Yankee Stadium Legacy
TypeTrading cards
CompanyUpper Deck
CountryUnited States
Availability2008–2008
FeaturesNew York Yankees players
Sports events at Yankee Stadium

The Yankee Stadium Legacy set is a 6,752-card[1] compilation chronicling every single game the New York Yankees ever played at the original Yankee Stadium since April 18, 1923. The card set was manufactured by Upper Deck and made its official debut by being randomly inserted into packs of Upper Deck’s 2008 Series 1 Baseball.[2]

As part of a promotion related to the set, the first five collectors who completed the set of all 6,661 cards inserted into 2008 Upper Deck Baseball products, were to travel to New York during the 2009 New York Yankees season to attend a game at the new Yankee Stadium and meet Yankee Captain, Derek Jeter.[3] The Yankee Stadium Legacy cards representing the 2008 New York Yankees season appeared in 2009 Upper Deck Series One Baseball packs in February 2009 and put an end to the Yankee Stadium Legacy promotion.[2] The five contest winners would receive the 82 cards representing the final season at Yankee Stadium.

Tommy Baxter, a 36-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, was the first collector to put together Upper Deck’s Yankee Stadium Legacy (YSL) Collection. Baxter was a Cubs fan.[4] Baxter's accomplishment was commemorated with a card in 2009 Upper Deck Series One Baseball.[5]

Notable events

Some of the cards in the set commemorate some of the most famous sporting events that have taken place at Yankee Stadium. Some of these events include:

Some memorable sports moments at Yankee Stadium that were part of the set (above): Babe Ruth's first home run at Yankee Stadium (1923); Army v Notre Dame (1928); (below): Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling (1936), and Babe Ruth's last visit to Yankee Stadium (1948)
Card # Event Date
1Babe Ruth first game at Yankee Stadium opening [n 1]18 Apr 1923
473HMNotre Dame vs. Army college football: "Win one for the Gipper" speech [n 2]10 Nov 1928
Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest man alive" speech [n 3]4 Jul 1939
1288HM1939 Major League Baseball All-Star Game11 Jul 1939
Babe Ruth's final visit to Yankee Stadium" [n 4]13 Jun 1948
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling heavyweight title bout [n 5]19 Jun 1936
2835HM1958 NFL Championship Game (New York Giants v Baltimore Colts) [n 6]28 Dec 1958
29461960 MLB All-Star Game (2nd.)13 Jul 1960
3073Roger Maris breaks Babe Ruth's home run record1 Oct 1961
4131 HMMuhammad Ali's title defense against Ken Norton [n 7]28 Sep 1976
Reggie Jackson's three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series18 Oct 1977
Pine Tar Incident [n 8]24 Jul 1983
Notes
  1. ↑ Opened in 1923, the old Yankee Stadium hosted games until 2008, being then demolished.[6][7]
  2. ↑ This refers to the speech by Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne at halftime of the 1928 game v Army. Rockne tried to inspire his players telling them the tragic story of George Gipp (died in 1920 at 25), considered the greatest player ever at ND.[8][9] Notre Dame won 12–6.[10]
  3. ↑ On July 4, 1939, Gehrig delivered what has been called "baseball's Gettysburg Address" to a sold-out crowd at Yankee Stadium.[11][12][13] During his speech, Gehrig considered himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth".[14]
  4. ↑ That day, the Yankees scheduled the stadium's 25th. anniversary and the retirement of Ruth's #3. A sick and tired Ruth attended the ceremony, dressed in his uniform with the number 3 on the back. He died two months later.[15]
  5. ↑ It was a two-fight series that came to embody the broader political and social conflict of the time. As the most significant African American athlete of his age and the most successful black fighter since Jack Johnson, Louis was a focal point for African American pride in the 1930s. Moreover, as a contest between representatives of the United States and Nazi Germany during the 1930s, the fights came to symbolize the struggle between democracy and fascism.[16][17]
  6. ↑ The game (won by the Colts 23–17) has since become widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played".[24] Its legendary status in the pantheon of historic NFL games was again confirmed by a nationwide poll of 66 media members in 2019, who voted it the best game in the league's first 100 years.[25][26].
  7. ↑ Ali won.
  8. ↑ This was a controversial incident in 1983 during an American League baseball game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees. With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning and two out, George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team the lead; however, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who had noticed a large amount of pine tar[27] on Brett's bat, requested that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires ruled that the amount on the bat exceeded that allowed by rule, nullified Brett's home run, and called him out. As Brett was the third out in the ninth inning with the home team in the lead, the game ended with a Yankees win.[28][29] Nevertheless, the Royals protested the game, upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail, who ordered that the game be continued from the point of Brett's home run.[30][31][32] The game was resumed 25 days later on August 18, and officially ended with the Royals winning 5–4.[33][34]

Guinness Record

According to a January 2008 Upper Deck press release,[2] Guinness World Records would certify Yankee Stadium Legacy as the largest baseball card set ever produced, once all the cards are released.[35]

However, the 1998 Topps TEK set contained 90 different player cards, that were each available in 90 different variations, for a total of 8,100 different cards which some collectors consider to be an even larger complete set.[36]

Distribution

The various sets where the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards were inserted into were: Spectrum; Piece of History; SPx; Upper Deck Series Two; SP Legendary Cuts (Hobby-only); SP Authentic; UDx; and UD Masterpieces. Upper Deck started the website www.OwnTheLegacy.com so that collectors could find out more about the Yankee Stadium Legacy set. Alphanumeric codes found on the backs of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards can be entered at the site, and collectors will can use the site to manage their collections online, and track their collections against other collectors via a leader board.

The cards commemorating the 2008 New York Yankees season were featured in Series 1 of 2009 Upper Deck baseball.[1] Two of the more notable cards include YSL-AG (commemorating the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game) and card YSL-6742 featuring Andy Pettite commemorating the final game at Yankee Stadium).

References

  1. 1 2 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy on Baseball Card
  2. 1 2 3 Upper Deck Releases Record-Setting Card Collection: The Yankee Stadium Legacy Set! Upper Deck press release, 18 Jan 2008
  3. ↑ Upper Deck Offers Yankee Fans the Opportunity to Meet Derek Jeter on Upper Deck
  4. ↑ Tommy Baxter of Little Rock, Arkansas, Completes Upper Deck's Yankee Stadium Legacy Collection! by Jay Cochran, 10 Mar 2009
  5. ↑ ARKANSAS COLLECTOR COMPLETES YANKEE STADIUM LEGACY COLLECTION on Beckett.com
  6. ↑ El destino que tuvo "la casa que Babe Ruth construyó" by Gabriel Delgado,21 Aug 2022 at Albat.com
  7. ↑ This Day in Yankees History: Babe Ruth opens Yankee Stadium with a bang by Tyler Norton at Pinstripe Alley. 18 Apr 2020
  8. ↑ #1 George Gipp: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players, Sep 28, 2016
  9. ↑ Knute Rockne's "Win One for the Gipper" Speech on Notre Dame Archives
  10. ↑ Gridiron Greatness: College football made mighty contributions toward Yankee Stadium's place in pop culture history on December 6th, 2016 by Alfred Santasiere III at MLB.com
  11. ↑ "Farewell Address". lougehrig.com. July 4, 1939. Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  12. ↑ Wulf, Steve (July 4, 2014). "An awful lot to live for". ESPN. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Full Text of Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  14. ↑ Menand, Louis (May 25, 2020). "How Baseball Players Became Celebrities". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  15. ↑ [June 13, 1948: Babe Ruth makes final visit to Yankee Stadium] by Glen Sparks at the SABR.org
  16. ↑ Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, la primera batalla on Clarín
  17. ↑ Schmeling y Joe Louis, los amigos que superaron las barreras del odio at Aires de Santa Fe, 20 July 2020
  18. ↑ "Greatest Game Ever Played". ProFootballHOF.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. January 1, 2005. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  19. ↑ Barnidge, Tom. "1958 Colts remember the 'Greatest Game'". NFL.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. Archived from the original on June 24, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  20. ↑ Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)
  21. ↑ "Dec. 28, 1958: A legend is born". NFL.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. Archived from the original on September 17, 2002. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Title game wasn't that great for '58 Colts" by Eddie Epstein, espn.com
  23. ↑ Gregory, Sean (December 29, 2008). "The Football Game that Changed It All". Time. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  24. ↑ [18][19][20][21][22][23]
  25. ↑ George R.R. Martin. "NFL CHAMPIONSHIP - "THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED"". NFL.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  26. ↑ Wilner, Barry (October 6, 2019). "This will come as no surprise in Baltimore, but Colts' 1958 title win over Giants is voted NFL's greatest game". The Baltimore Sun. Associated Press. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  27. ↑ Petri, Josh. "What Is Pine Tar And Why Is It Illegal In Baseball?". Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  28. ↑ Chass, Murray (July 25, 1983). "KC stuck with loss after pine tar homer". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). New York Times News Service. p. 11.
  29. ↑ Jackson, Derrick (July 25, 1983). "Yankees stick it to Brett Royally on using an illegal bat". Pittsburgh Press. (Washington Post). p. C6.
  30. ↑ "Ruling by MacPhail yanks win from N.Y." Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). Associated Press. July 29, 1983. p. 12.
  31. ↑ "Brett says ruling courageous, but Yankees can't figure it out". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). Associated Press. July 29, 1983. p. 15.
  32. ↑ "Brett happy, umps angry". Pittsburgh Press. combined wire services. July 29, 1983. p. C2.
  33. ↑ "Yankees, Royals, courts put an end to Tar Wars". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. August 19, 1983. p. 13. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  34. ↑ "Quisenberry saves tar victory; Yankees file one more protest". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). Associated Press. August 19, 1983. p. 11.
  35. ↑ A Beginner's Guide to Sports Card Collecting by John Cook, 27 Jan 2019
  36. ↑ Dear Guinness World Records
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