Farewell To A Baseball Cathedral

85 Years after Babe Ruth smacked the first home run at Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Bombers shut down The House That Ruth Built with a 7-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Mariano Rivera recorded the final out and Jose Molina's name will now endure into perpetuity as the answer to the bar room trivia question of naming the player that hit the final home run at Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Stadium hosted many memorable baseball moments, and was rarely short of sporting dramatics.

Don Larsen pitched a perfect game there in the 1956 World Series, a hurling gem that still stands as the only twenty-seven up and twenty-seven down performance in Series history.

Reggie Jackson bashed three home runs in one game during the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers.

George Brett of the Kansas City Royals went ballistic after the home plate umpire reversed a 9th inning - and potentially game winning - home run and ruled him out because it was determined that he had too much pine tar on his bat.

Lou Gherig echoed to the world that he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, despite facing imminent death after being diagnosed with the terminal disease (ALS) that now carries his name.

There is no sports franchise that is both loved and loathed in greater and equal measure than the New York Yankees.

Tonight though, as the lights of Yankee Stadium slowly faded, baseball fans spanning generations and team loyalties took pause to wax nostalgia and tip our collective caps to the monumental shrine.

Farewell.