Wonderful newsreel footage (with sound!) of opening day at Yankee Stadium 1931

[Bliggity]

Amazing! The crack of the ball coming off Ruth's bat at 0:42 and 0:50 is unreal. Wish you could bottle that stuff and sell it.

And I don't think I've ever seen someone swing the bat as fast as he does right at the 10:00 mark.

[Buythatcard]

That was a really cool video. Best quality for 1931 that I have ever seen. So cool to see the players on the cards that we collect come to life.

When Ruth said No scorecards, I wonder if he refused to sign scorecards. Probably worried that someone might sell it on eBay one day.

Was that Bing Crosby throwing out the first pitch?

Thanks for sharing!!!!

[Hankphenom]

There is a smorgasbord of films like this at the U. of South Carolina video archives, including lengthy segments from many big league spring training camps in the early 1930s:

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/search...%28baseball%29

The beauty of these for me is that they are outtakes, not the polished newsreels, so you get to see and hear the players and other personalities as they really were.

[nat]

That really is amazing. I think Ruffing was wearing a warm-up jacket while running the bases.

Here's a box score for the game.

[Bicem]

So good!

[mantlefan]

Outstanding. Thanks for posting it, Joe. The clarity was amazing. Loved the candor....Babe and his wife had to be coached on their interview. The first ball was tossed out by NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker. He was a real crook!

The Yanks won 6-3 that day. Attendance was 70,000! I enjoyed seeing the fans crammed into the stands, The men all wore hats. Everyone was smoking. The game started at 3:00 PM so that everyone could attend and it would get dark early in April. Notice the pace of the game. They finished in 1:55.

[Jason Carota]

I could watch that video over and over! Thanks for posting! The "Dec 7, 1929 - Driving Through Broadway At Daytime, NYC" is great, too.

[insidethewrapper]

The outfield dimensions are great . Left Field is very short ( under 300 ft ?) , left center was a Mile ! and Center Field is about 500 feet. I believe Right Field was under 300 feet but I didn't see it in the video. Anyone know the dimensions in 1931 ?

Great Video, thanks.

Interesting seeing a fielder picking up his glove at 12:52 for the next inning. Back in the day they didn't take their gloves back with them to the dugout but left them in the field.

[OldSchoolBaseball]

That was awesome....

I noticed the flag at half staff (why?)
I loved how the train stopped during anthem
Never see this again - hats and wool suits
and what a huge ball park from that 1st base vantage point

Thanks for sharing!