With New York missing the playoffs this year, Yankee Stadium gates have opened for the final time as Andy Pettite and The New York Yankees will play their final home game at The Cathedral tonight against The Baltimore Orioles.

The Game can be seen nationally on ESPN / Rogers Sportsnet at 8pm est.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080921&content_id=3521095&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

http://mlb.mlb.com/nyy/ballpark/farewell.jsp

A pregame ceremony at the current Stadium is scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET, and will encompass the chronology of Yankees greats who have played in the field's expanses.

Among the distinguished alumni scheduled to take part in the festivities will be Berra, Ford, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles and Bobby Richardson. Longtime Yankees Bernie Williams and Willie Randolph have also acknowledged their attendance.

The ceremony is also expected to feature representatives from the families of deceased Yankees greats Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Thurman Munson and Phil Rizzuto, among numerous others.

Two longtime icons of the Yankees organization, George Steinbrenner and public address announcer Bob Sheppard, are not expected to attend, though the club's ownership will be represented by Steinbrenner's sons, Hank and Hal, and daughters Jennifer and Jessica.

It is likely that Sunday starter Pettitte will be removed mid-inning so the Yankee Stadium crowd is able to offer him a similar ovation to the one Mike Mussina received on Friday.

Win or lose, Girardi intends to ensure the last Yankees pitcher throwing a ninth inning at the Stadium will be Mariano Rivera. Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are likely to play all nine innings, and Girardi said he would start Hideki Matsui at designated hitter.

Across the street the new Yankee Stadium will open its doors next April to begin a new chapter in Yankee history sure to be filled with lots of memories.

Sportsnet delayed the start of their coverage until 8:15 pm est. As a result, viewers missed the bulk of the pre-game ceremonies. We were treated to a Ryder Cup film. Yippee! I wonder who's responsible for this debacle. It would have been nice to have seen the ceremony in its entirety. You don't have to be a Yankee fan; if you're a fan of the game at all, this was an event that cried out for wall to wall coverage. Too bad Sportsnet didn't see it that way.

85 years of Yankee Baseball and now it's Over as Yankee Stadium is now a part of history as the final game was played tonight and New York prevailed 7-3 over Baltimore as Mariano Rivera recorded the final out.

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2008/09/21/a589yqp8.jpg

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20080921&content_id=3525626&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp&team=home

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=280921110

So what are your thoughts on the final game played at historic Yankee Stadium?

http://mlb.mlb.com/nyy/photogallery/year_2008/month_09/day_21/cf3525653.html

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/components/game/year_2008/month_09/day_21/gid_2008_09_21_balmlb_nyamlb_1/av/fgallery.html

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200809093443211

this is a really good in-depth tour of what the new Yankee Stadium will look like and feature ... its about 27 minutes long in length!!

Sportsnet delayed the start of their coverage until 8:15 pm est. As a result, viewers missed the bulk of the pre-game ceremonies. We were treated to a Ryder Cup film. Yippee! I wonder who's responsible for this debacle. It would have been nice to have seen the ceremony in its entirety. You don't have to be a Yankee fan; if you're a fan of the game at all, this was an event that cried out for wall to wall coverage. Too bad Sportsnet didn't see it that way.
hey pettyblue,

I agree with you 100% ... Sportsnet screwed up huge and they should apoligize to us and explain why they showed us a Ryder Cup film at 8pm instead of not showing any of the pre-game ceremonies beginning at 7pm. We deserve an explaination ... and frankily I should be calling Sportsnet head office tomorrow about this.

I do know however the final game will be coming to Itunes very shortly, just not too sure whether or not it will include the pre-game ceremonies and post-game.

Maybe you can try and see if you can download it from a torrent site or something like that. There might be an ESPN broadcast of the game somewhere on the net, I sure hope when it does get shown again that its not the Sportsnet broadcast cause that was just a disgrace to sports fans what they did. They should have cut to the ESPN coverage at 7pm tonight an hour before the game started to show the pre-game ceremonies instead of airing Sportsnet Connected. I now for darn sure I will be finding a way to get a hold of this game somehow someway.

Does anyone tho have any thoughts, memories on Yankee Stadium or the New Yankee Stadium opening next April and also What was your favourite moment of Yankee Stadium in its 85 years of life?

As a Red Sox fan the Bloody Sock was one of my favourites. Then game #7 when the Red Sox completed the comeback is probably #2.

Even though I hate the Yankees, I'll miss Yankee Stadium.