Yankee Stadium Closing Ceremony Canceled

So we're done. Other than a few remaining tours, the greatest building in all of sports is closed for business.

Kat O'Brien has the deal in Newsday. Apparently the Daily News had it first. Whatever. The folks at Newsday (well, Neil Best specifically) have been nice to me.

Yankees spokesperson Jason Zillo said on the cancellation: "The Yankees were considering having a charitable event at Yankee Stadium for BAT, however we realized the final event at Yankee Stadium should be a baseball game, which in fact took place on Sept. 21, 2008."

I'm torn. I wanted to see the old girl open one last time, yet the fact that I was there for the last event means something to me, and it was an amazing night(pictures are here if you haven't seen them).

I will offer this - Bobby Murcer was heavily involved with BAT, and that would have been reason enough to hold the event. So be it.

UPDATE: PeteAbe has some excellent thoughts:

It’s probably just as well. The Yankees weren’t going to do better than that did on Sept. 21 when Derek Jeter gave that his memorable speech and the team walked around the field after beating the Orioles.

Still, this underlines what a slipshod job the organization did all season paying tribute to the place. The countdown thing was a commercial gimmick that rarely worked. There was never once any sort of tribute paid to the football legacy of the building, the great boxing history, the music, etc. How did they not bring back any of the Giants and Colts from that 1958 game?

Here they are, Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall, Lenny Moore and Raymond Berry to throw out the first pitch. Would that have been hard to arrange? Here’s Paul Simon to sing the National Anthem, then show a clip of him doing Mrs Robinson in honor of Joe DiMaggio when he died.

For all sorts of reasons, 2008 was a season to write off for the Yankees.

Correct. 100% correct. The Yankees blew it in 2008. Big time. On the field and off. Shameful. It's like they want to downplay the great House because of the House that Greed Built arising next door. Sad.