NEW YORK — Even Yogi Berra knew this was the end.
As baseball said farewell to Yankee Stadium, one of the game’s most beloved players stood beneath the stands in a full vintage uniform. Now 83, the man who coined the phrase “it ain’t over till it’s over” put his own stamp on the day.
“I’m sorry to see it over, I’ll tell you that,” Berra said.
The goodbye completed an 85-year-old run for the home of baseball’s most famous team. What began with a Babe Ruth home run on an April afternoon in 1923 ended Sunday with Mariano Rivera retiring Brian Roberts on a grounder to first baseman Cody Ransom, completing a 7-3 victory over Baltimore on a warm September night.
Rivera threw the final pitch at 11:41 p.m. on a bittersweet evening, when the Yankees staved off what appears to be inevitable postseason elimination.
The final Yankees player to bat was Derek Jeter, whose grounder to third ended the eighth inning. Jeter was removed with two outs in the ninth, leaving the captain to take the final in-game curtain call.
In an odd sidelight to the game, a Colorado man who caught the last home run ball at the stadium took an “aw shucks” attitude and said he wasn’t sure he’d be willing to sell it.
“It would be something nice to give to your grandkids,” said Steve, who declined to provide his last name.
The record at auction for a baseball was the $752,000 that Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 756th home run ball fetched last year.
Although the home run ball hit by Jose Molina would likely not threaten that mark, it certainly would have value as the last home run memento in a stadium where some of the most prodigious home run kings from Babe Ruth to Mickey Mantle to Reggie Jackson swatted gargantuan shots.
“Steve from Colorado” did not earn his quarry without a skirmish under the netting covering Monument Park in left field.
Another fan, who identified himself as Paul Russo of Manhattan, insisted he had claim to the souvenir, but security officers handed the ball to Steve.
Before the game, all the greats were remembered during a 65-minute ceremony that included 21 retired players, six of them Hall of Famers.
“I feel like I’m losing an old friend,” Jackson told the crowd.
Bob Sheppard, the Yankees’ 90-something public address announcer who started in 1951, read the opening welcome.
