Yankee Stadium Frieze Update - A little nonsense Now and Then, Is Cherished by the Wisest Men.

A frieze, in architecture, is a horizontally painted or chiseled strip with serial ornaments for division or adornment of walls.

 

 

Through thick, thin, hot, cold and after nearly a year of on again, off again work, I've finally got the Yankee Stadium inspired frieze on the top of my workbench "done". I put done in quotes because I plan on adding to it. I still have more than 18 feet of frieze to go. This little section here, which will serve as a template for future freize (what's the plural of frieze?) is only three feet long. I'm ok with leaving this as is for now because the original Yankee Stadium, the one that "Ruth built" and opened in 1923, went through many expansions and changes before it was torn apart during the well intentioned, "engineeringly" successful but architecturally flawed 1970's renovation. Y'see, Yankee Stadium was never really completed.

I'll start with expanding the "left field" side. When the original stadium was first expanded in 1928 they started with building out the left field grand stand. Something the Yankees had planned on doing since the ball park opened in 1923. Right field was extended in 1936-1937.

The Great Frieze Project also included a quadrupling of the size of my work bench. This expansion  so large that my wife now refers to the area in the east side of our garage now as my "work shop". Nice. She also thinks the frieze makes my work shop look like a doll house. That's not so nice.

Why did this take me nearly a year to complete? My impulsivity, lack of free time and my proclivity to make mistakes (did I mention that I have no idea what I was doing here) helped drag this project out way, waaaay longer than it should have. I didn't plan on the expansion at first but it made sense. It was something I had been planning on doing in the first place and a build out that I should've done when I first built my original when we moved here three years ago.

 

 

 

Lets get back to my inspiration for this in the first place. It stars with the frieze on the original Yankee Stadium and its demise during the 1973-1976 renovation. That renovation of Yankee Stadium, while an engineering marvel, was, in my opinion, a questionable architectural exercise that almost resulted in the updated stadium having no frieze at all. 

The most significant part of the remodel was the removal of the posts holding up the mezzanine,  upper deck and the roof that supported a copper (some say it was turned metal with a heavy copper content) frieze. You can see some of the posts still standing in this July 1974 picture of Joe DiMaggio standing near the 161st Street subway platform.

With the posts gone, the mezzanine and upper deck were, to over simplify things,  hinged on the outer walls of the stadium, balanced by huge counter weights and held in place by suspension bridge cabling. Pretty slick although there was no frieze on the roof of the new stadium. In fact, original plans for the remodel had the ball park without any frieze. To make matters worse, for what the city paid to have this work done, they could've built an entirely brand new ball park with a frieze.

 

  

Rumor had it that George Steinbrenner insisted on a frieze on the renovated ballpark.  The much smaller roof on the new stadium could not support a frieze so designers and engineers put one atop the outfield walls. Truth was, it was then Yankee President Mike Burke who insisted and ultimately lobbied successfully for it. That's ironic. A man who couldn't get anything done on the field for the ball club was able to get something as significant as the frieze on the renovated Stadium done. The Yankees were dreadful during his tenure.
 

 

What I'll call the "1976" frieze was a composite facsimile of the 1923 original and was much more intricate than the steel frieze on the "2009" Stadium. A section of  the '76 frieze is on display across the street from the 2009 Stadium in McCombs Dam Park. Sadly, there is no display of the iconic "1923" copper original. Legend has it that it was melted down for scrap after it was removed from the ball park right after the 1973 season.

 

  

At first, the "1976" Stadium looked contemporary. We are talking the mid '70's, though and many contemporary Stadiums  of that time, like Shea Stadium were the Mets played, were built during the "cookie cutter", multi purpose days of the 1960's. Indeed the renovated ball park was contemporary but it looked as though something was missing from it. Sorely missing.

 

When I was a kid, the Yankees were in a decade plus decline and the old ballpark made the Yankees  all the more old, musty and uncool to me. George Steinbrenner referred to Yankee Stadium as a dump. In fairness, it was. I can still smell the stale beer stench of the place. Why couldn't the Yanks play in a cool, modern ball park like the Mets played in? Careful what you wish for, son. Prime example of not knowing what you have until it's gone.  

 

 

I'm not one to brag but I think my frieze came out pretty good. I'm not a carpenter and I blame my myriad mistakes not so much on my lack of ability but on a lack of experience and proper tools. I cut this using a hand held jig saw. I also lack training; I don't know what I don't know. Knowledge is power. I have a little more knowledge on how to do things after spending so much time on this so I guess that means I have a little more power. Right? Riiiiight. Help. I'm drunk with power. Or is that just a power...saw?

 

 

My frieze is spiritually closer to the 2009 Stadium's frieze than either the Frieze from the original Stadium or the 1976 Stadium. That's too bad...as nice as the new Stadium is, it lacks...something.

   

I know what it is. The "2009 Stadium" is more like something you'd find in an amusement park. It's a theme park attraction that emulates a Yankee Stadium as opposed to being Yankee Stadium. While the exterior magnificent, the interior, while functional in ways the previous two stadiums could never be, is antiseptic. 

 

Much like my frieze, the 2009 frieze on Yankee Stadium lacks the intricate details of its previous incarnations. I have a good excuse for that, though; I have no idea what I'm doing. For the new stadium, however, the Yankees cheapened out. They spent lavishly on upholstered seats and luxury boxes and while the frieze was no doubt expensive, they cut corners on it. It lacks the rich detail of the first two. 

 

Making my frieze was a grueling process. From using a bicycle wheel as the template for the arches to the cutting of the frieze to the cutting of the dowels, this three foot section took upwards of six plus hours to complete. That's thirty minutes here, sixty there. I'd work on it until I got sick, tired and bored with it. I'd put it to the side and come back to it finally finishing it this past weekend. I think that process ultimately worked well. I hope you feel the same way. I have more than 18 more feet of it to complete. My plan is to finish my New York Jets man cave logo first.

 

 

Remember, as the great Willie Wonka said, "A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."

 

I couldn't agree more.