"I don't think you can just move it over," Torre says of the existing stadium's fabled aura. "You erect a new stadium out of necessity. This ballpark has held up, but it's in need of repair. I'm certain that with the way they are designing stadiums today, the people are going to really enjoy the new stadium. It will have a touch of the inside of this stadium and a touch of the old outside of the stadium, which to me was a classic look."

Sitting in the Yankees dugout - where so much drama has unfolded - Torre at first says he does not mind the fact that the original Yankee Stadium will be demolished to make way for smaller, public playing fields when the new stadium is completed. But then he admits that he will not be happy when the wrecking ball takes down the old stadium. He can't even bring himself to use the word demolish.
"I think there will always be sadness at the time when they finally do what they're going to do to it," he says, "because you realize who was playing on these fields. I don't think that will ever leave you. But I think it was time to do it."

The new Yankee Stadium will have a remade version of the old 1923 facade - to give fans a reassuring link to past glories - and the designers of the new Mets stadium have also looked to days gone by for inspiration. The New York clubs' decisions to evoke the past continues a trend of nostalgic, retro-style ballparks that began in earnest with the 1992 opening of the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards.