Last updated: 12:32 pm
July 14, 2008
Posted: 3:07 am
July 14, 2008
Pillar of Captains, Lou's sanctuary, ancient banners and secret vault lie beneath stands
PICTURE TELLS A STORY: Derek Jeter sits next to a mural of himself and legendary Yankee captains Lou Gehrig and Thurman Munson in a room far down the first-base line at Yankee Stadium. It was in this room that the Iron Horse would sit in 1939 and come to grips with his illness.
N.Y, Post: Charles Wenzelberg
FLAG DAY: Tony Morante, the Sultan of Stadium tours, shows off the remade 1923 championship banner. A treasure trove of championship banners, which used to fly on special occasions at the old Stadium, were found in cardboard boxes and will be featured at times in the new ballpark.
N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg
EVERYONE knows about Monument Park, Thurman Munson's locker and other Pinstripe treasures in this the final year of Yankee Stadium.
Walk past the Yankee clubhouse, however, and head toward the right-field corner. There under the stands is the indoor batting cage, a place the public rarely sees, a place where the players take their practice swings, a place where the 1977 World Champion Yankees held their celebration. This is the Columbus Room.
A few feet beyond that is a room where even the players rarely venture. Hundreds of blue chairs in various stages of disrepair fill the room, but according to Stadium lore this is a holy place.
To the left is a pillar that features a mural of Yankee captains Lou Gehrig, Munson and Derek Jeter painted by renowned baseball artist James Fiorentino, the youngest artist to have his work featured at the Hall of Fame. To insiders, this room is known as the Gehrig Room. The way the story goes, the pillar is a place where Gehrig used to visit when times were toughest in his Yankee life.
In Gehrig's time, the Yankee dugout was the third-base dugout, with the visiting clubhouse directly behind the dugout, where it is located today. The home clubhouse was directly above, one level up. For reasons known only to owner Jacob Ruppert, he switched the home dugout from first to third and the original Yankee clubhouse behind the first base dugout was sealed off once the first-base dugout became the visitor's dugout.
When Gehrig was struggling with ALS in 1939, it was said he would seek refuge as far away from the Yankee clubhouse as possible. That's why he would go to this room, sit in a chair that was placed up against the pillar, and try to come to grips with what was happening.
