The Yankee Stadium infield at 10:14 AM

The Umbrellas outside Yankee Stadium at 1:00 PM

LPR met three people who, at about noon, were still hoping the game would be played. They got their tickets last November, to be on hand for the last opening day at the original (albeit renovated) Yankee Stadium -- also known as "the House that [Babe] Ruth built."

A Dallas couple and a sister (r) right, from England.

The three included a couple who traveled from Dallas, and the woman's sister who traveled from England.  

People with opening day tickets were able to use the tickets for the make-up game, won the next evening by the Yankees, 3-2.  But, as a few fans told me, they still had to pay a second parking price of $17.

Babe Ruth Plaza tidied up near the original ballpark.

LPR noticed that the Babe Ruth Plaza section on 161st Street next to the current stadium has been tided up since last season, but the Babe Ruth Plaza section next to the new ballpark is still in disrepair.

LPR returned the next day -- April 1, for the second last opening day at Yankee Stadium and got images of a number of Yankees entering the ballpark for the last opener of any season.  

Babe Ruth Plaza still crumbles near the new ballpark.

(LPR continued to hear talk that the current stadium will be torn down.) See below for more LPR images.

Reggie Jackson (seen here March 31st) -- scheduled to throw out first pitch, which he did April 1.

Autographs still forbidden.

Many of the arriving Yankees shown in this edition of LPR are seen walking past construction trucks. These trucks are working on the garage that is being built where baseball fields once stood alongside the current ballpark.

From what LPR could tell, April 1, the corner opposite the facade of the new stadium at the approach to Macombs Dam bridge is going to be a popular spot, this season, for picture-takers, who, at sunset, will catch the setting sun reflected in the glass panels beneath the words, etched in gold, "Yankee Stadium."  

And yet, March 31st, LPR had a sad feeling, indeed, that it will miss "the House that Ruth built."  A sadness not at all compensated by the fact that the 2008 All-Star game will be played in this historic shrine of New York City, New York States and indeed, the USA.

Please participate in the LPR poll on the future of the Yankee Stadium that was known as the House that Ruth Built."