‘House’ full of memories

All season, a long goodbye has been going on at Yankee Stadium, and rightfully so for the "House That Ruth Built," all cement and grass and facade, a nostalgic memory-making machine that started churning out magic moments once the turnstiles started spinning on April 18, 1923.

A new Yankee Stadium opens next door in 2009.

A million or so great moments at Yankee Stadium probably were carefully collected over the years, many of them intensely personal, but others to be shared by sports fans forever.

Sporting News made a list of the top 10 Yankee Stadium events, No. 1 being Lou Gehrig's "luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech, July 4, 1939. No. 2 was Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series against the Dodgers, Oct. 8, 1956.

Among the other notable moments listed: No. 4, Knute Rockne delivers his "win one for the Gipper" speech at halftime and Notre Dame defeats Army, Nov. 12, 1928; No. 6, Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run, Sept. 30, 1927; No. 9, Ruth's farewell speech, June 13, 1948; and No. 10, Ruth lies in state and 200,000 view his coffin, Aug. 17, 1948.

• JAMES ON THE ASSIST -- NBA superstar LeBron James donated $20,000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, but if that also could be taken as an endorsement its effect appears debatable.

For example, this response was among the first comments posted about the news on the Los Angeles Times' Top of the Ticket blog:

"Lebron (sic) James knows about as much about politics as I do about dunking a basketball. NONE!!!!!"

• GRIDLOCK COMBINATION? -- UCLA and the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., are putting together a special ticket package that combines the Pepsi 500 NASCAR race Aug. 31 with the UCLA-Tennessee game Sept. 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Included in the $99 package is a question-and-answer session with driver Sterling Marlin, a Tennessee native.

For equal time, maybe UCLA should counter with a Q-and-A with any student engaged in the daily desperate search for a parking space around campus.

• NO CLOSE SHAVES -- It has received little mention, probably because it's too trivial (although probably not in Chicago), but on Monday, Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks joined Sal "The Barber" Maglie as the only pitchers to go 10-0 against the Cubs in their careers.

• STICKY SITUATION -- David Tyree of the New York Giants, whose one-handed, off-his-helmet, 32-yard pass reception set up the winning touchdown in February's Super Bowl, says he has all kinds of helmets that come in handy.

Said Tyree: "One with bubble gum, one with Velcro and one with good old-fashioned Krazy Glue."

• NOT LOSING SLEEP -- Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy says he is protective of quarterback Zac Robinson and is concerned about what would happen if he gets hurt:

"I worry about that every night ... just before I take a sleeping pill."

REVIEW-JOURNAL WIRE SERVICES