The Yankees dedicated Babe Ruth’s monument at the original Yankee Stadium in 1949.
Ruth died on August 16, 1948, after a career that transformed both the Yankees and baseball. The Yankees unveiled a granite monument honoring him in center field on April 19, 1949, before the season’s home opener. The memorial joined earlier monuments to manager Miller Huggins and captain Lou Gehrig.
The date is sometimes confused with 1941, when the Yankees dedicated Gehrig’s monument after his death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Another mix-up involves 1976: that was when the Yankees formalized Monument Park during the renovated stadium’s reopening, not when Ruth’s original monument was created.
The old center-field memorials remained associated with the original Yankee Stadium until the ballpark closed after the 2008 season. They were then moved to the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009, where Monument Park continues to preserve the club’s history.