America’s pastime is a sport that requires skill, timing, athleticism and strategy, and the Yankees are the only club that has had a player from every position on the field inducted into the baseball hall of fame.

"The Most Successful Baseball Team Of All Time"

Welcome to New York, Home of the "Yankees"!

The Yankees are by far the most successful team of all time. They’ve won 26 World Series, making them in fact the most successful team in the North American professional sports.

New York: Patrick Falby

The philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen described the sport of baseball as America’s "national religion". If that actually is the case, The Yankee Stadium would be America’s national temple. There are few better places to be in a lazy humid night in the middle of the New York City summer than the corner of East 161st Street and River Avenue in the Bronx, along with over 50,000 avid baseball fans.

This has been home to the famous New York Yankees baseball team since 1923. In the first game there, the renowned Babe Ruth hit a home run, which was fitting since it was his home runs and star power that paid for the stadium, giving it the nickname, “The House That Ruth Built.” The Yankees have just defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 6 to 1, making it their fifth victory in a row.

The team with the highest payroll in Major League Baseball has been lagging behind most of the season, but fans left with a giddy feeling: they are within seven games of the hated Boston Red Sox for the division lead. That’s still a lot of ground to gain in the two months until the end of the sesaon, but third baseman Alex Rodriquez is the favorite to win the League’s Most Valuable Player award and Roger Clemons, the greatest pitcher of all time, battled through the game even though is close to his 45th birthday. And only two years ago, the Yankees spent most of the time chasing the Red Sox for the division title and then clinched it on the second last game of the season.

“Right on time,” says a cook serving patrons at a New York City cafeteria who expect nothing but success from the Yankees. “What did I tell you? Right on time.”

New Yorkers have good reason to be hopeful - the Yankees are by far the most successful team of all time. They’ve won 26 World Series, making them in fact the most successful team in the North American professional sports. Because of their success, the team is sometimes called the Evil Empire. In Boston, long-suffering Red Sox fans often chant against the Yankees– not only when New York is in town, but also at totally unrelated events, like rock concerts.

Red Sox fans are proud of their pretty, living museum to baseball, Fenway Park. But while Yankee Stadium suffered a drab renovation in the 1970s, its rich history makes it the essential ballpark to visit. A visitor can sit in any of the three tiers of the stadium. Prices start at around $10 for bleachers, then go up to $20 each for upper tier seats, $35 for second tier seats and then $35 to $80 to sit in the lowest level. Wherever the seat, visitors are usually awe-struck when they enter – the huge stadium and glowing grass spread out in front of the thousands of onlookers.

From your seat, you can see the famed Yankee Stadium features at the v-shaped playing area. The “short porch” in right field, 314 feet from home plate where hitters take aim at pitches from the opposing team, has absorbed countless home run balls. Right center field, 399 feet away from the batter’s box, is known as “Death Valley.” Monument Park, in left center field can be visited before the game and at designated hours. Here the Yankees display the jersey numbers they have retired, in honor of the team’s greatest all-time players such as Babe Ruth(3), Lou Gehrig(4), Mickey Mantle(7), Joe DiMaggio(5) and Reggie Jackson (44) who wore them. Beneath the numbers are plaques with the names of the players and a paragraph describing their feats.

Of all the Yankees’ great teams, it’s one in 1927 that is believed by many to have been the best. It featured so many great hitters that its lineup became known as “Murderers’ Row.” The 1927 Yankees won a record 110 games with only 44 losses, and trampled over the Pittsburg Pirates to win the 1927 World Series. Ruth hit 60 home runs that year, a single-season home run record that stood for 34 years until it was beaten by the Yankees’ Roger Maris, who hit 61 during the 1961 season.

America’s pastime is a sport that requires skill, timing, athleticism and strategy, and the Yankees are the only club that has had a player from every position on the field inducted into the baseball hall of fame.

Much like cricket, baseball is a slow paced game. Fans sit in seats, enjoying the summer afternoon or evening, chatting and commenting on the action. Every detail on the field is noted, as a player on one team pitches a ball to the hitter who tries to hit the ball to advance himself and his teammates around bases.

Those who mostly enjoy sports that have non-stop action might complain about baseball’s slow pace. But they should give baseball a chance - for many, the beauty of baseball is in its subtleties. Batting strategy, statistics, the aura and chatter in ballparks, history, base running, pitch location and sequence and defense in different situations are what make the game great. Baseball has no time limit, and its playing surface theoretically extends into eternity from a single point at home plate to beyond the fences. Real fans are never bored during a baseball game, even when it is at its slowest pace. For real fans, the nuances are what make the game interesting. That means to fully appreciate baseball, one must know some of the rules and also deeply observe the sport’s unique qualities.

The game is played between two teams, usually with nine players on each side. A pitcher throws a hard, apple sized, leather-covered ball toward a batter from the opposing team. The batter tries to hit the baseball with a wooden bat. Teams can only score runs when they’re batting, by advancing their players – usually by hits-counterclockwise past a series of four markers called bases that are installed at the corners a ninety foot square, or “diamond.” Although baseball doesn’t have a time limit, it’s structured around nine segments called innings. In each inning, both sides get the opportunity to bat and score runs. A team’s half inning is over when three outs are recorded against it.

But while much is made of the genteel aspects of the game, those who are faint of heart should avoid sitting in Yankee Stadium’s notorious right field bleachers. There, an infamous group of season ticket holders taunt, chant and slander the opposing team. As they file through the back entrances (they aren’t allowed in any part of the stadium), they look like friendly people: fathers with their young sons, spouses, young dates, even grandparents who pay the minimum price for these seats. But this collection of people renowned throughout the Major Leagues for their rowdy dedication to the Yankees and being merciless to opposing team fans who sit near them to cheer for the visiting squad. Beer sales are not permitted in the section where this group, known as the Bleacher Creatures, who have thrown batteries, coins and a knife at opposing players.

Because of the no-drinking rule in that section, many of the Bleacher Creatures show up late for home games. But for those who make it on time, there is a first inning ritual. They chant the name of every Yankee on the field until he turns and waves. For every opposing player, they are far less cordial – nearly every one of them is insulted. When the excellent Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki made his debut at Yankee Stadium, the Bleacher Creatures learned Japanese insults to welcome him.

It seems, however, that baseball’s most successful team sees the benefit in having fans that harass the opposition since there is little attempt to keep them under control.

“Some are real, obnoxious people, some are real foul-mouthed people,” one of the stadium ushers, Michael Swann, told the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper in 2001. “Yankee management says if you say certain words and get out of hand, you have to go. But when we try to throw them out, management won’t back us.”

A particularly well-known fan is Fred Schuman, known to most people as Freddy. He has come to games for over 50 years wearing a baseball cap, Yankees jersey with his name sewn on the back and a cake pan with a shamrock painted on it which is attached to a sign with words cheering on the Yankees. He changes the sign, “Freddy Sez…” every game, and carries a metal spoon with him which he encourages fans to bang on the pan for good luck as he walks through the crowd. It is not confirmed whether or not Freddy works for the Yankees, but many assume he must to be able to afford to go to so many of the 82 home games throughout the baseball season.

There are many other rituals to Yankee games. Fans must stand up for the seventh inning stretch, where halfway through the seventh inning the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is played. Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, the “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” has been followed by the song, “God Bless America.” The Yankees also use the speaker system to attempt to excite the crowd. The organist plays the “Zorba the Greek Theme” and the audience claps along, exciting themselves and encouraging the Yanks to score more runs.

There are other places to watch baseball in New York City; The Mets, also a Major League club, play at Shea Stadium, in Queens and the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones play at a charming waterfront stadium, Keyspan Park. But Yankee Stadium is the legendary destination worth visiting.

And every year there’s a chance the Yankees will win another championship, you have only until next year to visit their historic home – the Yankees are due to move into a new stadium in 2009.

BASEBALL FACTS AND HISTORY

The earliest known American discussion about baseball was a 1791 statute in the town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts that prohibited people to play the game within 80 yards of the local meeting house.

The classic foods to eat at a baseball game are peanuts and Crackerjacks (which are actually mentioned in the song, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”) as well as hotdogs.

Although the 1927 Yankees are mostly thought to be the greatest team in baseball history, the 1998 Yankees are also widely acknowledged as one of the best. That year they compiled a then-record 114 regular season wins with only 48 losses, and then swept the San Diego Padres to win the World Series.

One of the Yankees’ greatest-ever players, catcher Yogi Berra, was also known for giving the best quotes in sports. Some of his best “Yogisms”:

“He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious”

“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”

“I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

“I never said most of the things I said.”

“So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.”

“Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”

“You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”

“It gets late early over there.”

“The game’s isn’t over until it’s over.”