It all started with 'The Babe'

For those investors/readers who aren't familiar with Yankee Stadium, the stadium is known as "The House That Ruth Built" because of the millions of baseball fans who paid to see George Herman "Babe" Ruth hit booming home runs and see the New York Yankees win pennants and World Series there. Arguably the greatest sports figure ever, Ruth's achievements and charismatic personality symbolized not only the growth of a sport, baseball, but the ascendancy in the 1920s of the United States, the nation that would become the dominant power of the modern world, and the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

For Ruth's achievements alone, Yankee Stadium would have stood head-and-shoulders above any sports locale in the modern era. But that, incredibly, was just the beginning of the Stadium's lore, the corner stone.

The equally legendary figure, Hall of Fame Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, "The Iron Horse," played there. And on July 4, 1939, Gehrig, a man who knew he was going to die, stood in front of 75,000 people at Yankee Stadium and called himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." It's been said that nothing in sports can ever be sacred, but know that on that day Yankee Stadium became hallowed ground.

Ruth and Gehrig were followed by "The Yankee Clipper," Joe DiMaggio, arguably baseball's greatest player, and by Mickey Mantle, another fabulous player, and a hero of the Baby Boom generation.

Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. It seems almost impossible or unfair that all four could have played for the same club. But they did, and at Yankee Stadium, as did many other wonderful athletes, including contemporary Yankee stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. And even though the Stadium was remodeled prior to the 1976 baseball season, you get the sense that artifacts from Yankee Stadium are going to become very valuable collectors' items, indeed.

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Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro, a lifelong Yankee fan, is based in New York.