Quick answer
Yankee Stadium is the Yankees' ballpark on East 161st Street in the Bronx, opened in 2009 directly across the street from the original stadium that had stood since 1923. It cost about $2.3 billion and holds Monument Park, the plaque wall of the 27-time World Champion team's retired numbers.
Full transcript
A superstar's stadium
Yankee Stadium opened for the regular season on April 16, 2009, in the same Bronx block the Yankees have called their own since 1923 — built directly across East 161st Street from the old park. It cost about 2.3 billion dollars, among the most expensive sports venues ever raised, and the price shows in the limestone arches and soaring entrance columns that deliberately echo the 1923 original. It is big, urbane, and engineered for the game the way the franchise is: the Yankees, who have won a record 27 World Series titles, have drawn some of the largest crowds in baseball here every year since opening day.
Across from the legend
You understand the new building only by looking at the ghost across the street. The original Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923 and earned the nickname The House That Ruth Built after Babe Ruth and the Yankees won their first championship that season. It hosted its final game on September 21, 2008 and came down in 2009, its footprint turned into parks at Macombs Dam. When the Yankees moved, they carried the club's monuments with them: Monument Park, the open-air wall of plaques and retired numbers that began in the old stadium in 1932, now sits beyond the center-field fence, its history still intact.
What to do before first pitch
Get in early and make for Monument Park beyond center field, where you can read the names that defined the team — Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and the numbers retired in their honor. Wind through the Yankees Museum for the memorabilia, then find your way to the field-facing concourse at batting practice, when the crack of a fastball off wood tells you how close the seats really are. On many days the club runs guided tours down into the dugout itself. Count the retired numbers as you go — each one was earned by playing for the best team in the sport, and nobody on these grounds is casual about it.