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02/25/2008 2:45 PM ET
A wall of unforgettable memories
Part 3 of Yankee Stadium tour looks at Monument Park
By Doug Miller / MLB.com








Henry Louis Gehrig. Mickey Mantle. George Herman "Babe" Ruth. Joseph Paul DiMaggio.
Just seeing those four names is enough to send a chill down any baseball fan's spine, but seeing them embossed on monuments beyond the outfield wall in Yankee Stadium is something every baseball fan should see, Yankees fan or not.

That's the point Tony Morante makes about Monument Park in the grand finale of the official Yankee Stadium tour, and it's our last stop in our video spin through the House that Ruth Built the year before the Bronx Bombers open their new yard across the street.

"It's the most exclusive part of not only Yankee Stadium but any sports arena, for that matter," Morante says. "There's no other like it."

Morante first points out the retired numbers, 16 of them in all, the most in Major League Baseball. They're listed in chronological order, so Lou Gehrig's No. 4 is the first one in the line. Gehrig's number was retired in 1939. It goes all the way to Ron Guidry's No. 49, which honored the great Yankees career of the lefty known as "Louisiana Lightning" in 1993.

Morante also reveals the five monuments that have been erected over the years for the most exalted of all Yankees.

The first one, built in 1932, was for Miller Huggins, the manager who won the first pennants and World Series for the Yankees. Morante tells us that the Huggins monument was originally placed in center field and would have been a hazard for the outfielders if not for the fact that hardly any batted balls ever made it to that part of the stadium in those days.

The other two original monuments, not surprisingly, honor Gehrig and, according to Morante, "the greatest of them all, Babe Ruth. Make no mistake about it, folks. I don't know if we'd be standing here today if it weren't for the efforts of the Babe going back into the 1920s. He changed the game of baseball dramatically with the advent of those colossal home runs."

When Yankee Stadium was remodeled into its current state in 1974, the three monuments were moved out of center field and into the Monument Park area that exists today. And 20 years later, in 1994, another monument was erected - the one that honors Mickey Mantle. Five years later, fittingly, was Monument No. 5 honoring the Yankees' last No. 5: Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper.

For Morante, the choice of this quintet of Yankees greatness was a no-brainer.

"Those five guys were just a cut above the rest," Morante says. "Most of these guys are legends. We're talking about icons with these monuments."

Doug Miller is a Senior Writer for MLB.com/Entertainment. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.